Today we spent the day at the University of Nicosia. We started with a bunch of lectures from a variety of professors. The first one was mainly about blockchain, and crypto assets. We learned how databases are needed for society to function and that life is organized by databases. Today most people get their information from social media and google. He was talking about how twitter is not a database. The professor said that there are databases when people can’t decide who is in charge of it. Cryptocurrencies are databases because there is not just one person in charge of it. Bitcoin is a centralized form of money. The professor mentioned that he believes that all of the technology is still new and creating more of it would be a good thing. I agree with him. Cryptocurrency, and even computers have not been around for that long. They both have been advanced significantly in the short time that they have been out. There are so many advancements that can still be made. 

After this we were given coffees because everyone was tired and we had a lot more lectures. It was so nice of them to buy it for us, and it made all of our days. 

We had two more lectures after this; one was on the importance of forecasting and the other was about data science. Forecasting is important for all businesses because it allows them to anticipate future demand. Forecasting identifies patterns and relationships. You predict future behavior by assuming it is similar to past behavior. He also mentioned that more sophisticated/complex methods does not mean that the results will be more accurate. 

We then ate at the dining hall on campus. The dining hall’s food is so good and I wish the eatery had some of this food. 

After lunch we went to the Research and Technology Building. We went in groups between the different pharmacy labs.  In the first one we talked about poisons and venoms. We also learned about the different extraction and collection processes that they use. We then went to a lab where they make the drugs. She showed us the machine that they use to produce the drugs and how it works. We were told that we would get a hands-on experience and all of the equipment was out at each lab station that we were sitting at, so I thought we were making the drugs. I was kind of sad to find out that we would not be making them. After this we went to a lab where they tested the drugs in different ways. All of these labs were really cool and I loved seeing how they made and tested everything.