After the public defense of my thesis on the 30th of October I left switzerland on the 1st of November making the duration of my stay in the beautiful country exactly 4 years. I moved to Trondheim in Norway and joined SINTEF as a Research Scientist in the Department of Applied Mathematics last Monday (2nd November 2009).
About the SINTEF Group: It is the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia. Every year, SINTEF supports the development of 2000 or so Norwegian and overseas companies via its research and development activity. There are approximately 2000 employees, 1300 of which are located in Trondheim and 450 in Oslo. It has offices in Bergen, Stavanger and Ålesund, in addition to offices in Houston, Texas (USA), Skopje (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) and a laboratory in Hirtshals (Denmark). The head office is in Trondheim. SINTEF has six groups:
- Building and Infrastructure: deals with challenges linked to the entire construction process.
- Technology and Society deals with health, transport, technology management, safety and applied economics
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT): provides research-based expertise, services and products ranging from microtechnology, communication and software technology, computational software, information systems and security and safety. Work ranges from simple technical analysis to complete system development.
- Marine: is an important resource for industry and the authorities in the field of knowledge management for the future exploitation of the marine environment.
- Materials and Chemistry: The research division has high competence within materials technology, applied chemistry and applied biology
- Petroleum and Energy: This group works in the identification of future-oriented solutions throughout the petroleum products value chain and create a sustainable energy system based on renewable energy technologies.
I have joined the Department of Applied Mathematics which comes under the ICT group. During the first week in SINTEF I have realized that the environment is quite informal and people seem to be very happy with their work and life in SINTEF. I was introduced to the projects I will be working on. The project that I have started working deals with the prediction of turbulence at the airports. I will be writing more about the project in near future once I get deeper into it. In order to start my life in Norway smoothly the company has enrolled me in an Expat Mid-Norway program. The program helps in the relocation of employees by acquainting him with various administrative processes he should go through: introducing him to the Norwegian culture and way of life, language courses and of course above all helping with accommodation. I will be writing about the expat program as I learn and benefit more from it.
What I did in my first week in Trodheim ?
Day 1: (Sunday) Arrived in Trondheim at 7:00pm and stayed in Hotel Thon and had a shrimp pizza in a pizzeria.
Day 2: (Monday) Went to the office. Met Marit (secretary) and collected the key of of office. ALso met Trond from whom I collected the contract of my apartment
Day 3: (Tuesday) Inherited some CFD codes from Utnes and started working on it. Karstein Sorli one of my senior introduced me to the campus, library and restaurants.
Day 4: (Wednesday) Went to the police with Maria from Expat-Mid-Norway to declare my arrival and surrender my passport on which a work permit will be granted. Later Ellene from Expat-Mid-Norway took me for an apartment visit. Finally, she dropped me near my office.
Day 5: (Thursday) Worked throughout the day and in the evening went to see another apartment.
Day 6: (Friday) Work during the day and in the evening went to talk to Ellen about apartment and meet other members from the conversation group.
Day 7: (Saturday) Got up really late in the morning and did some shopping.
Day 8: (Sunday) Rest
Day 9: (Monday) Went for Tuberculosis test. The person incharge of the test was sick so have to go next Monday. Then went to the tax office to apply for a tax card. Came back to office at 10:00am. Have to do some work.
SINTEF ICT, Applied Mathematics annual meet
Very nice office !
Congratuations for your nice view window. Profit the daylight!!