We went back to UNIC today! After a delicious açaí bowl breakfast at a nearby smoothie spot, we boarded the bus for our last day. Our first lecture was about data science from Dr. Demetrius Trihinas. He talked about data centered the world is today and it was interesting to think about how every individual is generating data every minute of their lives. Dr. Trinihas told us that data is the new oil and that data management wields a massive amount of power. It was interesting to receive this lecture after taking two semesters of analytics classics. I was able to relate my knowledge to the concepts he was laying out. One of the most important aspects of data analysis is prescriptive analysis, being able to analyze data and make decisions based on these analyses. Dr. Trinihas tied this into machine learning. We learned how data is used to train computers to accomplish a task without having to be explicitly programmed. This concept was hard for me to wrap my mind around, but Dr. Trinihas was able to lay in out in a comprehensive and digestible manner. I thought it was particularly interesting that you can overtrain computers, resulting in a sort of memorized output, instead of an output based on knowledge.

Our second lecture was from the CEO of UNIC himself covering blockchain and databases. In 2013, UNIC was the first university in the world to establish an academic degree focused on cryptocurrency. Dr. Polemitis was very well verse on the world of blockchain, which I feel like I knew very little about going into this lecture. He broke down why he thinks that blockchain and cryptocurrency are so import, as they provide a public database that does not have an administrator. This means that there is not one person or people that can control what information is in the database. He related it to thing like public parks and physical cash and wallets. I thought it was interesting that he does not put any thought into what the price of any cryptocurrency is. He was a lot more focused on the technology and philosophy behind blockchain, rather than how it is doing today. He thinks that we are in the first ten years of the forty year development of the blockchain. I asked him what his thoughts are on environmental sustainability and energy usage surrounding these topics and he gave me a nuanced answer. He seemed to not think that blockchain and the high amounts of data storage are any more environmentally harmful than other forms of banking, although he did recognize that this could be wrong.

After an educational morning, we decided to try to relax by a pool. Since Nicosia is not a coastal city, we’ve been missing the shore we had in Limassol. We got lunch at a delicious wrap place that opened only two weeks ago! Then, we hopped on Bolt electric scooters, which you can rent all around Nicosia. I tried to film videos on the scooter but failed miserably. After a ten minute journey, we showed up to the pool and were turned away because of a children’s swim practice. In retrospect, maybe we should’ve called ahead. No matter, we got back on our scooters and enjoyed the ride back, although we might have caused a few traffic disruptions. Finally, we had our last meze dinner tonight! I can’t believe how fast this trip has gone by and will remember it forever!