Certified

Just got my Masters diplomas (note the plural, ha...ha). One in English, one in Dutch, each signed by all three Universities. They are done really nice. Sooo cool.

IMFSE Lund

Lund University LTH V-Building, where one becomes a jedi master in fire:

Fire suits, or astronauts in training?

Ah, boiled potatoes, lingonberry, meatballs, brown sauce, the essence of hearty Swedish foods:

Dennis, proud of his little fire experiment:

With the president of Lund University:

Ninja like concentration is necessary to study fire:

Never too cold for a barbecue (Boras, Sweden):

Robert organizing a great field trip. Here learning about fire doors:

Marta & The Mustaches present about risk assessment:

Group lunches in V building:
Prof Henrik & Marcus, displaying pure joy in anticipation of correcting 20 risk assessment exams:

The preferred method of travel around Lund:

Getting a feel for people density in human behaviour. Otherwise known as a good reason for spontaneous dance party:

Here we have unequivocal, scientific proof that wearing a tie in Sweden does not make you any smarter or better than your neighbor:

!Caught on Camera: Intense learning!

Class trip to SP fire in Boras, Sweden:

The class with our fearless teacher, Daniel Nilsson:
Birthday celebrations on an international level:

The beautiful Lund cathedral:

Minutes, wait.... possibly seconds, after completing the last exam of the semester, smiles and drinks:

Student absorptivity=1, unfortunately, teacher emissivity here approaching zero.

Marta secretly places the cameras for the evacuation experiment:

So, after all these years, this is what the promised land looks like:

A quick bike ride only 5 minutes outside Lund:

A winter Siberia could sympathize with:

And finally, the amazing graduation garbs:

Valborg

Walpurgis Night( Valborg in Sweden), is a day in Sweden and many other Northern European countries intended to celebrate the coming of spring, commonly accompanied by large bonfires and other traditions, on April 30th and May 1st.

Celebrations differ even within Sweden. Calm or traditional celebrations are found in Stockholm or non-University cities. The most pronounced celebrations are in the two main University cities of Uppsala, as well as here in Lund. Here in Lund, on May 1st, the men's choir sings on the steps of the academic building in the town center, and this has been broadcast for years to the rest of the country on live TV.




I guess, however, that if the men's choir singing is considered a big celebration, then we're in trouble. The celebration that really engulfs the city focuses around its university population and takes place on Saturday.

Essentially, groups of students from all over the University, thousands, plus people from neighboring cities (Malmo, Copenhagen), get up early, between 7 & 8am, and begin the day with some champagne and breakfast. Then, they drink some more, and then more, and well, for thousands of people it seems to amount to a whole day of intoxication. This is accompanied by picnics, barbecuing, and lots of dancing.

The whole event takes place in the city park of Lund. It was reported that a record 25,000 people were in the park. The pictures below show the massive crowds.

A sad part of this whole event is that the amount of trash created and wreckage left behind is unbelievable. The city had to pay 150 people to clean up after all these people. A little theme I've noticed here, university student's seem to expect other people to pick up after themselves.

The cleanup:



This photo is titled 'Stupidity Reigns'






Andrej, Dennis, Mark:


The bonfire pre-burning:


In the US these guys at the very least probably get kicked out. In Sweden, the police tell them to get down, shake their hand, and have a laugh:


People dancing to some electronic music:


The wreckage. I think the can collectors enjoyed this day.


An article:
http://www.thelocal.se/3671/20110429/#

Fire Experiments, Fire, & More Fire

Recently, we performed a small experiment in one of the Universities fire testing laboratories. We used a pan of liquid methanol, started a fire, and measured the heat release rate (a measure of the rate at which energy (in the form of heat) is released) with a device called a oxygen consumption calorimeter. We ran a few tests to check out how repeatable the experiment was. Then, we simulated our experiment after wards with some computer software and compared the computer simulations to the data we got from the experiment. Knowledge regarding the heat release rate of a fire is one of the most important concepts and factors in fire safety design and evaluation.

Setting up the experiment:


The hat is pretty useless here but makes a good photo! Netsanet, Dennis, & I.

Marta, Netsanet, & I set up the thermocouples and data aquisition equipment for the experiment:


A simulation of the velocity of the gases entering and leaving the test cell:



A representation of gas temperature:


Unfortunately, this test was not nearly as scintillating as some of the stuff I used to do and see at UL(though more educative in different ways):








In conclusion, Hooray for Fire! (I mean, fire safety!). Guess that's enough nerd speak for one blog. Cheers.