SCAT - News

A chance to learn, and also play

August 2008

A fan of soccer, Guillermo found
plenty to enjoy in Barcelona.

Barcelona —SCAT grantee Guillermo Oyarzun is a fan of soccer, or "futbol" in Latin America. He had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the sport in Barcelona, a center for sports in Europe.

Besides learning about computational fluid dynamics at his host institution, the Technological Center of Heat and Mass Transfer, CTTC, at Catalunya Polytechnic University, he found many friends to join in weekly soccer practice.

Guillermo is now back at his home institution, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, where he is submitting his MSc thesis this year. He obtained his BSc degree in Informatics in November 2005, and has been working as a research assistant since then, recently under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Luis Salinas.

He maintains contact with his supervisors in Barcelona, Dr Manel Soria and Dr Assensi Oliva, and is looking to visit them again in the future.

Guillermo joins the list of SCAT grantees that have finished their research visit and gone to other successes:

Personal statement

Here is the personal point of view of Guillermo Oyarzun, on his SCAT grant:

"I arrived at the Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Center (CTTC) in Barcelona in May of 2007 and was there for the next 8 months. It was my first experience working in a real research center, and I have to say it was a great experience!

I felt at home from the beginning, because everyone was really nice and always concerned about leading me in the right direction to follow the research, according to the knowledge I had. This way of working was important to me because it helped me to get stronger in the subjects I was weak.

The training method used at the CTTC is, in my opinion, the best way of initiating you in the research world. It helps you to understand the kinds of problems that exist, from the easier to the harder cases. Always from a practical point of view, but also supported by a strong theoretical background depending on your needs.

Work inside the CTTC also helped to me to grow in a personal way, because I had the opportunity to share time with people from a lot of different countries, knowing their different customs, languages and experiences of life. But even if we were different in so many ways, they always offered me help every time I needed it, giving me clues and advice to find the solution to problems in which I was stuck.

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Manel Soria, and the Director of the CTTC, Dr. Assensi Oliva, because they took care of me both inside and outside of the laboratory. They really helped to make things easy while I was at Barcelona. And I also thank all the people from the laboratory who made my stay really pleasant, especially for our weekly soccer practice. I hope to come back soon!"