Today we had the last of our company visits, which was with PWC. They are a consulting firm that counsels businesses on how to better integrate technology into their business plans. The first speaker was a man from Germany who talked about the integration of artificial intelligence into supply chains. To be honest, a lot of the language he was using felt like filler words and it was hard to understand him at times. He had good points and I think there are good takeaways from that lecture, but I think it could have taken up less time.
The second person to present was from Super Home, the Home Depot of Cyprus. They are the premier DIY store in Cyprus. The biggest thing I got from them was about how they are changing their policies to keep up with the EU’s changing sustainability goals.
Next was the 3 stations, and the first one I went to was the circular economy one. I felt like this station was the most organized and the best. I also understood and wanted to get invested in the things she was talking about. Namely, finding places we can reuse materials to minimize the amount of materials that are lost throughout the various steps of the manufacturing cycle. It was also interesting to see when different materials had to be scrapped and salvaged vs just fixed vs simply reused.
The second station I went to was the Blockchain one. The presenters weren’t actually presenting this one, so I just looked at the PowerPoint that was playing automatically. A ‘blockchain’ is just a code unique to an item. This can be anything from a flower to a couch, or a dog to an NFT. Businesses can track this unique code to see where an item has gone and when it reaches various vendors and distributors.
The last activity of the day was the Cyprus Museum. It was fascinating to see the different artifacts they were able to find and the range of time periods they were from. There were pieces from 1100 B.C.E. all the way up to ~0 A.D. The statues they had were very interesting. Some of them were huge and took very… interesting artistic choices. The pottery on displays was so beautiful and intricate, I was very impressed by the artwork on the pots. Also, we found a pile of coins that claimed to be from the House of Dionysus in Paphos. I thought that was so cool that we saw a connection, especially because Demetra mentioned a pile of coins that were found there.
The Farewell Dinner was bittersweet. It’s hard to believe this time is coming to an end. I have made a whole bunch of friends on this trip that I hope I get to see more next year and maybe get my current group in Pitt to mingle with.