First rule of visiting topical places: drink a lot of water. I must have missed this yesterday because I woke up with a bit of a headache but some quick breakfast changed that.
Today we got to experience our first company visit at the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), a research and development group that does work in a variety of maritime sectors. Upon entry, we got to admire one of their sea monitoring remote operated vehicles (ROV), a kayak sized boat that takes data from the ocean and has a range of up to 10km! I was really interested in some of their other projects using robot swarms to scan ocean areas using swarm technology to optimizes the area the drones cover while avoiding obstacles. It was cool to see they were using Matlab – a programing language we learn this past Spring semester – to simulate the paths of these drones in water.
Unlike a typical company that sells product for profit, CMMI, as a research and development group, has to get funding from the government or other organizations to fund the projects they are working on. They can then publish the information they gain from these projects so that other companies can make use of the information. They are currently working on AI that takes information about wind speeds and ocean wave conditions along the coast and maps what areas are safe to swim and surf at every hour of the day. This technology could be revolutionary for beaches all around the world, so seeing then work on this was very exciting. Furthermore, they are working on technology for cargo ships that reduces their carbon footprint by repurposing the CO2 to create biomethane, which can be used as an additional fuel source.
The interesting thing about CMMI was the amount of support they were receiving from the government for their objectives that pushed for a more environmentally sustainable economy. They received multi-million dollar investments from the government, which seemed much different that what companies receive in the US. It showed me how environmentally conscious the government here is compared to the US. My guess is that it is due to the location of Cyprus, where any negative impacts to the ocean are much more immediate, causing ocean damage to be a big priority for the government.
After are exciting morning at CMMI, we visited two ancient churches of Cyprus, one in Larnaca and the other in Lefkara. The first was actually the burial place of Lazarus, and we were able to go and see his tomb. Thought this time, people continuously walked in and out of the church, praying to some of the paintings and lighting candles. These practices further showed me how big of an influence religion has on this region.