Independent Research

Day 17
Oliver Brown

Today we started our week of independent research for our report and presentation. Our class met in the morning to discuss our topics and our individual plans for the day. I am studying the water supply system here in Venice, including the continuous fountains in the square. I measured the flow rate, so that I can calculate the amount of water used per day. 

Fountain near the Rialto fish market.

 The two pictures above are of construction workers maintaining and replacing sections of the canal walls where sediment has been washed into the canals, causing erosion and sinking. To do this, they first have to install a wall to hold back the water, which is what they are using the crane for in the second picture. After they finish this they have to pump out the area they are working on before they can begin repair.

 Shown above is one of two remaining bridges in Venice with no handrails. Didn't fall in!

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Haus des Meeres

On Saturday we wandered around Vienna. The highlight was definitely when we went to a 12 story zoo/aquarium in the middle of the city, called Haus des Meeres. At the rooftop cafe we ordered food and I had some delicious and refreshing apple juice. At the end of the day we got on the train to go back to Venice.

May 28th

We returned from Vienna fairly early because we took the night train. This left us with plenty of time to return to the beach for the day. We arrived at Lido around 11 and rented bikes to ride to the beach. After several hours of swimming and baking in the sun, we decided to pack up our things and explore the island on our bikes. The island was very small and rural but still as beautiful as the city. It also helped that I love riding bikes and this was the first time I've been able to in a while. We finally returned to Venice for our Sunday dinner with everyone. After dinner we hung out for a short while before I turned in for an early night.

28/5/17

The day started with all 8 of us students returning from Vienna around 830 in the morning. Once back, a group of us decided to head back to the beach for a day in the sun. We arrived at the beach shortly after 11 and spent a couple of hours swimming and tanning(or burning for most of us). After the beach we decided to take a bike ride around the peninsula. We spent 2-3 hours just biking around and listening to music. The day ended with dinner near our apartment. It was a very fun and relaxing day back in Venice after a weekend in the city of Vienna where everything moved faster.

Vienna

This weekend I took a trip to Vienna, Austria, to see what it was like in other countries in Europe. I toured a zoo, toured an aquarium, went to the Austrian Natural History Museum, and got lost in an amazing amount of local goods at the local market. Besides doing typical touristy things, I also studied things such as how the city has been made more accessible for the blind, which is something we studied as a class in Venice. The highlight of the weekend for me was the zoo, where I got to pretend to be a 12 year old again. The zoo was in the middle of the city and went up 10 floors of animals, leading patrons to a rooftop terrace where you could look out over the whole city; let me tell you it was BEAUTIFUL. Vienna was a blast, and I highly recommend anyone thinking about going there to do it! Now it's back to engineering in Venice on Monday.

Carabinieri Tour

Today was had a tour of the Carabinieri station in Venice. The Carabinieri are part of Italy's police and military force, and train accordingly. They are similar to our National Guard, but with more police duties. We asked the officer who gave us the tour what the most common crime they dealt with, he said that petty thefts and drunk driving in the canals occur the most. He showed us their impressive fleet of police boats, which is their only way to respond to a call other than by foot in Italy. One of the big problems for police in Venice is the response time, as it's time consuming to drive down the canals in a boat, especially if the location doesn't have direct access from a canal. Also they have issues with finding locations, as the house addressing system in Venice is chronologic, so directions are usually given with respect to the nearest landmark or Campo (square). One fact that I found interesting was that not all Carabinieri have boating licenses. I though that would've been a requirement. Most Carabinieri officers, unless unmarried, are not offered free housing in Venice. Because the cost of living is so high, many cannot afford to live on the Island, and are forced to commute from the mainland everyday, along with shop workers, vendors, and a large portion of the Venetian working class.

Tonight we leave on the night train for Vienna, Austria. We will be spending the weekend there, before returning to Venice for our last week of study abroad.

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Today started off great as our meeting time was pushed back to 1 PM. This gave us a little extra time to sleep and get some well wanted rest. After meeting up we visited the National Guard like Police, the Carabineiri. They were more than happy to meet us and tell us about what they do and how they do it. They even offered coffee and drinks while talking to us. I especially enjoyed hearing about how they navigate to respond to a call and what kind of boats they use. Unfortunately even the officer that talked with us didn't know why Venice has so many different police forces, between the Carabineiri, the federal police and the local police. After the visit we went and had apportivo before heading to the train station and hopping on the night train to Vienna.

24/05/17

The day began with a tour of the Teatro La Fenice. It was a great tour that allowed us to see the splendor of the theatre. The decorations were incredible and could be seen from wherever you sat in the theatre. We also learned the history of the theatre from our tour guide. The theatre had been built after a royal family had to sell their other theatre. Naming the theatre after a Phoenix brought some bad luck as the theatre had been damaged by two fires, the most recent in 1996. The second part of the day was not as enjoyable. We had a "tour" of the flood gates currently being installed to try and prevent flooding in the city. The "tour" only consisted of a 20 minute video that easily could have been watched anywhere from a computer. The last part of the day was a group dinner where I was surprised with dessert and a card for my birthday. A night of good food and good friends was a great way to celebrate my birthday in Venice.

May 24th

We started off the day with a tour of the Teatro La Fenice or The Phoenix Theatre. It was a fun and interesting tour because the decorations inside the theatre were so over the top.

After the theatre, we went to have a tour of the MOSE Project which is the city's floating dam that's still being constructed. We were all a little disappointed because the entire "tour" was just a 20 minute video. I mostly feel bad for the professor who came to Venice from Milan solely to see the project and only received the same "tour" as us.

The best part of the day came a bit later because we all met up at Professor Bradke's apartment for dinner and to celebrate Tyler Azure's birthday. Good food and good company led to a long night with many laughs.

Cooking my way through Venice: Part 2

A little late, but on Monday we went on a long, guided tour through the more touristy parts of Venice. That included a walkthrough of La Basilica di San Marco; we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which was for the best as documenting all of the beautiful works of art in that church would have taken days. After finishing the hours-long tour near the Rialto bridge, we walked back to our apartments for some much needed rest.

When our growling stomachs roused us from our relaxation, I decided to cook the salmon I had purchased at the Rialto fish market. Alex helped me find a good recipe for an Italian lemon pepper salmon and pasta dish. As it was my first time preparing the dish, especially with such a large about of fish, it wasn't my best though I look forward to trying it again in the future. The general consensus was that I needed to make my fish tacos again!

All of the salmon and first batch of the pasta.

There wasn't enough pasta for the six of us to start with, so I switched types. All of that salmon was also decimated.

Class on the Beach

Today the plan for the afternoon was to learn about tides, so we went to the beach. We took about a half hour water bus ride then about a half hour walk to get there. The water was warm and clear, the sand didn't burn my feet, and as far as I could tell there were no unfriendly sea creatures. As soon as we got there, I got in the water and didn't come out until it was time to go. 

Structures

Today we studied the city's structures and did a practical exercise to analyze the bell tower in Saint Marc's square. The objective was to approximate the stresses in a singular pile beneath the bell towers foundation. After completing this we went to the top of the tower, what a view! We could see the Adriatic as well as the Alps. The best view of the city by far. 

Water

Today we toured historical well sites. We started with a morning lecture discussing the construction, historical significance, and effectiveness of these well sites; concluding with a practical exercise in which students estimated the capabilities of a specific well. The afternoon consisted of a guided tour to multiple ancient well sites around Venice; looking further into historical and engineering aspects of the wells. One specific well we toured was inside of a monastery, which included both exquisite Venetian architecture as well as engineering topics. 

Trains and Rabbit

Day 9
Oliver Brown

Today was a travel day for the Rome group and I returning to Venice. Since we travelled by train, we walked "only" about 7 miles. Before our train ride at 2:15, we visited more fountains and sculptures, which can be found at almost every intersection, square, or park in Rome. 

The ride home was entertaining, both inside and outside of the train. Outside the train I watched the beautiful Italian countryside slide by at 300km/hr. We passed through tunnels and saw mountains, farms, towns and cities. There was an interesting argument between two passengers and the train employees. I'm not sure what the problem was, but nevertheless it was entertaining, an there was police ready for them at the next stop.

Next we had our weekly Maymester group dinner, with a special guest, a jet pilot that Professor Bradke knew from the Air Force. He had lots to say about a variety of topics, all interesting and informative. I ordered the rabbit stew which apparently wasn't a stew. Tastes like chicken! 

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First day in Rome

We spent the morning traveling around the typical tourist sites in Rome such as the colliseum and the Roman Forum. We started off with a tour of the colliseum but our tour guide was horrendous. She hardly spoke English and spent almost half an hour at each location along the tour. We left the group halfway through the tour and explored it on our own. We even made a new friend along the way and she came with us for the majority of the day. 

After the colliseum, we moved to the Roman Forum which was a lot of fun to explore. It started to rain pretty hard while we were there so we took shelter in some of the ruins. When the rain refused to stop, we  gave up and left our shelter to continue on. Of course the rain decided to stop only when we were thoroughly soaked.

Field trip to ROME

Today was spent in Rome, the morning was started with a tour of the Colesseum. The tour guide did not speak much English was relatively boring so the five of us(Kevin, Roy, Oliver, Jessey and Myself) left the tour early to walk around by ourselves. When we left we were joined by a Canadian named Rebecca who stayed with us for a majority of the day. After leaving the colesseum we went next door to the Roman forum where we explored the ruins and hid from the thunderstorm for an hour before deciding to just walk through the rain and get soaked. Next we walked to the Vatican while sightseeing along the way. A quick purchase later and we continued to the Vatican. While it was too late and the lines were too long for us to get in, the outside was still incredible to view. Dinner at a local pizzeria and stumbling into a clown convention ended our day. It was a great day in which we saw most of Rome.

May 19

We started the day with a walking tour through Venice, where we learned more about the city's history and how the city was built. We also learned some fun new words and how the address system in the city works. We were taken inside a church we had all passed every day but never paid any attention to. We should have, because the inside is filled with beautiful art by some guys who were pretty good with a paintbrush. Sounds like plenty of excitement for one day, right? Wrong. Some of us planned to go to Rome for the weekend. We bought our tickets earlier this week and already booked a hostel, so we just had to get on the train and go. It was going to be about a four hour ride- nothing we couldn't handle. The train departed from and arrived at each station exactly as scheduled- it was actually quite marvelous. That is, until we were almost at the stop before ours. Just 15 minutes before we were scheduled to get off the train, it stopped. A standard announcement came over the loudspeaker in Italian then in English: there was traffic on the rail, we would be slightly delayed, and not to get off the train. Sounds good to me, delays happen. There's nothing I can do about it, right? My iPod and Kindle still had plenty of battery, so I wasn't worried. Eventually the canned announcements turned into announcements from real people...who didn't repeat them in English. When they did,  the English announcement was far shorter and presumably less descriptive than the Italian one. Eventually we figured out that there had been a fire at one of the stations and that we were to be rerouted.  After many starts, stops, pauses, and half translations, we were on our way to our destination... three hours later than planned. But, we checked into the hostel with little incident, so I'd say the adventure was a success.

Becoming Tourists

Today was largely a day for all to experience Venice as most people do; as tourists. The day started off with cappacinos and conversations, as most days do here in Venice, before leading into the main focus of the day. After cappacinos the class met our tour guide for what would be a "free tour" through the city. Most, myself included, did not know what to expect from a free tour; after about five minutes, I was hooked. The tour was amazing. As opposed to your average tour, looking at the cities most visited sites, promoting tourism, etc. this tour focused on things such as how to navigate around the city, how the layout of the city was determined and why, historical information about churches/buildings/Venice/etc., and, of course, most importantly, how to choose the best Venetian food to eat. After the tour was complete, a brief discussion of engineering aspects of the city occurred, and students broke off into groups to prepare for the weekends endevors. This weekends trips include a trip to the Italian countryside, a trip to the beach, and, for some, a trip to Rome.

Ciao!

Cooking my way through Venice

5m below ground, Norwich Maymester Student Jessey Heigh inspects the potable water supply line for Venice.  This 1.2m diameter pipe is the last stop for water treated in Favaro, Italy, nearly 10km from the city's center.  Over 1000Liters-per-second are processed and pumped to the city.

During our tour of the water treatment plant I got a little bit too much sun for my fair Irish skin to handle. After the long hours out in the sun touring the plant then walking into the local Italian town that was untouched by tourism, we stopped to get a bite to eat before hopping on a tram (read: cross between a bus and a train). Once back in Venice, we all stopped once again to get the obligatory gelato before parting ways.

Alex and I went back to our apartment. What was meant to be a siesta nap turned into me being asleep almost until the sun went down. I guess that jet lag finally caught up with me! After waking up, Tyler, Kevin, Oliver, and Roy all came over for another meal. The previous night I had made my fish tacos from a white fish I had picked up from the Rialto fish market that morning. They were a huge hit! Tonight I decided to try my hand at making a Bolognese sauce. Another success, especially for my first attempt! I wonder what I'll decide to make next....

Clean Water

Norwich Maymester students Jared Thompson and Ethan Handley sample freshly treated water at the Favaro, Italy water treatment facility.

Today we took a trip to the water treatment plant off of the island. It was very interesting to see how the populated city of Venice is able to be supplied with clean water each day. Many people believe that Venice does not have clean tap water, however, that's just not true. Venice is ranked number 3 in the world for the cleanest water. The plant runs 24/7 now because of the high demand of 3 million people visiting and living in Venice annually. Now that the day is over, we must enjoy some fine venetian wine and "ciccheti". 

The world as a classroom - Part 1

When I began planning "Engineering Venice" for Maymester 2017, our international programs coordinator asked if I would require classroom space at the local university for daily lectures and classroom-type activities.  My first inclination was "of course!" We would later learn that the space was expensive, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that formal classroom time was the opposite of what I wanted to achieve! Indeed, the point of taking students abroad was to get out of the classroom and immerse them in a diverse and foreign culture, so they might learn about the intangible effects of engineering and technology and how they shaped the feel of this magnificent city.  So often in engineering education, we become lost in the science of learning to build the modern world and the incredible things in it. We place a great emphasis on teaching students about the technical side of engineering, and inadvertently overlook how culture influences our design, and how design influences culture- a wonderful paradox!

Norwich Maymester students consider water and sewer requirements over cappuccino in a bustling Venetian campo.  Here they are making rudimentary calculations on a cafe napkin while brainstorming innovative ways to modernize an ancient infrastructure without detracting from the idyllic and eclectic blend of byzantine, baroque and renaissance architecture surrounding them.

I've now come to realize the immense challenge and infinite possibilities associated with using the "world as a classroom." Instead of lecturing in a hall, mobile technology has allowed us to literally hold class anywhere.  Learning about water and sewer requirements is suddenly more relevant while floating on the Grand Canal and considering that those very waterways are leech fields for over half of the city's septic systems!

Norwich Maymester students (background) with their faculty adviser, Dr. Brian Bradke (foreground), riding a water taxi through Venice's Grand Canal.  Despite a thousand years of evolution, the city still relies on the canals for transporting goods and eliminating wastewater for 60,000 permanent residents and over 3 million tourists.

I've also learned of a new concept (new to me) that I will bring back to the university with me: STEAM.  I'm sure many of you have heard of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math).  In America, we have placed a great emphasis on STEM education and its importance to our economy.  But something is missing- ART! STEAM, as I heard it discussed yesterday, refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.  (http://stemtosteam.org/) .  This succinctly illustrates why we came to Italy to study engineering in the first place: to observe and study the intangible effects of science and technology.  That is to say: How does culture and art effect our technical work and the implementation of modern technology, and how does this new technology then influence culture?  It is a theme I hope my students will begin to investigate, and one I hope to add to every aspect of my pedagogical approach.  Ciao!

Norwich Maymester students attending a series of lectures at the Universita luav di Venezia  in Venice, Italy.  The seminar presented the challenges of making the city more accessible for disabled persons from a cultural and artistic viewpoint.

Italian Glass and Homecooked Meals

Day 5
Oliver Brown

Today was a day of exploration and learning in engineering, Italian social services, glass blowing, and cooking. During our lesson, Professor Bradke introduced the problems related to Venice's waste water disposal. The large volume of waste water needs to be disposed of without a gravity fed system, while dumping the least amount into the canals or lagoon as possible. Professor Bradke also told us about Venice's unique social services, such as their ambulance/fire boats, and the varying levels of police, including the historic Carabinieri.

We visited Murano, the island where the Venetian glass blowing occurs. Since it is the Biennale here in Venice, there was extra glass exhibits up in the museum.

large glass art exhibit on Murano

Glass museum's exquisite chandeliers and ceiling murals 

The last lesson of the day for me personally was in cooking. After we went shopping at the local market, Jessy cooked fish tacos, and I cooked my pasta and potatoes. To be efficient, I tossed the potato into the pot with the spaghetti. Soon after biting in, I learned that whole potatoes cook much slower than pasta. Luckily raw potato is both safe and doesn't taste horrible. 

Unfortunately Norwich does not offer Culinary courses

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Glass Blowing

Today our group visited the island of Murano, known for it's impressive glass blowing art and master glass blowing artist. The glass blowers were exiled to this island because of the intense heat that was used caused some fires on the island of Venice, so I guess they were a little mad. Either way we visited a glass museum where hundreds of glass sculptures were on display, unsurprisingly. Many of which were created before Columbus even discovered America. The picture is of one of the many exhibits that were on display in the museum. Later that evening a few of us from the group enjoyed fish tacos made by Jessey Heigh.

The Venice You Don't See

Our second day in Venice started off with us attending a few lectures at the local college about the city's accessibility for people with disabilities. The seminar was titled "La Venezia Che Non Si Vede" which translates to "The Venice You Don't See". Luckily the lectures were in English so we could actually understand them. This was a two day talk series that was a part of the Venice Biennale, a famous art festival that occurs every two years. The most interesting and relatable topic that was brought up during the lectures was the difficulty that people in wheelchairs have when moving around the city. It was easy to see how difficult this would be after yesterday's scavenger hunt. The amount of bridges in this city is astounding and all of them have stairs. It was very interesting to see other people's take on how to adapt the city without changing its culture. It was also convenient te hear what the professionals had to say on this topic because it is closely related to some of what we will be studying for this Maymester.

First full day- May 15

In our first full day in Venice, we had a short lecture and then we went on a scavenger hunt. Since the lecture was short and to the point, we had plenty of time to wander and explore for our scavenger hunt. After hunting, we went to the grocery store so we don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on eating out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our fridge is now fully stocked with wine, cheese, salami, juice, milk, eggs, butter, vegetables, and other food. Here the eggs are sold in packages of ten instead of twelve. Italian milk is creamier than American milk and that's not a bad thing.

Finally arrived! 5/14/2017

Our day started on a plane landing in Paris. For a lot of habit was our first time in France, or abroad at all. We had planned to take a taxi into the city during our layover, but didn't have time thanks to our first flight being delayed for 2 hours. After going through a very short customs process, we fulfilled our first priorty: food!

Surprisingly, the restaurants weren't very easy to find, but we were not to be detered. Turns out there is a little food court. Go figure! Once our stomachs were full, all that was left to do was wait for our next flight. I happened to get a window seat perfectly situated to get my first view of the Eiffel Tower as the plane took a leisurely turn around the city to head off to our final destination.

Once we landed, met up with our guide, and took taxis into the city itself we had our first exposure to stepped bridges that cross the canals Venice is so well known for. Luckily we had all been smart enough to pack light in bags that can easily be carried. That night we ate together; apparently 7:30pm is an early time for dinner!

Day 2: Scavenger Hunt

Today, after a brief history of Venice over cappuccinos, was a scavenger hunt through the city. The class split into groups of two, each of which was given a list of places to find in the city. There were sights to see, streets to get lost on, and of course endless winged lions to count. A seemingly simple exercise turned into an excellent self-led tour of the city. After a long day in the sun, some much needed rest is sure to be found by all.

Day 1 !

Sunday morning, 14th of May 2017:
Captains log day 1: We arrived in Dublin at 5 am after a 6 hour flight from Boston. Unfortunately, my body felt like it was midnight and I had not slept a wink on the plane. So I decided to eat some breakfast to trick my body into believing it slept a full night. By noon, I was asleep laying down on the ground outside of the Venice airport. It wasn't much sleep but it was almost enough to get me through the rest of the day.

One last Taco Bell run....

My day started off with a 9 mile walk to obtain Taco Bell at 3 AM. Apparently you can't be served food if you are not in a car at that hour. Who knew? At lunch however, I was able to have a whole lobster, eyeballs and everything, as my last meal before leaving the country. At the airport it was pretty typical as everyone is trying to get through security and to their gate. The cheese and wine did ease the anxiety of leaving the country soon to no surprise. Once boarded, the plane decided to have some personal problems resulting in the departure being delayed. All in all, I'm not too shocked by what has happened today and am looking forward to finally being out of the country.

Departure

Day 1
Oliver Brown

Hello, and welcome to day one of the Norwich University "Engineering Venice" trip. We have met at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and are currently awaiting our departure to Paris, France, later this evening. During our layover in Paris we hope to see some of the city. I am very excited to learn under Professor Bradke, explore new places, and become friends with my new classmates. 

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Welcome to Maymester

Hello and welcome to "Engineering Venice," a three week summer course for undergraduate engineering students.  The course is sponsored by Norwich University's David Crawford School of Engineering and is designed to expose students to the unique engineering challenges of building a modern city on an ancient foundation.

This summer (2017) we will be in the iconic city of Venice, Italy.  Together, we will be studying the unique challenges of modernizing a 1500-year-old city without altering the traditional landscape.  In particular, we will be studying electric power systems, transportation, food supply, social services, climate change and rising sea levels, water, septic and refuse disposal.

In addition to studying the technical aspects of infrastructure modernization, we will investigate the effects of technology on culture, art and architecture and what role it has played in forming the modern Venetian society.  So click "follow" and come along, as we learn about "Engineering Venice!"

Ciao!