Today we went to UNIC and I was so excited because we were talking about a subject I was particularly interested in. Data science and forecasting. Being my first day “off the grid” I made sure to take plenty of pics on my MacBook before the lectures commenced.
Our first lecture focused on blockchain, which although I still don’t entirely understand how it works, but I was still interested to learn more about it. I was super impressed to find out that UNIC was the first university to have courses on blockchain and crypto, and additionally has the largest and most skilled department in the world. It felt like such a privilege to learn from people so knowledgable on the topic. It was super interesting to me the comparison to how we live in a highly centralized society, with everything being connected by internet, to how crypto is decentralized and there is really no one controlling the blockchain or the crypto. It was also a super helpful comparison that the professors made comparing decentralized internet operations such as these, to public infrastructure, such as parks and bridges. I felt like I definitely had a stronger understanding of the topic after the lecture then I did going in.
We then moved into a lecture about forecasting, which I found super interesting because it is a career path I am interested in going into. One fact that caught my attention is that about 44% of businesses don’t use forecasting, which is interesting to me because it can be such a useful tool to strategize and plan. It has both short term and long term goals, and also helps to optimize supply chain management. My curiosity about why it was not used was somewhat answered though, when it was explained that more larger companies use forecasting compared to smaller companies, which makes sense as the cost of this technology for a smaller company may outweigh the benefits.
Continuing with this, our final lecture was on Data Science, and how it relates to supply chain. Once again, this is something I am interested in, so I was extra curious to hear about `was the professor has to say. Most of the content he talked about were things that I had learned in my BIS class (IoT, structured vs. unstructured data, big data, etc.) however I found it really interesting to hear more about machine learning and how the technology actually works to carry out the processes.
After these lectures, we had another delicious lunch at the block and then proceeded to hop onto the bus and to the UNIC medical center.
Seeing as I haven’t taken a chemistry class since my sophomore year of high school, most of what they were saying was going over my head, however, there were a few key takeaways I was able to gather. The highlight of this site visit for me was going to the lab where they made pharmaceuticals, such as the acetaminophen, and seeing the inside of the machine. It was interesting to see how they give then tablet more mass to a different shape based on what mold they use within the machine. After they made the tablets, we were also shown some of the testing they have to do on the tablets to make sure they are up to standard. I had never thought about how much really goes into the control testing, but it is interesting that they must test at every stage.
After these demonstrations we made our way back to Limassol, did some blogging, got some dinner, and had another nice night sitting and talking on the roof, anticipating the following day to come.