Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, dear readers!

I hope you all can take some rest, let go of your research, and recharge your batteries. My plans include staying 4 days in the Ardennes in the beautiful South of Belgium.

The regular posts will resume after New Year.

I have tons of plans for PhD Talk in 2013, including a few new series, and 2013 will hopefully be my last year in graduate school, after which I plan to write some general reflecting posts on the whole PhD process, as well as share more of my research in plain English!

The Shires and the Thoroughbreds of Academia

Flickr Image under CC by audi_insperation

For the holidays, I hope you will enjoy some lighter reading.

Recently I came to realize that there are two archetypal workhorses in academia: the shires and the thoroughbreds.

Let's look at their characteristics:

The Shire

Known for its strength, constitution, and endurance, the Shire horse is known as an English ‘Great Horse’ and is one of the purest breeds native to the country.

Temperament: Patient; Calm; Docile; Easy-going; Gentle; Hard working.

The Thoroughbred

Thoroughbreds are considered one of the best racing breeds in the world. The breed is well known for its speed, agility, endurance and hotblooded nature.

Temperament: Courageous, alert, spirited, excitable, fast, athletic.

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you consider yourself a shire or a thoroughbred?

Smart Materials, Made in Delft

 We’ve introduced Erik Schlangen as Professor “Experimental Micromechanics”. But what does that really mean, and where does he wants the research of his group to result in? In his own words: he wants their inventions to show up when you Google for “future materials”.


Now let’s consider for example concrete. With very simple and archaic tests, such as the slump test and the compressive test, engineers derive the properties to build our skyscrapers and bridges.



 
Nowadays, the requirements for concrete are much more complicated though. We can add steel fibers for better performance, reduce the amount of cement for a greener concrete and add retarders and superplastifiers to increase the workability. In the end, we have much more ingredients than the original sand, cement, stones with some water to make it fluid. So how representative are the very basic experiments that we use to derive the properties? Erik and his team aim at finding a way to explain how the material fails.

To explain how complex materials such as the improved concrete fail, better measurement techniques and testing machines are necessary, as well as detailed material models to support these tests. But these techniques and models not only allow the researchers to better understand existing materials – they help them to go one step further and develop better materials.

Very flexible materials, green concrete containing wood fibers, and materials that can heal themselves show us a way into the future, in which we tailor our materials to fit our requirements “a la carte”. Concrete that closes its cracks by using bacteria, and asphalt with steelwool fibers have already been invented by Erik and his colleagues, and now they are studying, amongst others, the fracture properties of graphite as used for the cores in nuclear reactors, and the properties on the interface between the stones and the cement in concrete, two different parts which can come apart.

And what will the future bring? Future materials in Google? One thing is for sure: Erik’s cheerful approach to smart materials reminds us of the eager explorations of our younger selves. Never grow up…

You can view Erik’s presentation at Civil Engineering on his professorship at Collegerama

This post originally appeared on the TEDx Delft website.

Affiliate Links and Sponsorship Opportunities

Some time ago, I stated clearly why I am blogging and that I don't intend to make any money from this. However, you might have noticed the Amazon recommendations in the side bar that have shown up recently, and the transitions of the Book Reviews with a random googled image to an image with an Amazon link.

As you might have understood, I started to use affiliate links to Amazon products. More precisely, if you purchase a book based on my recommendation, I receive a 4% commission on it, that I can use as Amazon store credit to buy me more books.

I'm still reviewing books independently, I  won't gush over something that I don't like just to talk people into buying it - but if you find the reviews helpful, you are welcome to support the website in this way.

Also, in order to cover the costs of a few features that I would like to build into the site, I'm willing to accept sponsorships from institutions that share my ideas on education and research.

Academic Lessons from The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers: The Story of Success on what it takes to be successful in life and work, and he has some very interesting arguments that provide us valuable lessons on success in academia, or success in a PhD program.

The Roseto Mystery

In the introduction, we learn that inhabitants of the town Roseto live longer, healthier lives because they have such a closely-knit community. For a PhD project, it is important that you find your community of peers: your fellow students or an online community.

For a successful academic career, a good network in your field with fellow academicians and practitioners is important. You can build your network and visibility online and through conferences.

The 10,000-Hour Rule

What does it take to be a good professional? About 10,000 hours of practice, according to Gladwell. How does that translate to the PhD?

If you consider the average length of 3 to 4 years for a PhD course, you end up with on average 3,5 years of experience in research and writing.
At 65 hours per week, and 52 weeks per year, minus holidays and the time required to travel to conferences, an average student works about 65 hr/wk*(52 wk - 8 wk) per year.
The magic number of 10,000 hours then appears when you consider:  

3,5 yr * 65 hr/wk*(52 wk - 8 wk)= 10,000 hr

Does this calculation show us that you need 10,000 hours to master every skill in life?

I don't think so, just like Tim Ferriss thinks you don't need that much time to learn basketball technique. But to become a professional at something, for example, becoming a researcher, 10,000 hours in the apprenticeship time as a PhD Candidate seems feasible to me.

The Trouble with Geniuses

Another interesting aspect Gladwell discusses is the threshold level for intelligence. Success relates to your IQ, but only until a certain threshold.

You need to be smart enough for graduate studies, but once you go over the threshold IQ, there seems to be little difference between the smart kid and the slightly smarter kid.

What matters after the threshold are your other skills, and your savvy to negotiate and interact with others. Indeed, in academia, being smart is not enough - you need to learn your craft and your skills as well. 

The Three Lessons of Joe Flom

Joe Flom didn't take the typical path a lawyer in post-war New York followed, as the WASP lawyers in the large existing offices wouldn't hire the young Jewish graduate. Instead, he started working on different things.

If you are lucky enough to get hired by an institution with long academic standing, and be put on tenure track, you know what your road will look like.

But there are other options too, although less straight-forward. With my graduation in sight, and a lingering economic crisis worldwide, I might need to go with my axe into the woods and carve my own path.
 

Harlan, Kentucky

In rugged Appalachia, a "culture of honor" prevails, which -according to Gladwell- can still be found in the reactions of Southerners as compared to people from the Northern States.

If you move through the academic world and over the continents in pursuit of your academic career, you might find that cultural differences are very large. When you are new in a country, try to make friends with the locals.

When in doubt on how to handle situations (will someone be offended, is doing this polite or not, how do I bring up this issue?) ask your local trustee.
Even though I'm a Belgian in the Netherlands, I still sometimes need to ask a local if something is OK or not.

The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes

Along the same lines, if you move countries, try to find out if you are in a high-power distance or low-power distance community.

Understanding the cultural differences is essential in your path to academic success.

Rice Paddies and Math Tests

Hard work alone won't bring you success, but meaningful work with a close relation between work investment and resulting merit will help you move forward.
When it comes to research and problem-solving, an example of how Renee discovers that the slope of the y-axis is infinity shows the benefit of chewing through a problem until you really understand it.

Stretching your concentration and doing deep work are essential in moving forward in your field of expertise, and for meaningful publications.

Marita's Bargain

By sending children from poor low-income families to a very competitive school, the gap between these children and children from private schools becomes much smaller.

At my alma mater, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, engineering students have classes from 8am to 5pm daily, and are continuously stimulated to put great effort into their studies. The attitude I learned in Brussels has helped me through graduate school - I got used to start early and get studying, on a daily basis.

Gladwell's Outliers is a book I enjoyed reading very much, as it was on the Georgia Tech list of recommendations. In 3 days, I worked my way through it, and this book is written very well such that the act of reading felt relaxing, but at the same time I was learning and gathering new insights - great combination indeed!  

Disclaimer: The links to the book in this post are affiliate links: if you buy the book through my recommendation, I get a small percentage that I can spend to buy more books.
   

The Creative Process: Creativity Without Borders

Floris Visser postulates that scientists are artists – and his opinion hit a nerve for me. An opinion that also fits perfectly in my series about the Creative process.

Too often, we seem to draw a line between the professions and interests. However, when we take a step back, there are common grounds. Just like artists, scientists need to be very creative people in order to make discoveries and advance their field.

The very essence of science is as creative as art – but also the outcome and the observations in science can show an artistic beauty. You might think, for example, of beautiful repetitive patterns in nature, which can either inspire scientists and researchers to take a similar step (remember the bacteria in self-healing concrete that are inspired by the terraces of Pamukkale?) or can inspire artists to achieve, amongst others, the perfect proportions which we see repeated in nature.

You can improve your creativity by developing your creative habit. But today, I'm asking you to take this idea one step further. I'd like to invite you to share a link between art or nature and your profession or research topic in the comments section below. Please share, and inspire others!

This post is an adaptation of an earlier post for TEDx Delft

Can Blogging add an Additional Dimension to Academic Publishing?

This post continues the ideas on blogging to tackle publication bias, and blogging for all academics.

As USC Rossier reacted on Twitter by wondering if blogging could overtake peer-reviewed journals, an interesting discussion followed. I storified it for your interest!

Why Blogging is for Every Single Academic

In my vision of the future, blogging is as much a part of the academic world as peer-reviewed journal articles.

There are several reasons for blogging, and blogging as well as more online sharing, could tackle publication bias.

But at the same time, I notice a lot of reluctance when it comes to blogging. Two years ago at the PhD Event, the Online Networking and Social Media workshop ended up in a long list of complaints and reasons why to stay away from the Big Scary Interwebz. This year, the workshop I intended to give at the Network Day of Utrecht University had 0 interested persons.

So, scholars 2.0 should acknowledge the fears and doubts of their less-internet-oriented peers and address these fears more specifically.

I'm giving you my 2 cents here, hoping that I can spark some interest in doubting academics:

1. Privacy

Online identity protection and concerns with regard to privacy are a major concern. However, if you are active online, you really have more control over your online identity than when you try to fully stray away. In a way, if you try to avoid to have anything about you or your work online, you fully depend on others who might still distribute content that contains your name.

If privacy, or not publishing of your contact information, is your main concern, then you can think deeply in advance on how much of your data you want to provide when you write something. The key here is to always think twice when you fill out a form online and check if your data will not be shared with others.

2. Fear for writing something "stupid"

A fear I can fully relate to... In the past, I've deleted complete blogs (like the blog I kept on my MySpace), because I didn't like the contents anymore. I've also wondered if it can happen that I write something about my research, which then would venture out into the interwebz and lead a life of its own, grow teeth and come and bite my in the ankles.

However, if it turns out I wrote something that turns out to be discredited by other research, I'd be more than willing to discuss it here. Sharing knowledge leads to advancing the entire body of knowledge, and I prefer to write, and fail if necessary, than to keep my thoughts to myself.

3. Lack of time

We're all more than busy: research, education, administrative tasks, preparing a trip for a conference and some more activities all keep our schedules more than full. However, when you consider starting to write online as a blogger, you should reflect before you start. If you don't have the time to keep a blog alive, having your own website or blog might not be the way to go for you.

But that doesn't mean blogging wouldn't be suitable for you! There are many ways in which you can still contribute online, even though you don't have the time for your own page: you can guest blog, or your faculty or research group might start a blog in which all involved researchers can take turns and provide content when their schedule allows them.

4. Lack of ideas

Another commonly-heard grumble is "I don't have good ideas to write a post". You don't really need to sit with a coffee and cook up a Great Idea. There are many ways in which you can share your knowledge online. In this post, you can find a few ideas on which contents you can quickly turn into a post. I'd add to that, writing a post to discuss a conference you visited, to share a presentation you gave (slides and a brief summary), write an entry when you have a new publication and -specifically for PhD students- giving an update of your work every now and then.

How would you convince a fellow academician to take the plunge and write online?

A Wonderful World of Sensations

Wendy Lampen explains us in a very vivid language how she experiences the world. All sensations impact her brain and collide such that she has linked memories. She gives us an insight on what the world feels like when you have Asperger’s syndrome.

Her brain might function in a different way, but does that simply mean she is abnormal? Or could her different braintype actually add value to our world as well, by shining a light on the world from an angle so unexpected to us? And why is there a mindmap on the screen while she is talking?

The first step to understand how different braintypes can enrich our world, is to listen to an “abnormal” person’s view on reality. Today, Wendy invited us from the TEDxDelft stage to take a trip into her reality. She explains how she senses and makes sense of the world.

Following a good TEDxDelft tradition, she starts with a story from when she was a young child. She describes a trip to the beach where her family was playing cards. In her memory, the stale smell of the cards is predominant, and the texture of the sand. At another point in her childhood, she was rescued by her uncle from drowning. The last drops of water dripping from her face felt like long pink strands of gooey and sticky stuff. But when she explained this experience to her family, they laughed at her. And she noticed that more often people would laugh at her perception of the world – so she decided to keep quiet. After telling us about these childhood memories, her brain makes her relive these experiences – her muscles even tighten and her voice changes.

To give us an insight in how her brain works, Wendy uses the analogy of a sponge. Just like a sponge, her brain absorbs everything she senses, sees, smells, feels, hears – an overwhelming world by times. But when this “sponge” is full, she can’t absorb anything – nothing at all, not even a question someone might ask her. And then some time later, when the “sponge” has dried out a bit again, suddenly the echo of the question might ring in her mind again.

Another aspect of her reality is synesthesia: for her, the number four associates with a typical type of yellow that also makes her feel sick. In general, she sees music and tastes smells and sounds.
Then, she visually explains us how she scans the world: vertically and horizontally, but with blind spots such that instead of a globe she ends up with a doughnut.

You might by now think that her world is just that: overwhelming, too much, weird even? But then she smiles, and shows us how much playtime her brain also gives her: she translates the world into mathematical schemes, she sometimes redraws the images she has in her brain, she can focus for 8 hours on a ball of yarn to create a visual object and she has fun mindmapping her entire world as she lives the fragments of it.

Just like recent research in neuroscience has shown that psilocybin actually mutes the inherent “reducing valves” in the average human’s brain, Wendy showed us how there is actually much more going on than you can imagine.

This post originally appeared as a live blog for TEDx Delft.

Thesis Distance: Inner resistance

Mid November I finished the first draft of my thesis, printed it and handed a copy of it to my 2 supervisors. Shortly afterwards, I headed to Pittsburgh for holidays. I intended to take my thesis print with me, and proofread it in the beautiful library of Pittsburgh.

And then, I decided to take a step back.

I decided to take a Real Holiday and not to touch my thesis until returning.

I forced myself to create a distance between what I wrote and myself.

And to be honest, it was very hard. Here, I give you some insights in why I found it difficult to take a break (you'd think I'd be more than happy to relax after such a big effort, no?):

1. Tunnel vision

For many months, I have been planning my writing and have been focused on the thesis and the thesis alone. Finishing the thesis not only became my first priority, but also took over my entire mind. Realizing how much of tunnel vision I am experiencing is already one step towards returning to the world outside of the thesis again.

2. Stress

Admittedly, I am terrified by the idea of not graduating within the 4 years of my program. It creates a certain type of stress that makes me act like a hamster in a wheel: keep running keep running and keep busy to make sure it will all get done in time.

3. Perfectionism

I dislike the opening lines of my first chapter. I've wanted to change them around again recently, but I decided that instead I should ask the opinions of my supervisors. As a perfectionist, I want to keep on editing my text and polishing it and proofreading it. Again, taking a step aside and waiting two weeks to continue working on my thesis, helps me to reflect on which editing is necessary and which comes out of perfectionism.

Have you walked away from your thesis at a certain point in the process? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below!

Letting Go

Over the last few months, I have felt that I gradually started to slip my PhD down on my priority list.

While finishing is still one of my top priorities (don't get me wrong), I've finally managed to let more important things in my life be on top again.

Maybe I simply still am cherishing my honeymoon feeling, but somehow I have the impression that through the wedding preparations, the actual wedding and the honeymoon, I've gained a fresh perspective.


Maybe I am just getting older and finding it easier to put things into perspective.

Maybe it is a consequence of my actions to Simplify, and adopting a more minimalist view on the world.

Whatever caused this, I have recognized this newly gained ability of letting go of worries as one of the greatest tools in the final months of dissertation writing.

And while I cannot really pinpoint what caused this shift in mindset, I can recommend the following ways of letting go and getting a new and refreshed outlook on your PhD research:

1. Escape for a weekend

If your head starts to fill up and your thoughts can't move around anymore, you're already way beyond the point where you need a break. Grab your beloved, your parents, your friends or whoever is up for a little break and head out for a weekend.

2. Take a side project

Divert your thoughts by taking one of your hobbies (as part of forming your creative habit) to the next level. Turn it into an actual side project, and engage in this activity for a significant amount of time per week. Don't just run, but train for a race. Don't just play music, but sign up for an open podium and work towards a performance.

3. List your priorities

Time for a reality check. If you can't think of nothing else but your thesis, have nightmares of everything that can go wrong when printing, or all the possible negative feedback your committee could come up with, then it's time to see if you really wanted your thesis to be the most important thing in your life. No, right? So - grab a pen or open your Google Drive or Evernote, and make a list of what keeps you busy in life. Identify your priorities, and go and spend a little more time on your other interests.

4. Question your worries

For every panicky thought that crosses your mind, you can train yourself to actually question that thought. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What's the reason for this panicky thought?
- To avoid real panic, what should I do?
- If something really needs to be done, when can you do it?
- Schedule it, and tell yourself - see, we are going to do it, and all will be fine.

5. Use a guided meditation

If you can't sleep without the nightmares, try freeing some space in your mind by using a guided meditation,

Taking the Lab to the Stage

Erik Schlangen looks at cracks in buildings and roads, and considers the material to be ill, not broken. And the ill patient can be healed, as long as initially he contains some simple tricks.


In utter silence, a scientist in lab coat shows up on the TEDxDelft stage, and then there is also a lot of smoke around his small lab setup – you would think Professor Barabas has walked out of your childhood comics. Still in silence, a sample of asphalt broken in two pieces is put in a microwave.

And then we learn what is going on. Regular asphalt has two main disadvantages, Erik explains: water stays on the surface, resulting in splash water and puddles, and driving over asphalt results in high levels of noise, which is a disturbance in a densely populated country like the Netherlands.



Luckily, a solution was found by developing ZOAB (very porous asphalt concrete). As the name says, it is a very porous material, which means that water can drain right through it, and it also works as an insulator for the traffic noise. The architecture of the material is that it is mostly aggregates (stones), with a very small layer of bitumen keeping the stones together.

If you want to know more about asphalt, and how it is made (explained with wonderful cartoons), check out this TEDx talk by Dr. Niki Kringos:


The advantage of the ZOAB is however closely knit to its disadvantage: it wears out easily. The layer of bitumen shrinks, cracks and ultimately causes the connection between the stones to get lost. Raveling occurs, stones come off the surface of the road and can damage your windshield or create potholes.

However, with some smart tricks inside the material, the service-life of the roads can be doubled. The brilliant idea is to mix steel wool fibers into the bitumen. Steel conducts heat very well (compare to placing a steel pan on a stove), and if you add steel fibers to bitumen, the road can be repaired by using heat. Under the influence of heat, the steel fibers will warm up, and melt the bitumen again such that the cracks disappear, and the road is ready for a second round.

After extensive testing in the laboratory, it turned out that a road from self healing asphalt can be used twice as long without needing replacement if it is heat-treated (with an induction machine) every 4 years. With the simple trick of adding steel wool fiber to the bitumen, the government can thus save a lot of money.

The performance ends as it began, with the focus on the lab on stage: the asphalt sample in the microwave is ready. And then the moment of truth, when Erik only holds the top part of the specimen: yes it works, the asphalt specimen that was broken into two parts looks as if nothing happened!

This post originally appeared on the TEDx Delft website as a live blog.

Manon's Tales from the Road

On a Saturday night in Fall, with a vague plan of catching up on blogging and delivering guest posts, I find myself completely sunk into the website of the Tractor Girl


As she is preparing the final part of her trip that so far has taken her to South Africa and the Cape, she shares on her website what it takes to prepare a trip to the South Pole. Here are the 3 most surprising parts I came across:


1. Eyes?
In the Arctic, wearing contact lenses is impossible, and special corrected sunglasses are very expensive. As a solution, Manon had her eyes corrected in South Africa – to be able to actually see on the South Pole. Unfortunately, due to a very rare complication, she barely could support light for a while and turned into a modern-age Dracula. It takes some to make it all the way down to the end of the world…

2. Don’t sweat
If you sweat, you die. The problem with sweating in the Arctic is that it will make you freeze to death. As a dancer, Manon’s body learnt to sweat to build up stamina, and in the tropics during her travels to cool down. During her preparation in North Canada, she ended up skiing in the ice cold weather with a tight leather jacket right on her skin, to prevent the sweat and moisture from getting into her clothes.



3. Training with tractor tires
In the YouTube clip here, you can see shots in which Manon is pulling tractor tires on the beach in South Africa… Pulling tractor tires over a sandy surface seems to be the ideal way to prepare for pulling stuff over the snow. The tractor turned out to be the right means of transportation all along for this trip!



This post originally appeared on the TEDx Delft website, and is now reblogged as some Sunday inspiration for you!

Why Blend In if you can Stand Out?

I initially wanted to blog about Dr. Marwa Al-Ansary because she is a female civil engineer and researcher, working on concrete (sulfur concrete) who enjoys writing a poetry – enough to entice my curiosity! Little did I know about the bold decisions she made in her life to pursue her interests, and her performance has left me in full admiration.

From Egypt to the United Kingdom to Qatar to the Netherlands – this researcher, engineer, woman has come a  long way to pursue her dreams.


Marwa grew up in a family with mostly boys, and from an early ago on, she’d tell everybody: “I want to become an engineer”. Growing up with so many boys around her, her family was worried, and wondered how they could raise her to become a lady. They grew even more worried when it turned out that her childhood hobby became collecting waste materials and taking that into her bedroom. No one understood her treasure hunts and only saw a kid carrying rubbish into her house. She proudly announced on the TEDxDelft stage today that, 15 years later, she got a degree certifying her to work on other people’s rubbish!

As a young child, she showcased her researcher’s spirit, by always asking questions. Her science teachers were not too happy having her in the classroom – she’d ask question that were either too difficult or too stupid, as they said.

When she graduated with the highest honors from secondary school, she ran home to bring the good news to her family, and tell them that she now finally can go and pursue her dream of becoming an engineer. But her family didn’t approve of her choice, so with a heavy heart she started med school, and 2 weeks later announced she made a switch to mass communications to become a journalist. But secretly, she had enrolled in engineering – and this remained a secret for the next two years. When her mother discovered that secret, she decided to stand up for herself and stay in engineering. However, she made a promise to her family, that one day she’d become a Doctor in Engineering and fulfill her mother’s dream that her daughter would become a Doctor – a promise she kept.

When she decided to stand up for her dream and become an engineer, it was the first time that she went her way and took a bold decision. Many years later, when she was finalizing her PhD in Cambridge, she renounced a promising offer for an academic career and instead decided to join the oil and gas industry. Her adviser thought it was a terrible idea, but she just smiled and took the challenge. Five patents and two international awards later, she again has proven that as the odd duck she can truly make a change.

Sometimes we worry so much about how to blend in, how to conform to others, that we forget ourselves, Marwa explains. We hold ourselves back, while our diversity and different views can truly make a difference. She sums it all up by saying: ” Why do you want to blend in, when you have the opportunity to stand out?”

This post originally appeared on the TEDx Delft website as a live blog during the event.

The Creative Process: The Importance of Questions

Find the interesting ideas behind the trees

This post is another addition to my series on The Creative Process. We've looked at the conditions and the creative habit previously, and now we look at how important questions are. As James Thurber said:

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. "

When carrying out creative research work, asking yourself the right questions is key. Questions are the best tool for actually pointing out a lack in our knowledge. Wondering why certain assumptions are chosen is key to critical analysis of the literature.

Let's look at why you should challenge yourself to ask questions when you are carrying out your literature review or when you are carrying out theoretical work.

1. Taking away pressure

Although the end result might be the same, there is a difference in mindset when it comes -on the one hand- to just trying to figure out the answer to a few questions, because it's fun and you're curious, and -on the other hand- feeling the burden of having to come up with a theory.  

2. Breaking down a problem

Asking questions, and identifying what you need to know precisely and study in depth further is the key to problem-solving. While you are imagining you are only formulating questions, you are already moving towards the answer. If you make your questions precise, you already narrow down your search and identify how to get started on solving the actual larger problem.  

3. Identifying key points

Again, asking questions and defining what you still need to know, can help you identify key points. When you are doing creative work in science, you will have a few issues that need to be fleshed out. Issues for which you need to sit down and think deeply. But again, these issues fit into a larger framework. Formulating questions can help you those particular key points for which you need to unleash your analytical spirit.

And I challenge you - go and formulate questions!

1) Next time you read an article, do not only jot down your summary, but also come up with 3 questions you think need some further exploration.

2) Next time when you attend a presentation or lecture, try to form 2 questions in your mind. You don't need to raise your hand and actually ask them (which is another barrier to cross if you hate speaking up in public), but this exercise will stimulate your critical thinking.

3) Try to solve a problem by breaking it down in a set of questions you need to answer.

The Creative Process: Reading Sparks Creativity

Reading as part of the creative process? I've discussed reading, and reading loads at length in a previous series of posts discussing archiving, understanding different levels of reading and keeping up with the output.

Reading a lot and keeping up with your field is not only important to have an understanding of what is going on, but it actually fuels your creativity. One of the big wins I noticed during the development of my theoretical work, is that I immediately could link a question to a paper I had read in the past 3 years.

Let me give you an overview of the different ways in which a good understanding of the literature can help you in your creative work:

1. Don't do double work

It might sound obvious, but you wouldn't want to figure out that somebody has already done precisely what you were working on for the past months or maybe years, and has published that work already. Carrying out a literature review before starting is key to understand what has already been done.

2. Identify the boundaries of the current knowledge

So you are going to develop a theory that explains Life, the Universe and Everything in your field... And thus you sit down in a cabin in the woods with paper and pencil and work on your brilliant idea, right? Well, to have a clue where you should get started, provided that you want to advance your field, you need to know what has been done. And you should critically revise the work that has been done, testing the assumptions and wondering where the caveats lie. Through such an analysis, you can determine where to start from with your own work, by working on an open question that you come across when studying the state of the art. Asking questions with regard to the existing work can teach you much more than what is purely written in the existing papers.

3. Know where to find important bits and pieces

Developing theoretical work requires you to look up parts of theories that are already fully developed. If you have carried out a proper literature review, then you have a good overview of these theories. Once you need to implement these in your own model, it is crucial to have read and understood that material. A good background knowledge is of the utmost importance when trying to come up with a novel theory. If you run into an obstacle in your creative work, it is important to be able to quickly go through your memory to see if you've already come across a similar problem in the past.

Never Grow Up: Today, but also Tomorrow

Never grow up is our theme for today. Today is the day to eat from a Happy Meal lunchbox, to hop around and shake to the lunchbeats, to make some new friends, to play games, kick some balloons and forget about the reality of the world.

It’s a day in Neverland and you’re Peter or Tinkerbell today. Almost a year of preparations, brainstorming and having fun along the way have brought us to the Big Day. Your five sense are to be thrilled. Your imagination is about to take on a soaring flight. Sit back, but don’t relax – engage with everything and everyone around you.


But this evening you’ll be walking out of these doors again, and when you look back, Neverland might be gone forever.We don’t want the atmosphere to just dry out like that – we want to keep the flame for many more days to come.

So, how can we bring the spark of childhood into our lives? Here are a few ideas I have:

1. Stay curious
Keep asking questions – we already mentioned that. Keep wondering about why you do things, and which constraints these decisions place on your life.
Keep learning, evolving and improving yourself. Reinvent yourself from time to time. Nothing is written in stone.

2. Living light
Remember The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera? Let all that gravitas go, it will only weigh you down. A lost day is just that: a lost day.

3. Play
Play with children, play with pets, play with random objects – there’s no reason why you should give up playing because you’re a grown-up now.

4. Surround yourself with like-minded people
You’re already at a TEDx Event today, with people that love to learn and be inspired. But that shouldn’t end today – there are many opportunities to connect and learn with like-minded spirits.

5. Laugh and sing
Laugh out loud, sing in the shower and whistle while you work – Gretchen Rubin has some good ideas for you on that topic!

This post originally appeared on the TEDx Delft website. 

Shear and Punching 101: Distance in the codes

 I recently received a message with the following question:

Normally when we treat the problem of determination of shear stress in slabs, a critical section at a distance of half the effective depth of slab is taken from the support (like columns). Can you explain why this is recommended in many Codes?

Since I think this issue is not very clear in the background of the building codes, I'd like to share what I found while executing my literature review here.

There are two reasons for a distance of d/2 away from the column:
- for punching, you determine the punching perimeter at a certain distance (depending on the code). There is no physical explanation for the distance itself, although researchers like to relate this distance to the inclination of the shear crack that would result from the root of column to the top of the slab where the punching cone intersects (for the case of a flat slab floor for example).
If you look at the background of the codes, for example ACI 318, you find that the chosen distance is based on a better statistical result for the resulting punching perimeter in combination with the ACI formula as compared to test results (work done by Moe, 1961 [1]).
- for shear, we assume direct transfer of the load from its point of application to the support for loads that are at a distance d/2 to d from the column (also depending on the considered code). This direct transfer is by means of a compressive strut, which is of course much stronger than a section in shear.

[1] Moe, J. (1961). Shearing strength of reinforced concrete slabs and footings under concentrated loads, Portland Cement Association Research and Development laboratories, Skokie, IL.

Lest we forget

November 11th marks the end of the first World War, and is a holiday in Belgium.

While other countries might celebrate Remembrance Day as a day of glorious victory, in Belgium, and especially in West-Flanders, stories about the horrors of the war, the gas, the trenches and the shell-shock capture most attention.


In Ieper (Ypres), every single day at 8pm, the war is remember by "the last post" at the Menin Gate.


 
My father was born and raised in Ieper, and often brought the complete demolition of his beloved hometown to my attention. This is all that was left of the city after the war:

For those of you that are interested, I highly recommend the "In Flanders Fields" museum. It's been a while since I visited, but while preparing for the commemoration years 2014 - 2018, the museum has been given a large update.

And if you wondered about the title of the museum, it's taken from the poem by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

Almost a hundred years later, and peace is still a faraway dream. Here's the map of the current armed conflicts in our world:

The Creative Process: The Creative Habit

In a first post on this series about the creative process, we looked at the conditions you need for creativity. In this post, we focus on a long-term way to find more creative solutions to research questions.

Some people might be naturally more creative than others, some people might seem to enjoy to be creating things and ideas all the time and some people might think that creativity is just not for them. Well I think creativity is something you can develop over time.


Here are a few ways you can use to foster "The Creative Habit", and train your mind to think out of the box:

1. Creativity over a whole spectrum

Pick up an artistic hobby, start blogging and journaling, sketch, get interested in fashion, arts, literature or anything that helps you break out of the bubble of your regular thinking. Debate politics and read up on history. Get your grey matter working!

When you get used to divert your thoughts and focus on other topics, pulling ideas together by looking at them from a different perspective becomes easier as well.

2. Daily creativity

Creativity comes when you make it a habit, when you train it on a daily basis. Try to break out of your research shell on a daily basis.

You can for example schedule activities (music classes, photography classes, painting workshop...) that push you to take time to be creative. Or you can pick up a challenge, like a 365 photography project, or try to write a set of poems within a few months.

3. List ideas 

When you are solving a problem in research, don't immediately go with your first idea. Try to sit down and look at the problem from every possible angle. Make a list of possible approaches, and notice that once you start thinking about different possibilities to solve a problem, you will start generating more ideas on how to approach it differently. Again, it's all about the mindset, and knowing that you don't have to come *snap* with a solution, but can sit and reflect.

4. Mindmap ideas

Mindmapping itself involves sketching and drawing, and is in essence a creative process as well. When mapping out ideas, try to explore all the tentacles of your mindmap spider web and explore them just a little deeper to try and seep out some additional thoughts and ideas.

5. Courses on creative thinking

If you're completely stuck, or can't find a way to think in creative ways, know that there are courses out there that are especially aimed at creative thinking for scientists. I haven't followed any of these courses, so I can't come up with a recommendation (I'm the kind of person with more ideas than time to develop them, so a lot of bubbling is always going on up in my mind). The NWO in the Netherlands used to offer classes, it'd be good if they'd bring them back!

How do you develop your creative habit?

Pranayama iPhone app

It's been a while since I wrote about mindfulness and meditation, and the reason is that in all the thesis stress, I've been slacking off.


However, I recently started doing some breathing exercises, based on the instructions from an iPhone app. It is called Pranayama by Saagara and -of course, as a cheap graduate student- I use the free, lite version of the app.


Here's what I really like about the app:

1. Guided with just two sounds

The app uses a sound for inhaling and one for exhaling. As a result, you can simply close your eyes and focus on the breathing meditation.

2. Different levels

The free version offers two breathing schemes, and for each scheme you have 5 options for the length of breathing. So, even though it has way less options than the full version (of which I read in the comments that it still has ads in there, so probably it's a bad buy!), it does have enough material in there to keep you entertained for quite some time.

3. Time

You can chose from different options between 5 minutes to 60 minutes to time your breathing meditation session.

4. Automatic tracking

The app also has a log, that gives an overview of what you have exercised so far. However, I just checked my own log and apparently the memory is cleared...

Authenticity in 2.0?

I recently tweeted and wrote on Facebook about a paper rejection. Afterwards, I heard the comment that I should not write about those things, for several reasons:
- People will only remember my bad news and not my good news.
- You have to remain quiet with regard to failures.
- Your "competitors" will read this and feel good about it.

However, my goal on this blog, and on Twitter is to show the real life in academia:
- the lovely places where you get to travel to conferences as well as the late nights in the office;
- the immense joy upon approval of a manuscript as well as the rejections and lessons learned;
- the juggling of tasks as well as the moments of solitude in which you find yourself wrestling with a difficult concept.

I was more than relieved when I read "Being Inappropriate" by Chris Ashford. It also led to a short discussion on Twitter, where I mentioned the negative comments I got on tweeting about paper rejection. I storified the tweets



You might wonder why I tweeted about the paper rejection, but did not dedicate a blog post to it. The reason is that I don't feel like this chapter is finished. I received the comments of the reviewers, and I understood my "mistake". As I was struggling with the word limit, I decided to cut out most of the information on my experiments and refer to previously published work of mine. That technique left me with more words to spend on explaining what I did next (applying the findings to a method for assessment for existing solid slab bridges, and checking a set of existing bridges according to 2 methods). However, the reviewers -rightfully- pointed out they had no idea what the recommendations are based on, and the paper doesn't tell the full story.
For a blog post, I would like to have the story completed - I already know what is missing, but I still need to go and reflect on how I can incorporate all the necessary information into an improved and revamped version of that paper. Therefore, until the story is complete and I know how to tackle the problem, I will not write a full post on it.

So far, I don't think it is harmful to write about rejections and the learning processes in academia (because in the end, you learn from a rejection and you will improve your writing afterwards, no?). But I'd like to know: do you write about rejections? Or do you only highlight your successes and achievements?

The Creative Process: Conditions

Inspired by my recent theoretical work, I'd like to dedicate a series of posts to the creative process.

The first idea I'd like to discuss is which conditions you need for creative work? Before you get started on developing a new theory, or developing a new design, it is necessary to reflect on what we need for creativity.

In my opinion, you need very little to deliver creative work. As Feynman discussed, you don't need a cabin in the woods and all the time in the world to come up with good ideas.

Now let's look at what I think you need to push forward creative work:

1. Scheduled time

You don't need all the time in the world; I think 2 hours of undisturbed time in your planning can be enough. The key here is to claim that time, free up your schedule and plan those 2 hours - and use that time to the maximum. Use it for creative work, don't start using the "free" time to clean out your mailbox, or catch up on administration work.

2. Comfort

You don't need a cabin in the woods, but to help yourself getting into the right zone, you might like to sharpen your pencil, have space on your desk, have all material ready, a cup of coffee and music to block out the (lab) noise.

3. Mindset

For creative work, your mindset is key. I had been building up quite some tension with regard to my theoretical work - in fact, I hadn't been doing anything yet since all my time was devoted to experimental work, and my promotor had conveyed the message I really had to get started on it because it would take a long time and a lot of effort and searching and frustration. The mere thought of all that brought me panic and lots of impostor thoughts.

Then, I decided to turn around my entire mindset. I thought to myself: "I am just going to answer a question." My entire chapter 6 is the result of a smart question of my co-promotor, which I decided to flesh out completely. So, for my theoretical work, I decided to ask myself questions, and answer them, and if the answer would bring up another question, then I'd continue with answering that question.

Changing my mindset took away most of the pressure I was feeling, and it woke up my curious inner child.

Which conditions do you think are necessary for creative work? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Thesis Update

My contract with the university ends at the beginning of September 2013. And no contract means no salary means Big Trouble. To avoid Big Trouble, I will finish my PhD before my contract ends. Yes, it's that easy.

Well, maybe not. Maybe finishing a PhD takes a little more than just the fear of Big Trouble. Maybe it requires pushing through really hard to make sure I can finally go and live in the same place as my husband. Maybe it takes a little anger and a spoonful of frustration.

With 10 months on the countdown, things do look quite good here, and I thought it's time for an update on my thesis.

I'd like to go chapter by chapter, to illustrate what I still want to do.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Finished and got feedback from co-promotor and promotor. I do want to go over it once I have all chapters finished to see if the description still covers the contents.

Chapter 2: Literature Review: Finished and got feedback from co-promotor and promotor. I want to go over it once more and put more emphasis on the theory I ended up using for my theoretical work.

Chapter 3: Experimental Results: Finished and got feedback from co-promotor. I think it's done done done, unless my promotor has comments.

Chapter 4: Parameter Analysis: Finished and got feedback from co-promotor. Not sure if my promotor agrees with the way I structured the chapter....

Chapter 5: Modified Bond Model: Aka my theoretical chapter. It's in progress, and I really hope to finish it next week - unless other work is going to get in the way again.

Chapter 6: Probabilistic Assessment: I still need to implement to comparison between the Modified Bond Model and my experimental results in there, but the bulk of the chapter is finished. I sent it off to prospective committee member because he's an expert in structural reliability.

Chapter 7: Application to slab bridges: I need to add one paragraph on skewed bridges, but other than that it is finished, but still needs to be discussed with my supervisors.

Chapter 8: Conclusions: Work to be done!

As you can see, I have quite some material ready there. In fact, my goal is to finish the first draft before the December holidays. Afterwards, I can't defend it right away. In Delft, it takes time for the promotor to approve it, then compile the committee, then send it out, then make changes and then print the whole thing. I'm still hoping for printing and defending before September 2013 though.

Vrouwennetwerk 2.0

This post is in Dutch - in short: I'm heading to Universiteit Utrecht to give a workshop on (micro)blogging for PhDs and Post-Docs on November 8th.

Het Vrouwennetwerk van de Universiteit Utrecht organiseert op 8 november aanstaande haar tweejaarlijkse netwerkdag. Alle medewerkers van de Universiteit Utrecht zijn uitgenodigd om kostenloos deel te name, mits inschrijving (plaatsen zijn beperkt). Het belooft een ontzettend interessante dag te worden, dus als je in Utrecht zit, kom zeker langs!

Het programma
9.00u - 10.00u: Inloop, inschrijving, kennismaken, netwerken, koffie en thee
10.00u -10.30u: Introductie door het Vrouwennetwerk. Probeer een laptop mee te brengen
10.30u - 12.00u: Interactieve Lezing + discussie
12.00u -12.15u: Digitaal intermezzo
12.15u - 13.45u: Lunch, infoplaza, uitwisselen en netwerken
14u – 15.30u: Zes workshops, waaruit je kunt kiezen
15.30u – 16.00u: Thee/koffie
16.00u – 18.00u: “2.0 doen”, gelegenheid tot netwerken, borrelen, dat alles met een gezellige
muzikale omlijsting door salonduo 'La bohème'

Workshop: "(Micro)Bloggen voor PhDs en Post-docs."
Waarom is het interessant om als wetenschapper te bloggen en tweeten? In deze workshop kijken we naar een aantal verschillende aspecten: hoe je(micro)bloggen kan gebruiken om je (online)(inter)nationaal netwerk uit te bouwen, hoe je jezelf en je onderzoek zichtbaar kan maken, maar ook over wat je kan weerhouden om een blog te starten.
Via een korte tutorial kijken we ook naar het praktische aspect. Het doel is om tot een omlijnd idee te komen over welke onderwerpen en waar je aan de slag kan met (micro)bloggen.
Door ir. Eva Lantsoght, PhD student TUDelft. Blogt op phdtalk.blogspot.com over haar onderzoek, over promoveren en de niet-wetenschappelijke vaardigheden die daarbij aan bod komen, en overige onderwerpen zoals reizen en kunst. Twitter: @evalantsoght

Towards better concentration in five steps

Recently, I was asked in the comments of my post on motivation for my input on concentration. I've quickly given an answer in the comments, but I'd like to expand on the topic in a full post.

Concentration is not my natural strength. With a concentration span of about 20 minutes and my generally super-scattered brain, I've needed to work hard when I started university and couldn't simply study 20 minutes before an exam anymore.

My first years at university were not a big success (or at least, my grades were not as good as I would have wanted them to be), mostly because I didn't put my concentration where I had to.

Bit by bit, I started to learn how to focus (still working on it though!), and at the end of my studies, I was back to studying very few hours per day during exams, but with more concentration and dedication - which also resulted in significantly higher grades.

Therefore, I've gained some experience in observing my own habits and how to improve your concentration. I've already given my 10 tips for a better concentration, but here you can find 5 easy steps to implement and work towards a better concentration:

1. Know your tools

Identify the length of your concentration span: during a few work days, note down precisely how long you stay at one task. You can as well use a software tool, like ManicTime, to tag your time slots (but then, make sure you consistently tag whenever you leave your thesis document and go browse online or run off to the coffee machine).

Knowing how your brain works regularly is absolutely important to improve your concentration. Only once you know what you can work with, you can also work towards expanding your concentration span.

Action: map your concentration span!

2. Clear goals

This example should give you a sense for setting clear goals: compare "write thesis from 8am to 6pm" on your to do list to "write 400 words on paragraph 5.3.4 in thesis between 10am and noon". Setting clear goals, and knowing what precisely you need to do in which time slot, allows for less drifting off in thoughts.

Action: take your planning tool and schedule clear goals.

3. Frequent breaks

If you want to have several hours of deep concentration in a work day, then it is absolutely important to unwind every now and then. In the Pomodoro technique, 25 minute sets of concentration are alternated with 5 minute breaks, and a longer break after 4 Pomodoros. If you try to force yourself to sit on your chair for hours and hours, your mind will start to wander and you'll make slower progress. The key is to take short, but frequent breaks such that you can stay at a decent level of concentration throughout the day.

Action: build some air into your schedule and try a timing technique.

4. Take care of your body

You can't concentrated when you're tired, sick or generally unwell. Therefore, it's important to find time to prepare wholesome food, work out, relax and get your hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation is one of the most common reasons for poor concentration.

Action: Take that planning tool again, and schedule time to take care of your health (gym, cooking a healthy meal,...) or skip some commitments to safeguard your 8 hours of sleep.

5. Meditate

If you want to improve your focus over a longer period of time, there is no better way than to work out your brains. Meditation is indeed nothing more than a good workout for your brain (plus all the benefits that are associated with meditation!). As a researcher, you're "paid to think", and therefore taking good care of your brain and optimizing its performance is very important.

Action: Look at your schedule. At what point during the day can you guarantee 5 minutes for meditation?

Fifty Shades of Concrete

My TEDx Delft Salon talk is online! 

The active bird catches the worm

Over the past 10 years, I've been a student, and thus living as a student in shared houses. In total, I've had 36 housemates so far (if I didn't forget to count anyone), and I have lived with different characters. But most of all, I think you can subdivide people in the go-getters and the sedentary folks.

When I started studying, I was already juggling a lot of activities: my studies, my band, my music classes and an active student life. Nowadays, I am juggling a PhD, lots of transatlantic trips to see my husband, almost daily workouts, taking care of my cat, actively playing music, blogging here and there, reviewing CDs, daily meditation, daily journaling and a tadload of other activities. You might get tired at the very idea of buzzing around all the time, but it mostly boils down to having the right mindset. Admittedly, I might come across as 10.000 Volts kind of person, but moving around and doing different things is exactly what fuels me up and what sparks my creativity.

Here's how you too can make the switch and become a go-getter:

1. Different activity, different location

For me, moving to different places and having appointments here and there is key to finish one task (for example my research day), and then get to the next place (for, say, a workout).
When I plan to work from home, eat at home, and do some yoga at home - my day becomes too blurred and I might not get much out of it. When I take the energy level up and move from the office to the gym to home and maybe some store on the way,  I actually feel fueled up.

2. Good planning

Vague ideas on the different activities you'd like to add to your schedule won't actually get you there. Know the dates and times and plan accordingly. Also, a good planning will help you to get more hours out of your day - we all know that, but really, having a schedule can prevent you from sinking in the TV/internet/... black hole.
Having a fixed day or gym class will help you consider it as an appointment. Not only will you be more productive during the day because you have something to look forward to, but you will also notice that additional activities energize you.

3. Be active, everywhere

What I observed over time is that the go-getters are the people who work hard, play hard, and, while they're somewhere, see what needs to get done, roll up their sleeves and get it over with. You won't easily catch me staring in the blue while I wait for my food to cook. I typically will start putting dishes aside, cleaning up part of the kitchen (very much inspired by Zen Habits cleaning as you go) and prepare lunch for the next day.

4. Put your heart and mind to it

Being active is easier when you put your heart and mind to what you do. When you're fully dedicated and passionate about your activities, it's easy to keep the flame alive.
In the end, it's about knowing what you can do, and simply doing it.

5. Really enjoy relaxation time

The fact that I like to be jumping around and going here and there doesn't mean I don't value downtime. It only means that I more consciously enjoy my downtime: relaxing in the sauna after the gym, drinking a cup of wine in the evening, watching something online - I experience downtime as much more rewarding when I have been active for the entire day. It's similar to the idea of celebrating your successes in research.

Science is Fun, Science is Play

When I went for my PhD Start-Up training course, I learned to know the expression "Science is fun".

In the end, as a researcher, you are in the privileged position to play around with ideas, use your time to explore different paths and -most likely- in one way or another carry out experiments nobody has ever done before.

You are not required to follow existing flow charts to solve a problem, but are instead encouraged to explore possibilities, and you are given the time to truly explore the research question in order to advance your field. 

The basic character trait you need is just curiosity: the ability to ask yourself why are things the way they are? And then, in order to study the implications of this question, you need to set up a game. When described in these terms, research is something that is absolutely suitable for children as well. Beau Lotto tested the scientific method with a group of school children - and ended up having the kids become published scientists. This video is one of the best insights in science I have seen in a long time - please enjoy, share, and -if possible- go and spread the love for science to young children.

More than "Science: It's a girl thing!" in which science is Barbified, I think that we need young girls to learn that "Science is fun" by actually exposing them to true science, such that they can experience what it is really like.

Performing for TEDx Delft Salon

And so the day has come that I gathered all  my courage and gave it my best shot!

The whole journey started almost 10 months ago, when I got an invitation to come and discuss the possibility for a TEDx Delft Salon talk on concrete. I expected that somewhere along the way I'd be kicked out for not being good enough (imposter alert!), but that never happened and I ended up taking my concrete story to the stage...

To start preparing for the performance, I wanted to wipe out all my previous conference presentations, and go back to the roots of my interest in concrete. I reframed the main question: Why is concrete an interesting and versatile building material?

When I started preparing my TEDx talk, I received great guidelines written by Rob Speekenbrink (TEDx Delft founder) and while initially I wondered if all of that is necessary, I learned along the way how important these bits and pieces of advice are.

Now let me go into detail on some of the points that are entirely different from giving a research lecture at a conference:

1. You're a performer

You're in there as a performer, with an audience that wants to learn from you but also wants to be entertained. Initially, I thought if I'd just talk a bit about concrete, that would do. But then I realized I needed to try and make a more lively story, by adding personal anecdotes and using analogies (I used cake throughout my talk).
Initially, I found this idea terrifying. But then, I thought that, if I could climb the stage of a local theater at the age of 17 with a saxophone and a few poems by Pablo Neruda in my head to give an entire performance, speaking about my material of choice for 15 minutes wouldn't be too hard...

2. Listen and learn

This advice does count for conferences as well - but here I mean it even more literally: what kind of story structure do you like best? How do others use slides as a simple visual support? Our focus here is on the techniques others use to convey their message. I've been watching so many TED(x) talks over the past months to learn from others how to deliver a great talk.

3. Write it out

Usually I improvise on the spot and use my slides as a starting point. For this talk, I was asked to write out my story verbatim. I wrote, and rewrote and wrote the last version 10 days ago. Leaving blanks in the text also helped me to define resting points in the story.

4. Have yourself recorded

Although I've been recorded for conferences, lecturing from a lectern, being out there on a stage feels very different. I was recorded on my 3rd trial, and I hated everything about myself in there: my constant blabbering, my gestures and how I pull up my eyebrows. Being aware of these stress-induced actions helped me to focus on my gestures.

5. It takes time

A minute of public speaking takes an hour of preparation. My 15 minutes of TEDx Delft Salon took 55 hours of preparation, just to give you an idea.

6. Don't forget to enjoy

Right before delivering my talk, I looked at the room and told myself: "Well, all these people have come here because they're interesting in the free lunch and your story. Isn't that really cool?" So instead of holding my breath and trying to get it over with, I tried to enjoy the experience (can't say I really succeeded, but at least I tried to enjoy it)

Powerposing to boost your conference presence

I recently feel very inspired by an article and a TED talk that I came across.

The article gives advice on how you can succeed at conferences as an introvert. As an introvert myself, going to a conference can feel like a daunting task, but I recognize myself very much in Brooke's story.

Similarly, I tend to give myself a virtual kick in the mind when I head out into a crowd of unknown, awfully smart people who might discover a flaw in my work. I tell myself to keep my shoulders low and my chin up. Little did I know that actually altering your posture might have a positive influence on your performance. Therefore, I feel eager to share Amy Cuddy's TED talk. She advices us, not to just "fake it until you make it", but to actually "fake it until you become it".



Do you have a way to push yourself out of your comfort zone during conferences?

Power of We

Today is Blog Action Day 2012, and the topic is "Power of We".

From my perspective, the "power of we" lies in the learning network the (online) academic community has offered me. Today is the right moment to reflect on how I have benefited and continue to benefit from this community.

1. Research skills

I have written this before, and it's not the last time that I'll mention it: I've learned so much from participating in (or catching up afterwards) online chats on research skills (#phdchat, #ecrchat, #acwri) and by reading blogs.

2. Exchanging ideas

Online learning networks are a perfect playground to test out ideas, and exchange ideas to see in which way your story can be best told. 

3. Learning about your field

I enjoy very much reading news from the construction industry and from concrete manufacturers and research institutes. Most of the time their work is not related to my research at all, but it is interesting to learn more about the broader field by reading articles online.

4. Learning about higher education

The internet and online learning communities are again a perfect place to learn about higher education practices and policies throughout the entire world.

5. Follow events you can't attend

From webinars and podcasts to liveblogs and Twitter streams: there typically are plenty of possibilities to follow an event online you can't attend physically. 

6. Connecting with like-minded people over the disciplines

Another great learning experience has been to connect with like-minded researchers from completely different disciplines and to understand how similar their experiences are and how much I can learn from that.

And today, I not only want to focus on the benefits of my online learning network, but I also want to give a shout-out and a massive thank you to everyone from whom I've learned - deeply appreciated!