Today was our final day at the University of Nicosia. Following breakfast we headed over to UNIC to start our day with some lectures.
First, we were lectured on blockchain by the CEO of the university which was very cool. He spoke on the history of blockchain technology and explained how UNIC was the first university in the world to offer courses and majors on the topic all the way back in 2013. Now they are still one of the top universities in the world that offers these courses and have made UNIC a hub for studying and researching blockchain and similar technologies.
We then were lectured on forecasting by a professor who was the first of his kind in this field. He went through the history of forecasting and how it has increased and become smarter than it was in the beginning. It featured lots on human error and how we as humans must trust technological methods and check that work to come up with the most accurate conclusions. Using statistical analysis and machine learning, trends in demand can be predicted by technology. This is very useful when it comes to the supply chain as companies know when they must amp up to supply more maybe around holidays or just seeing trends of differing demand for different products. I had never known much about this topic and the professor was incredibly knowledgeable on the topic and makes me eager to learn more.
Our final lecture featured data analytics in supply chains which are again very relevant to both business and engineering students. This professor was incredibly interesting and knowledgeable as he seemed to be very up-to-date on all of the topics regarding AI in the supply chain. I loved hearing about how AI must be taught things to be able to recognize them in the future, but it can only get it up to a certain accuracy. Also when learning, it must not just look for identical characteristics and patterns, but more look at the whole image and piece it together to make its decision. If the machine keeps getting fed wrong information it will only become less accurate in that area causing it to underperform. This lecture also made me want to dive deeper into the subject as it is a field that is growing every day.
After this, we headed over to the UNIC dining area where we ate our lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather. After lunch, we headed over to UNIC’s research labs where we met with three different pharmacists and chemists who taught us about the pharmaceutical process from start to finish.
We started in a typical lab with an organic chemistry professor who explained how peptides and proteins are used in medicine. He explained how the peptides come from different venoms or creatures and how he collects them. He explained how they go out into the wild typically in the summer to collect different snakes and scorpions for venom and then sea cucumbers and sea stars for other peptides as well. He showed us how they utilize sonochemistry which involves using microwaves in either sound form or water form to extract the peptides. He talked about how they are working with a cosmetic company to produce products with peptides from sea cucumbers and sea stars to help with wrinkles. This was interesting to me as it tied in with nature to produce a cosmetic product in a very scientific way.
As we finished in this lab we headed over to a more pharmaceutical-specific lab where we looked at how a tablet was made and quality tested. The mix of powders after being completed would be poured into a machine where it started in a funnel. The powder then was fed into what are called dyes where the powder would be shaped into a tablet. It was then compressed from both the bottom and the top to ensure it was compacted and then dispensed from the side. The pharmacist opened the machine for us to see it even better which was very cool. We then quality tested it in three machines; one measuring the tablet’s hardness, one measuring how much it would crumble when shaken, and one measuring its solubility in water simulating a medication in a stomach. This part was very fascinating as I never really knew how much went into the testing of these medications in terms of their durability.
Our last room of the rotation was the gas chromatography lab in which the chemist explained the specifics of how the peptides and actual chemicals used in medications like the one seen previously could be separated. This room has lots of large machines with lots of different technologies which really made me think about how much technology helps us in our every move.
Following this we headed back to the bus to go back to our home in Limassol. It was a packed day but full of lots of learning!
