It’s hard to believe this is our last day on the island :(. We spent the morning at the University of Nicosia for our last two lectures and then had free time around our hotel before our farewell dinner. The first presentation was a lesson in data science from Professor Trihinas where we learned all about the dataverse, supply chain management, and machine learning. I really liked how he made a lot of connections to the apps that we use all the time. For example, it was crazy to learn that Netflix streams roughly 77,000 hours of content per minute and essentially determines how quickly your devices work. I also found it interesting when he noted that the largest taxi company in the world (Uber) has no real taxis, the largest housing marketplace (Airbnb) owns no real houses, and the largest media app (Facebook) produces no content. I also enjoyed learning the steps for converting raw statistics to predictive data that is actually useful. First there is description, then diagnostics, then prediction, then finally prescription. Finally, we learned about machine learning and the downsides of overfitting and under fitting data. Dr. Trihinas used a good example of the importance of human insight in the case of vaccines. A machine may spit out a mix of chemicals that will effectively kill a virus, but it is still up to humans to make sure this substance doesn’t also kill humans.

We then received a presentation from CEO Polemitis on blockchain and cryptocurrency. As someone who is super unfamiliar with this field of technology, I gained a lot of information that definitely got me thinking. Blockchain is essentially a new type of database that can record and verify transactions in a secure and decentralized way. Today, everybody basically has the same apps on their phones because the best apps are the ones that win and dominate the market. This leads to homogenization and fewer companies with larger databases. Dr. Polemitis emphasized that while it’s expected that many blockchains are private, there should still be a number of public ones. Public blockchains are databases without an administrator where many people can be shared users of the database without there having to be an owner to make the transactions.

I spent the afternoon having lunch with some friends on the main shopping street near our hotel. We ate some delicious pasta and enjoyed the weather before shopping around a bit for some last-minute souvenirs. We’ve only been in Nicosia for four days, but the town already feels so familiar :).

I can’t believe how fast these two weeks flew by… it’s certainly been a tiring trip, but I have enjoyed every minute of it! I am so grateful to have gotten to learn so much alongside the amazing group of people I was lucky enough to share this experience with!! This is certainly a trip I will remember for the rest of my life.