Reducing distances and new airs

October was an exciting month with my first weeks in the Netherlands and PersonalizeAF events

Being part of PersonalizeAF has guaranteed that every month is an interesting new experience with lots of things to do. This October was not different, with me moving to Maastricht, new analyses in the computer models and the PersonalizeAF Kickoff meeting and first Summer School. In this post I will talk a bit about these experiences.

As you may guess, moving to another country amidst the Coronavirus crisis is not an easy task, but I have been lucky. Apart from the goodbyes, which are always sad, everything went smoothly. Even losing my luggage (which stayed behind in my layover in Portugal) was fortunate: they were pretty heavy and carrying them all the way from Amsterdam to Maastricht would have been a lot of physical work. However, the flying company spared me the trouble and delivered the bags quickly to my new Dutch doorstep.

Speaking of that, discovering the city of Maastricht is being an amazing experience despite the pandemic limitations. I got here on the day bars and restaurants were closed, so these will sadly have to wait, but after my 10-day mandatory quarantine I could stroll along the city center and go shopping a bit. I also managed the number one priority when you arrive in the Netherlands: get a bike. With that arranged, I could finally visit the physiology department of the Maastricht University, where I should be working in more favorable circumstances. It was very nice to meet some people in person and I hope we can all be working there as soon as possible.

Here is a glimpse of the stunning autumn landscape in the Waldeck in Maastricht

As for the work in PersonalizeAF, the ESR’s schedules have been pretty busy with the Kickoff meeting, where we could get in touch with most people involved in the consortium and with our fellow PhD candidates, and with the Summer School, with some interesting talks on topics related to AF, machine learning and statistics. Apart from that, I expect to have some nice results to show soon, as I have been reviewing and building upon the modeling progress we made in last month’s Hackathon and starting to learn a bit about recurrence analysis.

It has been a busy month with lots of new things to see and learn. Now that everything is settled here in Maastricht, I hope I can come back to you with a more scientific post last month. Stay tuned, and tot ziens!

PS: as an answer to the challenge in Alexander’s post, I have to say that typically Limburgse Vlaai is a strong candidate for the best food competition. I couldn’t get my hands on one yet, so here’s a picture from a very famous place here in Maastricht.



Victor