Kategorie: Journal (Seite 2 von 2)

Ciao cari amici della scienza,  persona interessate e che vorrebbe esserlo!

Während der Woche des 17. Mai waren Dawn, Sabrina und ich im Tessin unterwegs, genauer gesagt in Brissago, um dort in der Clinica Hildebrand gemeinsam mit Dr. Daria Dinacci und Paolo Paolantonio die nächsten Workshops durchzuführen. Doch bevor es losgeht, muss ich euch einfach den Sonnenaufgang von unserem Hotel aus zeigen.

Euer Neid ist an dieser Stell durchaus angebracht 😉 Ich kann mich wirklich glücklich schätzen, so einen atemberaubenden Arbeitsplatz zu haben.

Im Unterschied zu den Workshops in England fanden diese Workshops an vier Tagen statt und es gab kein gemeinsames Mittagessen. Da wir uns in einem klinischen Umfeld befanden und die Patienten einen strikten Tagesablauf hatten, war eine andere Organisation leider nicht möglich. Dennoch hatte ich den Eindruck, dass sich alle trotz der wenigen Möglichkeiten zum persönlichen Austausch wohlfühlten und die Workshops genossen haben. Viele hätten sich tatsächlich mehr Zeit und noch weitere Workshops gewünscht. Dieser Umstand ist vor allem Paolo und seiner grossartigen Präsentation und Leitung der Workshops zu verdanken. Es ist ihm wirklich gelungen, alle in seinen Bann zu ziehen und dafür zu sorgen, dass alle ihren Spass haben. Wie Dawn immer sagt: Paolo ist ein Superstar! Ich freue mich sehr, dass er auch ein Teil des Projekts ist und wir in Zukunft weiter zusammenarbeiten werden.

Auch Daniele, der teilnehmende Musiktherapeut, war grossartig. Die musikalischen Gruppenübungen, die er während des Perkussionsworkshop am Freitag angeleitet hat, fühlten sich fast schon magisch an. Hier ein kleiner Eindruck:

Es hat sich unbeschreiblich schön angefühlt, ein Teil davon zu sein und die Energie zu spüren, die von den Teilnehmern ausgeströmt ist.

Ich freue mich schon sehr auf die Workshops in Luzern, um herauszufinden, ob und welche Unterschiede es zwischen den drei Standorten gibt.

Grazie mille für das Lesen dieses Blogs und hinterlasst sehr gerne Kommentare. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, euch von all den weiteren spannenden Dingen und Erlebnissen zu berichten.

Ciao und bis zum nächsten Lesen!

Hello dear research friends, enthusiasts and those who would like to become one!

From 25th of April to 6^th of May, we have been up in Hatfield, England to do the first steps of our project: a motion capture pilot study and holding the English workshops. And I can tell you it has been an amazing time!

It was Sabrina and mine’s first time visiting the University of Hertfordshire, which I am becoming a PhD student of. The picture below shows the P. C. Snow Building aka the department of ‘Psychology, Sport, and Geography’.

As you can see, following the tradition of good researchers the first thing we did was buying some coffee at the local coffee shop. Of course, it had to be a Starbucks 😉

It was great to finally meet my other supervisors Dr Caroline Whyatt and Dr Lucy Annett in person and having the chance to get to know each other better. They are both amazing researchers, and wonderful and supportive supervisors. I am so happy to work with them and having the chance to learn from them. We’ve also met Alex, the tech genius of the UH, and Jon, the handyman of the UH. Both are an incredible help for the project. Alex helped figuring out how to synchronize the motion capture software with the pressure sensitive gait mat, while Jon built the doorframe we would use for our test sequence measuring the functional mobility of the people with Parkinson’s. Doesn’t it look awesome?

Also, you can tell from the pictures below Dawn and I had a lot of fun doing the calibration of the motion capture cameras by waving the wand (it’s actually a calibration stick, but we prefer calling it a wand because you sort of feel like Harry Potter :-D). Furthermore, I had the pleasure to be the control participant for our pilot study. It felt weird being all stuck up with those little shiny markers for the first time, but by now I am used to it. Actually, it is very funny and interesting seeing and analyzing your movements later on.

The workshops have also been a wonderful experience, not only to me but also to the participants, I think. It was my first time working with people with Parkinson’s and seeing their openness and altruism to contribute something for the next generations of diseased has left me deeply impressed. Those are wonderful, incredible people and I am very grateful to be part of this project and get the chance to help them. I think, organizing a lunch between the workshops was an import part because it gave us all the opportunity for mingling and socializing. To me it was very helpful hearing the people talk about their experiences in general as well as regarding their participation in our workshops particularly. Here are a few impressions:

Jane and Alison, two of the participants, were so kind to invite Dawn and me to Alison’s house to have some coffee and cake. On that day, Dawn and I had driven by Jane’s house to pick her up and she showed us her garden first. Look at this, it felt like THE English garden to me. The coffee and cake were very nice, and I think everybody enjoyed themselves. It was great spending some free time together, getting to know each other some more in an opener space. I am really looking forward to seeing them again in September when we will be coming back for the fifth and final workshop.

Thank you for reading this blog, and please feel free to leave some comments. I am very interested in your opinion. I can’t wait to keep you posted with all the exciting things going to happen.

Take care and see you for the next read!