Today was our last day in Cyprus, so we packed it with activities to make it a memorable one! First off was a lecture at the University of Nicosia covering Machine Learning & Data Science, where our instructor took us through what data science is (essentially, it’s all about efficient and quick extraction of knowledge from raw data to transform it into something with structure, which is then statistically verified and used to drive decisions with real analysis) and how exactly machine learning works (this is the idea of building a computer with the ability to think, learn, and make decisions on its own, no specific programming in place; it works with giving an input to an algorithmic model, but with a training phase first where the machine learns what things are or how they work by being fed a lot of data to use as references, and then it’s tested each time it’s run with the input being compared to what the computer knows for it to find a connection and draw a conclusion). It was really more interesting than I originally imagined, and my business analytics knowledge from this past year definitely helped put all the information about models into better focus. Our instructor was also very nice and explained things as best he could so as to make them easy to understand for beginners, and even brought in some of his fourth-year students to demonstrate a platform called KNIME (essentially a way to easily set up and run a model without having to code anything, with controls for everything from the dataset itself to the process for training and testing to the way the result outputs are organized). This allowed me to actually grasp a real example of what this kind of technology can do, and it was all very cool. The whole thing made me very interested to see how this technology progresses, and I can only imagine how far we’ll go once we begin harnessing it more!

Following that topic, we also had a lecture on Blockchain today with the CEO of the university, which was a real privilege and probably the most interesting lesson yet. As an instructor, he really was good at breaking down such a complicated and often misunderstood concept into something easily explained to our class, and he used real-world examples and events to make his points. To summarize it, he basically explained that the modern world runs off databases for everything, but that these databases are centralized and privately owned and operated by large tech companies (and currently the amount of databases are decreasing while the sizes of each increase, meaning that the power of those who own and decide what to do with all that data is consolidating even more). I’d never really thought about all of that and what the implications there are, but the lesson really opened my eyes to how problematic the system could be—I could be kicked out of any social media site, essential platform, etc. in an instant if the database administrators chose to do it (or really the heads of those large tech companies running the show). Even important government data and other things, like my college database, could be so easily turned against people if you really think about it, and with one alteration I could have never been accepted to college or issued a driver’s license. It was truly scary to contemplate, and made learning all about this little-known information much more engaging. By the end, I finally understood what blockchains are (essentially they are just areas online aka databases, but the key difference is that the database in this case is not owned or controlled by one person alone or private property in any way, so it’s a decentralized and truly public space that stores information that can’t be easily altered or deleted) and how crypto assets (which work with users constantly trying to get tickets, which they do by having miners utilize energy to power that process to create those tickets for themselves, all to win a certain kind of “lottery” in the system, but the currencies are like cash rather than credit card so that is why scams are so difficult) and NFTs (where digital art or other files may be sold and owned by purchase of a unique token that signifies ownership to the holder, so that even if others were to view the file and make reproductions or other such things, they still wouldn’t own it because they don’t have the specific token with the original) work and apply to this new world of blockchains. It was definitely an interesting and extremely informative experience overall, but I’m very glad to have had my eyes opened to this whole new series of possibilities today, and I could totally see why the university has such a renowned program in this field of study.

The last part of today was a free afternoon before our farewell dinner together. It was bittersweet for sure to know that it was our last day together and in this amazing country, but I wanted to make the best of it by doing something I would enjoy. I ended up taking another walk around the city, this time to explore it in places that weren’t just Ledras Street and that surrounding area near our hotel. On my way, I came across a really great burger place with vegan meat options (something I really enjoyed, since the food was absolutely delicious and it’s hard in Cyprus when there’s meat everywhere and few vegetarian choices) and stopped for a peaceful meal. After that, I continued walking, ducking into local shops to admire handmade jewelry and other such items just for fun, and then came back to the hotel to get all dressed up for dinner, which ended up being very nice as well. It was really wonderful to have the whole group in one place for a good meal one last time before flying out later, and we even got our tour guide, Demetria, to come! It all wrapped up with a final group picture together, and I left satisfied with my experiences for this trip. Plus3 was truly the best thing I could have done, and I’m so glad to have made so many memories, met so many new people, and learned so many new things by coming to Cyprus!