Summer Internship Diaries: My Days in FRISSBE

~ Maria Binte Mannan ~ Leave a comment

Hello there!!!

Winter is almost over and spring is on its way, but I suddenly remembered my summer days when I heard that our internship study from last summer has published in a magazine. I thought it would be a great time to talk about our time in Slovenia last summer.

Choosing between summer holidays and internships can be a tough decision for many students. Initially, I faced the same dilemma, I eventually opted for the internship, driven by my passion for research and the desire to explore a new facet of Europe. However, I ultimately decided to seize the chance to do internship with the FRISSBE (Fire-safe Sustainable Built Environment) project at ZAG (Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute). This decision stemmed from my deep-seated interest in research-based work, aligning perfectly with my aspirations for pursuing a PhD in the near future. With the support of Grunde Jomaas, along with three other IMFSE colleagues (Ashwant Singh, Farith Hinojosa Coca, & Matheus Ponteus Lima), we got this opportunity at the beginning of the year.

My journey to Slovenia, laden with luggage after five months in Lund, initially seemed fraught with challenges. Opting for a bus journey to Slovenia seemed practical at that time, though it turned out to be quite the misadventure. I vividly recall my arrival in Slovenia, greeted by two IAESTE members at the bus stop, who humorously remarked, “Did you bring all of Sweden with you?” It was a light-hearted moment that marked the beginning of an unforgettable experience.

Life in Ljubljana, facilitated by IAESTE, was nothing short of wonderful. We were provided with student subsidies for meals, fondly known as “Boni,” which allowed us to enjoy discounted meals twice a day. I really enjoy to cook my own food, but in Slovenia, I couldn’t resist trying out all the halal and vegan restaurants that accept the Boni coupons.

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During our time with FRISSBE, our task was on conducting research in collaboration with Knauf Insulation on open-state cavity barriers for ventilated façades. Despite having completed one year of the IMFSE program, our exposure to passive fire protection was limited in that time (Passive Fire Protection is included in 3rd semester of Ghent University), making this internship an invaluable opportunity to delve into this aspect of fire engineering. Throughout our internship, we organized and conducted meetings with employees of different countries, to gather crucial information regarding the testing requirements for open-state cavity barriers. We delivered presentations, set up our testing campaign, conducted bench-scale fire tests, also analyzed and reported our findings. This experience felt like a precursor to our thesis work, and we’re proud to have our findings published in WFM Media (Pages 8-14).

In addition to our primary research tasks, we were fortunate to participate in the 3rd traditional seminar titled “FIRE TAKES NO VACATION: Engineering Methods for Fire Safety Design.” The seminar focused on performance-based methods, particularly emphasizing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). We also attended an internal workshop on research careers, funding, and publishing, where I had the opportunity to prepare an introductory presentation on Professors José Torero and Bart Merci. The event featured presentations from esteemed experts like Professors José Torero, Bart Merci, and Grunde Jomaas, providing an enriching experience for all attendees. Personally, listening to Prof. José Torero was an amazing and unique experience, his words resonated with my first semester experiences at the University of Edinburgh.

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Beside this, we had a wonderful opportunity to visit to visit the R&D facilities of Knauf Insulation (KI) in Škofja Loka, Slovenia. The visit was immensely beneficial for us, throughout the full-day visit, we explored various departments, starting with the acoustic laboratory to understand the significance of sound absorption, sound insulation, and how these concepts influence the decision-making about insulation products. Moreover, we delved into the materials laboratory to learn about KI’s materials, products, and testing processes.

Amidst our busy schedules, we also found time for leisure, organizing an Intern Special BBQ in Logatec. Additionally, we cherished daily lunches together, often enjoying Ulises’ special Panini in the dining area. These tiny moments added a delightful dimension to our internship experience. Reflecting on those summer days, our usual mode of transportation to Logatec from Ljubljana involved carpooling, but occasionally, we opted for train rides to accommodate our work schedules. Let me tell you, the train journey was nothing short of spectacular, offering breathtaking views that left a lasting impression.

Within our internship commitments, we were fortunate to have breaks to explore Slovenia’s treasures. We visited so many places in Slovenia, trust me you won’t believe how much Slovenia has to offer unless you go there. Ljubljana, the heart of Slovenia, was easily navigable via public transport, with discounted weekend bus fares and organized trips by IAESTE adding to the adventure. Also, I had the opportunity to visit neighboring countries like Croatia, Hungary, and Italy, each offering its own unique charm.

The seamless communication and the sheer beauty of Slovenia left me awestruck. Undoubtedly, choosing to intern at FRISSBE was the best decision I made. I am immensely grateful to Grunde Jomaas and Amaya Oscar for entrusting me with this opportunity and for their unwavering guidance. I also extend my gratitude to Frederick Knez, Andrea Lucherini, Ulises Rojas Alva, and the entire ZAG team for their support throughout the summer.

UPC – A decisive turning point for IMFSE ?

~ Anis Jayaram ~ 1 Comment

Hello There !!!

Pursuing a master’s degree, I was in a bit of a dilemma: should I join TAMU for process safety? NTNU for RAMS? or IMFSE for fire engineering?. Even though I was working in operational safety and fire protection in the oil industry, my knowledge about fire science was very rudimentary, due to the fact that the fire engineering subjects in my undergrad degree were basically a cookbook curriculum focused on the job market. I already had mixed feelings when I decided to go ahead with IMFSE, as I felt that I was straying away from an industry that i enjoyed working in.

There was a significant shift at some point. In March 2022, I was notified by IMFSE via email about a modification in the mobility arrangement. It was conveyed that UoE will no longer provide any courses during the third semester and that UPC has become a full-time partner university in the IMFSE consortium. Upon reviewing the curriculum, I was delighted to discover the inclusion of a course specifically focused on risk and safety within the chemical industry, known as RSCI.  While one subject alone cannot replace a comprehensive master’s programme in process safety, I am pleased that I will not be abandoning my previous industry. Instead, it will be incorporated as a subject within the IMFSE programme.

“Barcelona is a vibrant and culturally rich city in Spain, renowned for its unique architecture, Mediterranean beaches, and a lively arts and culinary scene.” 

This is a typical textbook description of this happening city. You also realise that things are a bit different from the previous cities that you lived in when orientation week activities get kicked off by an anti-pickpocket lecture or demo, so guys, be wary about your surroundings.

Sometimes you may be unlucky, but for me, it has been more than 5 months since I started living in Barcelona, and except for my heart, nothing of value has been stolen from me yet. (although the clumsy me lost three water bottles; ignore that for now.)

I am not planning to write another IMFSE Practical Guide, but to share some experiences that I thought might be useful for you all. Since we were the first bunch to start semester 3 at UPC and there were no seniors to use as crutches, I believe this would be a good place to share the experience and address your questions. 

Sooooo, why did I choose UPC? 

It was not just RSCI but the other core subjects that UPC offered. These were pretty hot topics, which instilled interest in a budding fire engineer, but you are struck with the realisation that there are a handful of institutions that will teach these courses, and we all grabbed the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon  ‘to hear something straight from the horse’s mouth’. 

In the first week, we were introduced to the subjects and why UPC being part of IMFSE is a game changer. It’s been more than 10 years since the inception of IMFSE, and for the first time, we have dedicated courses in wildfires!!

It’s not surprising that this is the need of the hour, as you tend to notice how frequent the outbreak of wildfires is. A combination of climate change, changes in rainfall and wind patterns, extended periods of drought, the ever-growing WUI, disruptions in the natural fire cycle, and improper forest management have paved the way to the current crisis. As a fire engineer, it’s an amazing opportunity to learn about and understand this problem and apply engineering practices to mitigate it.

In addition to the core subjects related to wildland fire i.e Wildland fire behavior and modeling, Risk and vulnerability at WUI. You have the option to pick an elective out of these three (1-3) and the other courses are (4-5)

  1. Data analysis and pattern recognition
  2. Computer vision
  3. Technology innovation
  4. Risk and safety in the chemical industry.
  5. Advanced fire safety engineering

UPC has some moderate contact hours; you will spend an average of 20 hours a week on campus (still less than Ghent). The semester has a midterm exam around the end of October. Initially, we felt that this was going to be trouble, but I guess this favoured us all because we are able to know where we stand in following the course, and the final grades are dependent on the midterms, final exam, and coursework (assignments and projects). So if we play our cards right, we will have a certain degree of relief while appearing for the final exam. Most of the midterm exams here are MCQs, except for the electives (some electives don’t have an exam), whereas the final exams were a mix of MCQs as well as a written part.

Classes are quite fun in UPC; as far as IMFSE is concerned, I thoroughly enjoyed the FSFD lectures in Edinburgh, and this place also had the same vibe. Classes from Professor Elsa are particularly engaging and interactive; I would say classes are bit gamified where we have mini puzzle/card games that she brings to the class, and some of these games are integral to our assignments related to risk and vulnerability at the WUI. I am going to pause here and not spoil too much about it.  The risk and safety in the chemical industry have some tasks where we work together with the local students, which promotes integration and improves your team-building skills. UPC has a wonderful team with Dr. Eulalia, Dr. Elsa, Dr. Alba, Dr. Ronan, Dr. Pascale, and Dr. Simona. Pascale is an IMFSE alumni and a former IMFSE blogger. They have expertise in Wildland fire behaviour and modelling , Risk and vulnerability in the WUI, Risk Analysis, consequence modelling , Fire brand transportation and modelling , GIS , Smoke control and many more (just briefly mentioning the parts that are relevant to us)

Field visits: L – WUI in Barcelona , R – River park community (Pont de Vilomara)

All the classes are complimented by field visits, where we had a total of 3 field parts of the curriculum during the semester.  The first visit was to the WUIs in Barcelona to understand the intricacies of this subject. Then we had a visit to one of the communities ravaged by a recent wildland fire (Pont de Vilomara) and a visit to Applus laboratories (picture it as DBI here in Barcelona—it’s a fire testing and research laboratory). We also had a tour of the campus firefighting facilities and the hydrogen lab at UPC. 

We also had a fun leisure trip to Costa Brava near the end of the semester, which was a fun day trip complete with a scrumptious lunch.

Trip to Costa Brava

My elective here was Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition (DAPR), which was a thoroughly enjoyable course because we got exposed to the trending subject of AI/ML, and by the end of the course, we were able to build and train our own neural network and become familiar with multiple ML algorithms. I am a bit biassed in saying this, but this is a very good elective, and I recommend everyone pick it because you learn some skills that are invaluable to an engineer who is going to save your skin somewhere in the future. 

More reasons to choose it may be found in my previous post: 

Speak Parseltongue?

Computer vision is also recommended if you are already familiar with DAPR, but definitely read about the course contents before picking it. I had taken the opinion of many professors before choosing the elective and essentially weighted the pros and cons.

Should I go to UPC?

While I was writing this blog, I received a bunch of questions about UPC. A popular question was, “Should I go to UPC if I am not interested in Wildfires ? “ In the beginning of the post, I stated my motivation to choose UPC. In the end, it all boils down to individual preference. For me, I saw this as an opportunity to learn about something that I was equally interested in yet clueless about. So laying everything out objectively, I would say if you are interested in wildland fires and their interaction at the urban interface, just pack your stuff and head to Barcelona and don’t look back.

But you wouldn’t miss out on a lot when you compare it with Ghent. This may or may not be a pro because here at UPC we have the subject of Advanced Safety and Fire Engineering. But Ghent has three dedicated courses on the same subject, whereas here at UPC its toned down to one course. We would be touching on key aspects of fire safety engineering when compared to Ghent, but we may lack the depth of coverage. The course still has a PBD project that carries a significant weight to the total marks.  Traditionally, this has been the case in the third semester; before UPC, it was UoE, where the course work was predominantly focused on structural fire engineering (FEA, etc.) and fire science. So I believe a lot of thought must be put into making a choice about choosing a college for the third semester. My goal was to diversify my programme and knowledge so that I could fit into a system if the need arose, plus wildland fires is definitely a pressing issue in our field and hearing it from the pioneers in the field is a bonus (I mean, this is generally case in any partner university of IMFSE)

The RSCI course offers a thorough and extensive exploration of consequence modelling and analysis. It would greatly enhance your understanding of risk, particularly in conjunction with the risk course you will be taking in Lund during semester 3.

Furthermore, you will never be deprived of any opportunities or experiences in the IMFSE programme. As an example, I have close acquaintances in both the IMFSE programme and the MFSE programme.  During my Christmas break, we used to discuss what we all learned by sharing references and key concepts and the understanding that we gained in our respective semesters. If this is a concern, I guess your friends have your back!! 

The only worthwhile minute of the abomination called: The Rise of Skywalker

See you all at Lund during the IMFSE day!!!

Regards,
Obi-Wan-Kenobi

A Remarkable Tradition: Reflecting on the 8th IMFSE Fire Safety Engineering Day

~ Maria Binte Mannan ~ 2 Comments

The IMFSE Fire Safety Engineering Day is a cherished tradition where students, alumni, instructors, and sponsors come together to share their valuable experiences. In 2021, the 7th IMFSE FSE Day adapted to the challenges posed by Covid-19, taking the form of an enriching online technical seminar. The subsequent year witnessed a dual celebration—marking both the IMFSE’s illustrious 10-year milestone and a momentous graduation ceremony in Ghent. Last year, the tradition continued to thrive as the 8th IMFSE Fire Safety Engineering Day unfolded in the captivating city of Barcelona, Spain. This occasion became even more special as Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) hosted the event as a full-time partner.

The core theme of the day revolved around the ‘Fire Safety Challenges of New Energy Vectors’. The event provided an exciting platform to attend engaging discussions and talks on tackling fire safety concerns in high-risk industries and other situations within the energy transition framework. Additionally, we had the pleasure of meeting around 50 fellow IMFSE students, numerous IMFSE educators from partner institutions (The University of Edinburgh, Lund University, Ghent University, UPC), and representatives from contributing companies like Basler & Hofmann, DBI, ETEX (Promat), Hydrock, Jensen Hughes, Kingspan, NFPA, OFR Consultants, Semper, and Sodeca.

Preparations from our side, for this remarkable day began during our initial semester in Ghent and Edinburgh. We planned ahead and booked flights from Copenhagen. The journey to the event was unexpectedly enjoyable, with much of our cohort on the same flight, giving it the feel of an “IMFSE special flight”. Following the engaging event, we had the chance to explore the vibrant city of Barcelona and savor its cuisine. The transition from the Scandinavian climate to the sunny beach ambiance of Barcelona provided a perfect conclusion to our Easter break.

Before joining the IMFSE program, I relied on the program’s blog to stay informed about its events. Last year, I had the immense pleasure of actively participating in one of these significant gatherings for the first time. The event held tremendous value as it allowed us to gain knowledge, broaden our networks, engage with alumni, and learn from their diverse experiences. That year I had a chance to meet one of the Bangladeshi Alumni of IMFSE, though we didn’t know each other before, this program helped us to get connected. I am eagerly looking forward to the 9th IMFSE Fire Safety Engineering Day in Lund, Sweden, where we will have the opportunity to meet the incoming cohort and glean insights from our recently graduated peers about their professional journeys.

Speak Parseltongue?

~ Anis Jayaram ~ 1 Comment

Hello there!!

Merry Christmas, folks!!

Have you ever wondered how you could create beautiful graphs, analyse them, find correlations, and smooth the data? The answer to your problems is a certain species of snake, and you probably need to learn a bit of parseltongue. I am talking about Python and how learning it will save you time analysing data and make your life a bit easier.

Some outputs using a python script ( libraries used: Matplotlib and Pandas)

To be honest, I am a really inefficient programmer. I write code without optimising it; my goal is often to get the output rather than think about the optimisation( Which i am improving on) . I know that some of us are apprehensive about using Python and ditching Excel all together because we are not confident with our programming skills, but everything changed back in late 2022.

Meet ChatGPT: One area where this LLM ( Large Language Model) shines is being an AI-copilot in helping you code as well as refactoring your inefficient code. We are living in a time where the typical gatekeeping of the programming community is no longer present. With GPTs, we are able to code with a limited understanding of a programming language as long as you understand the problem and how you want to solve or approach it. Learning the syntax is no longer necessary, but desirable, and I am sure that in due course, after starting to use these tools, you will get a hold of the syntax and will be fairly confident in writing your own code without any crutches.

I understood the power of Python during my internship at DBI. I was spending time analysing data in Excel and creating templates, which could have been completed in mere minutes using the help of Python and the Pandas library

Image generated using DALL-E , Python and her libraries for data analysis

Libraries: what are they?

“Libraries are collections of pre-written code that users can include in their programmes to add functionality without having to write it from scratch. These libraries consist of modules and packages that provide methods, classes, and functions for various tasks, making Python programming more efficient and streamlined“

Imagine you want to build a LEGO castle. You could create every single piece of LEGO yourself (tedious and expensive), but what if you had boxes of LEGO pieces that were already made for different parts of the castle, like walls, towers, and gates? You just pick the pieces you need and put them together to make your castle. Libraries are essentially like pre-made LEGO pieces; you use them for specific tasks like plotting graphs, finding correlations, and analysing data.

Some must-have libraries are:

  • NumPy – https://numpy.org/ (A fundamental package for numerical computing in Python. It provides support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices, along with a vast collection of high-level mathematical functions to operate on these arrays. Widely used in scientific computing, it is essential for performing complex mathematical operations and statistical analysis )
  • SciPy –https://scipy.org/ (Built on NumPy, SciPy is a library used for scientific and technical computing. It extends NumPy’s capabilities by adding useful features like modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, special functions, FFT, signal and image processing, ODE solvers, and other tasks relevant in science and engineering.
  • Pandas – https://pandas.pydata.org/ (A powerful data manipulation and analysis tool, offering data structures like DataFrame and Series for handling and analyzing structured data. It excels in tasks such as data cleaning, transformation, and aggregation, making it indispensable in data science workflows. )
  • Matplotlib – https://matplotlib.org/ ( A plotting library for creating static, interactive, and animated visualizations in Python. It’s the go-to tool for plotting graphs and charts, essential for data visualization and the graphical representation of data)
  • Seaborn – https://seaborn.pydata.org/ (A library that works on top of Matplotlib. Seaborn is particularly known for making beautiful and informative statistical graphics in Python. It provides a high-level interface for drawing attractive and informative statistical plots. Seaborn simplifies the process of creating complex visualizations like heat maps, time series, and violin plots.)
  • scikit-learn – https://scikit-learn.org/stable/ ( libraries for machine learning in Python. It provides a range of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms via a consistent interface. These include regression, classification, clustering, model selection, preprocessing, and dimensionality reduction. The library is built upon NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib)

This may seem overwhelming, but trust me,once past the initial apprehension, it is very simple and intuitive to use. I would suggest following sources to get started with:

Regarding IDE (integrated development environment ) , My favourites are Spyder and Jupyter- There are hundereds of IDEs out there , this is more like a personal choice.

Some examples

Baby steps

This is a small script to plot graphs (using Spyder IDE) , I just need to specify the column names and read the CSV output from the FDS simulation, There is an even better and more efficient way to plot using iLOC and a for loop but for the sake of interpretability, I am uploading this code

The output looks like:

Some fun with graphs

The following image below is a piece of code written on Spyder IDE to animate a graph, and since its written in Python, the readability and interpretability are pretty high. Someone with a basic understanding of programming will be able to understand the code, and if you are clueless, just paste the code in ChatGPT and ask her to explain it to you. Here, iLOC and a for loop are used to read the data, plot it, and animate it—all with 38 lines of code.

Output :

Some advanced use cases (some boring stuff):

A.I. in Fire

Some fun playing around this project https://www.hackster.io/stefanblattmann/real-time-smoke-detection-with-ai-based-sensor-fusion-1086e6

The collection of training data is performed with the help of IOT devices since the goal is to develop an AI-based smoke detector device. Many different environments and fire sources have to be sampled to ensure a good dataset for training. A short list of different scenarios which are captured:

  • Normal indoor
  • Normal outdoor
  • Indoor wood fire, firefighter training area
  • Indoor gas fire, firefighter training area
  • Outdoor wood, coal, and gas grill
  • Outdoor high humidity
  • etc.

The dataset is nearly 60,000 rows long. The sample rate is 1 Hz for all sensors. To keep track of the data, a UTC timestamp is added to every sensor reading. we basically analyse what attributes contribute to a fire alarm There are 13 key attributes that trigger an alarm so we first try to understand how each parameter correlates with each other, how sensitive each are, and how they affect the state of the detector

Good luck using Excel to do this work!

The heatmap below shows correlations between the attributes.

Some Classification Algorithms applied on the database

Everyone loves Artificial Neural Networks (training an ANN on this dataset)

Output :

Analysing the result

  • The left column (with labels “0” and “1” in the rows) shows the actual true labels from the data. Here, “0” means that there was no fire alarm, and “1” means that there was a fire alarm.
  • The top row (with labels “0” and “1” in the columns) shows the predicted labels by the model. Again, “0” stands for no fire alarm predicted, and “1” stands for a fire alarm predicted.
  • The cell with “4325” represents the number of times the model correctly predicted that there was no fire alarm (true negative).
  • The cell with “11142” represents the number of times the model correctly predicted that there was a fire alarm (true positive).
  • The cell with “63” shows the number of times the model incorrectly predicted that there was no fire alarm when there was one (false negative).
  • The cell with “128” shows the number of times the model incorrectly predicted that there was a fire alarm when there wasn’t one (false positive).

Conclusion

I know I have not given a step-by-step guide on how to set everything up; this was not the intention, but my idea was to introduce the vast amount of resources out there just waiting to be used. I had a vague idea of these before IMFSE but never actually used them because:

“You never actually use these until and unless you need to use them”—wise words from a fellow IMFSE student, but you don’t have to approach it likewise, because once you start to play with these tools, you will understand that it’s easy to write a couple of lines of code and produce amazing graphs and enable yourself to perform cleaner analysis with these libraries. First-year IMFSE students who start their second semester at Lund would find these particularly interesting because we have weekly FDS assignments, and it would be ideal to start practicing and applying this. It may be a bit tedious to write the initial code but after that, you will realise that you need to put incrementally minimal effort and tweak your code bare minimum for every subsequent use.

Addressing the Elephant in the room – ChatGPT and other LLMs

This is something that I want to stress and is a bit worrysome , Do not use ChatGPT to complete your assignments/write exams (people have tried that and have got caught ) there is a limit to how you can effectively use these tools to aid your workflow. These LLMs have their strenghts and weakness and understanding it is paramount in effectively using them. They will never replace (atleast now) the critical thinking process that we put in drawing conclusions to a problem that we solve. The usage of ChatGPT that I mentioned here is merely for aiding you to code and refactor it and due diligance must be practised for further usage in the academia, for more details you can read the following articles

Also you can read this neat post by Professor Wojciech Węgrzyński ( this neatly sums up what I intent to say ) https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7044612939760189440/

I am not an expert programmer , I just know where to look for resources and get the work done, but feel free to get in touch with me ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/anisjayaram/ ) or drop a comment if you are particularly interested in anything mentioned in the blog so that I could potentially write a detailed post to address them.

Special credits to my group mates Matheus Pontes Lima (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mp97/) and Vanessa Valdeabella (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessavaldeabella/) – the graphs and figures are from some of our work here at UPC.

Regards,

Obi-Wan-Kenobi

A Student Perspective on Batteries Fire Safety

~ Mahmoud Abdelaziz ~ 1 Comment

We were lucky enough to be able to hear Dr. Ulises Rojas-Alva speak at a seminar hosted by FSE, Ugent today about the fire safety of batteries and battery systems. Dr. Ulises started the lecture by giving us a brief about his background and some of the amazing work being done by the team of the Department for Fire-Safe Sustainable Built Environment. Besides that, he took us to look into the batteries’ fire safety from different angles and in detail.

Let us investigate it together!

He briefed us about the significance of the batteries and how essential they are to our day-to-day lives. In fact, I believe that the invention of rechargeable batteries and the subsequent widespread adoption of this technology had, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most significant impacts on societies at any point in human history. Particularly, lithium-ion batteries made it feasible for portable technology to be developed, such as cell phones, laptops, and electric cars.

It’s possible for a Li-ion battery to catch fire for a variety of reasons, including being overcharged, experiencing thermal runaway, or being physically damaged. In addition, lithium-ion batteries can pose a threat to public safety if they are not designed and built correctly. This is due to the fact that lithium-ion cells contain flammable electrolytes, which, if the cells are damaged or not charged correctly, can result in explosions and fires. For example, fire departments in the UK recorded a total of 239 fires that were caused by electric vehicles (EVs) between July 2022 and June 2023.

The battery market is expanding rapidly, and I will borrow a phrase from Dr. Ulises: “By time, batteries will be an integral part of our lives.” However, we lack sufficient data and resources to address and solve the fire and explosion hazards posed by batteries; either the test apparatuses are inadequate to measure the relevant data or there is insufficient information on the subject.

That got me thinking: What will we do with such a topic that is new to the entire world? And what about the place I came from, where we still fight for the existing codes and standards to be applied? When will we have enough regulatory standards to deal with it?

Still, a lot to do with the batteries’ fire safety. I hope to be part of it, do you?

Fires, Dreams, and Learning: My IMFSE Journey

~ Maria Binte Mannan ~ 6 Comments

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “How did I get here? What led me to this moment?” I’ve had several of these introspective moments, especially when I embarked on my master’s degree journey in IMFSE. It all began when a girl from a small country like Bangladesh left her home to chase her dreams. I vividly remember every step of that journey, as it marked my first time traveling abroad and taking on the responsibility of managing everything on my own. IMFSE, for me, isn’t just a master’s program; it’s a life-changing experience filled with struggles, lessons, and growth.

I hail from a country where using emergency doors during emergencies can be challenging, fire hydrants sometimes lack water connections, and many people are unsure about what to do in a fire emergency. Transitioning from this context to a dedicated fire safety-related master’s program was a significant challenge. My background was in Building Engineering and Construction Management, where I learned about building construction but had little exposure to building safety during fire emergencies.

Before leaving my homeland, I was filled with excitement. I couldn’t help but daydream about the beauty of Scotland and the prestigious University of Edinburgh. However, reality hit me hard in the first week of IMFSE classes. Understanding what the professors were saying was a struggle and my two-week delay due to a visa issue added to the difficulties. At times, I questioned if I had made the right decision, wondering if this program was truly suited for me. It was during these uncertain times that my friend Amina offered me a reassuring reminder, “You are here just because you deserve to be here.” Her simple yet profound support acted as a powerful tonic. I persevered and soon came to the realization that choosing this path was indeed the best decision of my life.

The initial weeks were challenging as I found myself studying alongside peers who already possessed extensive knowledge of fire safety engineering. Some had their own companies, and others had substantial work experience. I compared myself to them and worried that I might not measure up. However, I reminded myself that I came here to learn, and my knowledge would grow significantly over some time. Now, just a year later, I can confidently say that I know far more than I did before. One thing that became clear is that this program is suitable for individuals from various backgrounds. We had students from electrical, mechanical, chemical, safety, civil engineering, and architecture backgrounds. Some were fresh graduates, while others had years of experience. When we started, we all had specific strengths and weaknesses, but now, we stand on equal ground, having gained a wealth of knowledge from this program.

Over the past year, I’ve undergone a profound transformation. The two semesters I spent at the University of Edinburgh and Lund University, guided by some inspiring professors, have been nothing short of amazing. This opportunity, I must say, has allowed me to delve into self-discovery. Today, I find myself a more confident, enthusiastic, and independent individual than I was just one year ago. During the summer break, when I had the chance to return to my home country, I made a sensible decision to explore the field of fire safety and gain professional experience through an internship at FRISSBE. This journey was both enjoyable and enlightening, and I look forward to sharing more about my summer adventures soon.

IMFSE has been instrumental in helping me understand the critical importance of fire engineering. Prior to this program, fire was merely a physical phenomenon extinguished with water. Now, I comprehend that a small candle flame can escalate into a massive fire. Whenever I see a building, I instinctively consider its evacuation plan and ponder how people behave in a fire. These were not common thoughts for me before, but now I recognize their significance.

In essence, this exceptional program is accessible to all backgrounds, and it unravels the mysteries of fire engineering visually. The curriculum, combining theory and practical components, is designed in such a way that every student can relate it to their background. It doesn’t change your background; instead, it enriches your career. A year into the program, I noticed a significant shift in my perspective. I began to approach building construction with a heightened focus on fire safety and its intricacies.

I am deeply grateful to everyone who supported me on this journey.

Thank You 😊

Every year, this program produces remarkable fire engineers while also welcoming a new batch of hopeful students. If you're reading this and feel that you could be the next person to benefit from this fantastic program and add value to your engineering career, consider applying for the IMFSE 2024 cohort. 🔥 Applications for the IMFSE 2024 cohort are now open! 🔥 CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE 🔥

Fateful Nights

~ Sameed Khan ~ Leave a comment

People often say it only takes one night for luck to change around, for life to take a fateful turn to open streams to set it all in motion. I had been searching for that night till the night occurred. Nights for me have always been tricky, the moment I hit my head on the pillow, begins the train of thoughts circling down to every station it possibly can until I jump out of bed and feed the monster something of its desire. So, that night, I was embarking on another daring adventure of scouring my phone to decide what to eat to calm the devil down.

Suddenly, a notification popped up, and all I could focus on was IMFSE written in all caps.

I remember when I first decided to prepare for a master’s programme. The thought of leaving my first job to further my skills in my craft was a daunting decision to take. I figured I could always learn on the go by using challenges at my job to upskill myself. The pay was a much nicer add-on as well. However, throughout this time, there was a strong sense of delving deep into the ideas and concepts of fire engineering. I wanted to truly understand the beautiful intricacies and nuances that go into the decision-making process of creating a safe place for humans, not merely the facade of things, one sees while walking past those buildings.

So, I began to explore the opportunities out in the world that would intertwine my love of engineering and travel. As fate would have it, I landed on IMFSE’s website. The thought that I could go on to study in top universities, exploring the culture and warmth of different countries, felt unreal. It was something of a jest, one says, after watching a movie stuffed with romances of travel and here it was, an opportunity for me to get to experience it all, that too with a full scholarship, must only be a dream!

With my decision to apply came a voyage of documentation. Sometimes, I think that despite all the globalization and technological advances, humans have made paperwork more complex. The chain of emails going back and forth just to obtain all the necessary documents has certainly honed my email writing skills. Perseverance was the key throughout this process, and I persisted. I must give credit to IMFSE and Ghent University; filling out the application was a breeze. 

Then I got the email for the interview process and things became very real, very fast. I dug out the notes from my bachelor’s while basking in the rays of anxiety and self-doubt to brush up on my fundamental understandings and theories. I marked my calendar with the fateful day to keep the urgency ever-present and to remember to appear, sharp as a tack, on the interview day. On D-day, I prepared myself a hearty breakfast while checking up on the setup for a smooth process. During the interview, I had an enjoyable conversation with Prof. Eulalia Planas on the facets of fire, my undergraduate milestones, and the wisdom of living away from home. She put me at ease instantly with a smile and a pleasantly polite attitude. Once I completed the process, began the treacherous waiting. I pushed myself to get busy with the tasks and responsibilities at hand, to not overthink on nights and to be happy that, come what may, it was a journey worth undertaking. 

And on one of those nights, came the mail of selection. I mustered up the courage and opened it to find that I had received the full Erasmus+ scholarship to attend IMFSE in the batch of 2023-2025. I instantly did what anyone would do, I checked my email on all the devices it was logged and inspected it for all its worth until my brain aligned with my heart to believe it was all legitimate. I called up my family with soaring happiness to tell them of the news, woke up my flat mates and celebrated with pizzas all night. 

When the adrenaline of selection settled down, came a fear of the unknown. The process of visa and housing to live at a place I have seen till now only on screens. Once again, I’m writing this at night, reminiscing on it all and spending time with my loved ones. While I’m still having battles with fear and overthinking but, if anything, I have learned this year that more often than not, the fateful nights always have the backing of countless days filled with determination and discipline to have them in the first place.

Now since I’m here, I look forward to meet the different humans of Fire Safety Engineering to collect ideas, and discussions and share the memories and fears for my most important design, LIFE.

Thank you, Sameed

Apprehensions, weird buildings, and an appreciation.

~ Anis Jayaram ~ Leave a comment

Hello there!

This is Obi-Wan, and this is my first blog. So here goes nothing.

Before starting my IMFSE journey, I was a typical “Sarkari Babu”—this is a colloquial term used to describe officials working for the government. I was basically responsible for managing the safety of a sour gas process complex located in the middle of the Arabian Sea, and it was quite a transition for me, who was familiar with the process industry, into the built environment. I carried a lot of apprehension as I started my semester in Edinburgh and it is often true that we fear the unknown

“Dr. Angus I don’t have a structural engineering background. How hard is this course going to be for me?”

This was the first question that I asked Dr. Angus Law after he introduced his course “Structural Design for Fire”, having worked the last 5 years in operational safety and fire protection, plus my undergraduate degree in safety and fire engineering had no major structural subjects in the curriculum. My apprehension grew even more when I realised IMFSE was sharing this course with SAFE (structural and fire safety engineering) and third-semester IMFSE students. At this point, I started to freak out, realising that most of these students have structural engineering backgrounds and some even have advanced structural engineering degrees.

Dr. Law basically told me that it wouldn’t be a cakewalk for me, but at the same time, he stressed that the course is designed not to test our structural engineering skills, and he was absolutely right because right after the exam results were declared and we received the exam statistics, I realised that I was in the extreme right corner of the bell curve, so this is for the Semester 1 guys- don’t be alarmed or tensed if a particular subject is not something that is familiar to you; you are all in good hands because, just remember what Dumbledore said: “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it,” and its often true that

“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.“

The subjects at Edinburgh instigated a newfound interest in me, appreciating those “weird buildings”. For a larger period of my life, I was ignorant about architecture and often wondered about the troubles that designers have gone through to produce something that looks beautiful but serves no practical purpose (no disrespect). A special friend of mine helped me change my perspective by teaching me to value even the most abstract of designs, and as my time in IMFSE went on, I grew fascinated by the unique engineering challenges that these designs pose as well as the fact that fire protection challenges in the build environment can be exciting as architects become more creative, whereas this was typically not the case in the process industry. Now my brain is slowly wired to think stuff like, “Oh, how would the fire behave travelling along this structure?” or “Making guestimates on evacuation time?” and, of course, looking for affordances and emergency exits every time I enter a building.

Weirdly beautiful

A beautifully weird or is it weirdly beautiful building?

The first time I heard about this building was during the introductory lectures on structural design for fire (pardon my ignorance because I was used to the process industry). This building was also highlighted in the SDF course module “Keeping it Cool.”, At that moment, I was not able to appreciate the issue with this building since I was not very familiar with it or, in general, the built environment. As the course progressed, the fire dynamics lectures by Dr. Ricky Carvel introduced us to the legend Dr. Margaret Law, her research, and her contributions in designing this structure.

The mobility of the IMFSE programme enabled me to roam around Europe for a bit (of course the programme comes first before the excursions 🙃). So while backpacking through Italy during the Easter break, Farith Hinojosa Coca (my brother from another mother and fellow IMFSE enjoyer :v ) and I ended up in Paris on our way back to Lund. Hence, we decided to take a look at this structure; seeing her in all its glory really shifts the perspective, especially going back to the 1970s, when the engineers worked with a fraction of the resources that we have at our disposal now.

We were amazed by the facade of this building, and this is something that every fire engineer needs to see. This structure is none other than the Pompidou Building in Paris, which is considered to be an architectural masterpiece, and its innovative design and incorporation of advanced fire protection systems have helped to set a new standard for building safety and fire protection engineering. I am not going to spoil everything for you, but by the end of the semester, you guys will appreciate this structure and understand the challenges of having a facade as a load-bearing member. All hail, Margaret Law!

Not to be a killjoy, I am dropping a link here. Keep reading and appreciate the seminal works of one of the most prominent pioneers in our field

https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/books/section/engineering-fire-safety-some-selected-papers-from-margaret-law

The IMFSE programme is truly remarkable because it accounts for people from different backgrounds; we all started with different perceptions, different skill sets, and different outlooks. After year 1, I can confidently say that we are all on the same page when it comes to fire.

I am grateful to be part of this journey.

Regards,

General Kenobi

To wrap it all up.

~ Gizelle Danine Jamero ~ 1 Comment

“It’s funny how day by day, nothing changes. But when you look back, everything is different” – one of your proverbial Pinterest quotes that fittingly describes the last 1.5 years.

What has changed over the last 3 semesters? Certainly, my hair has grown longer. I have been through fluctuating stages of weight gain and loss, mostly weight gain. Dark circles under my eyes, as if to mark a personal Red Badge of Courage, have been growing prominently. I remain myself but I have learned a lot, a lot is an understatement! It’s oddly satisfying how much I have developed with proper education, the right support system, and a highly stimulating and challenging environment. I am proud of my progress in the journey to be a fire safety engineer.

So, to wrap it all up I decided to do a fun summary of the things I’ve learned over the past semesters by combining a personal hobby of mine, film critiquing, with fire safety concepts! In the spirit of being a fire safety engineer, I discuss some misconceptions that I have observed about fire and fire safety in films and TV shows.

  • Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.. or not?

Brooklyn 99 is certainly a fun cop-themed television show and I find the series highly repeatable. In one episode, we see the main character Jake Peralta traversing a series of activated carbon dioxide fire extinguishers (based on the nozzle heads in the scene).

Carbon Dioxide is effective to use on class A, B, and C fires, but be aware that EN ISO and NFPA have slightly different class descriptions. Though not as common as the foam extinguisher, CO2 extinguishers are efficient for fires closer to the floor since CO2 is heavier than air. It would effectively go down and penetrate hard-to-reach corners, areas not normally reached by water. However, great care must be taken in the application of CO2 extinguishers. For one, freeze burns are a concern. According to our Active Fire Protection I class, never apply carbon dioxide to bare skin because it can cause injury, like when handling dry ice!

And while another character emerges as the winner, we can hear Jake screaming “it burns!” in the background but somehow remains unscathed in the next scene. In reality, Jake should be immediately treated for freeze burns with the proper medical procedure.

  • Magic sprinklers

Picture this – the movie or TV protagonist finds himself or herself in a rut. How to get out of the situation? Pull or trigger the manual push button alarm and voila! everyone is drenched by the sprinklers; they make their escape.

In reality, manual push button alarms are their namesakes – alarms. They serve the purpose of warning occupants and the fire service through sound or announcement systems. Sprinklers are not automatically activated by the warning system – although they are designed in conjunction with alarm systems. A closer investigation reveals that indicated (high) temperature is needed to damage the sprinkler’s glass bulb to release water.

Another fallacy: when one sprinkler head goes off, the rest are activated. In true Hollywood spirit, this is dramatic. In true fire engineering spirit, this does not occur unless the set-up is for a deluge system. Sprinkler systems are designed so that the sprinkler heads directly near the seat of fire are damaged by high temperatures and thus discharge water.

  • Through the fire

Orphan has been one of those Hollywood mind-bending movies that garnered a solid fan base, following Isabelle Fuhrman’s convincing portrayal of the titular character Esther. Esther, through her weapon of choice: Arson, is in a burning house in the final minutes of the movie. Based on the scene, the rooms have reached flashover. Flashover is described as the stage in the fire development curve wherein all possible combustible materials have started to ignite at almost the same instant. Flashover is a very fast and dangerous phenomenon, generating an incident heat flux of around 20kW/m2 at floor level. For reference, we feel around ~1kW/m2 heat flux from the sun on a normal sunny day. At flashover, it is a miracle that Esther walks casually past such highly untenable conditions.

Thick smoke is also often conveniently left out of fire scenes in movies because let’s face it, visibility will be very poor and that wouldn’t make for a good movie.

  • Panic is not a joke, Dwight! Millions of families suffer every year! (The Office joke)

For The Office fans, the Fire Drill episode is arguably one of the funniest episodes in the entire show. We see Dwight Schrute simulating a “fire” in the office to test if The Office cast is prepared for a real fire incident. Mayhem ensues as we see the characters scrambling here and there to evacuate the premises after Dwight has blocked the possible exits. To many people, this scene is a typical emergency incident, panic is the prevailing conduct.

Panic is commonly described as some sort of irrational behavior from behavior literature such as ‘Panic’ and Human Behaviour in Fire by Rita Fahy. However, according to our Human Behavior in Fire course, studies show, and experts agree, that panic is extremely rare.

Fire safety engineers argue that the concept of panic is deemed a myth and the media often uses the term to sensationalize events. Because of such misconceptions, the responsibility is placed on the victims. According to Sime, the fire victims serve as “scapegoats” and the actual people responsible are not held accountable.  

There are cases, such as in the events of Sep. 11, 2001, where evacuees are reported to act in an altruistic manner. Contrary to panicking, people in fire incidents are helpful, courageous, and cooperative and behave in a rational behavior. Quoting Rita Fahy’s lecture slides,

“the following are the proper expectations that we should have of people in fire incidents. People are:

• Intelligent, can think for themselves

• Able to make decisions on information available and past experience

• Able to make decisions to preserve themselves and loved ones

• Helpful, courageous, cooperative

• They are not fire experts

• They lack experience”

By changing our perception of human behavior in fire, we are better equipped with knowledge to design safer and better for fire incidents.

Through introspection, I have seen my fire safety awareness grow in how I perceive fire safety not just in movies and TV but in everyday life. I certainly now coax my relatives to have their smoke detectors checked regularly. My partner as well is on the receiving end of my constant nagging to always close the fire doors in their dormitory, avoid propping the fire extinguisher on exit doors, and tell the other students to keep the exit paths free from obstruction.

IMFSE Cohort 2021 – Ghent. Thank you fam for the support!

The IMFSE experience has undoubtedly been a great journey and I wouldn’t trade it for any other educational experience in the world. Looking back, there were trying and difficult times. However, the knowledge and friendship gained are some of the things that I am truly grateful for.

I leave you with some pictures of the past semester in and around Ghent. The last semester has been very memorable, challenging most of the time, but very memorable. On to the thesis semester!

Special thanks to Joshua Teh and Deonisius Aprisa for fact-checking the values and facts in the article!

Reflections from +386: my summer internship at the FRISSBE project

~ Gizelle Danine Jamero ~ Leave a comment

˝Dober dan! What brings you to Slovenia ma’am?˝

By then, I was so disoriented and tired from all the traveling and lugging my luggage all over Europe that all I could muster was a polite smile to the taxi driver.

˝What are some of the must-eats here in Slovenia?˝, I said, steering the conversation to light small talk.

˝Burek!˝

And with that first taste of Burek from Olimpija Burek in the Ljubljana city center, I started what has been an amazing and life-changing summer in Slovenia.

When I first started my journey in the IMFSE, I had always been dead set on returning to the Oil and Gas industry because I always saw myself as someone who thrives in the chaos of corporate life. After all, I had already established good connections and a promising foundation as a Piping Material Engineer. It had never occurred to me to try the research field, nor consider taking up a Ph.D. in the future. However, my personal development goal for this year was to try things outside my comfort zone, maximize the master’s programme, and get as much knowledge as I can to be a competent fire safety engineer. Research seemed such a foreign concept but at the same time, I had been curious about it. It approaches fire safety as a mix between theory and application and it seemed like a good training ground to apply our learnings from the first year of the programme.

After contacting Grunde Jomaas and setting up the necessary paperwork, there I was in sunny Slovenia doing my summer internship for FRISSBE (Fire-safe Sustainable Built Environment). FRISSBE is a newly established department in the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG). The FRISSBE project aims to attract high-quality researchers and establish research excellence in the field of fire-safe sustainable built environments. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, the FRISSBE project intends to amplify the capacities of the state-of-the-art fire laboratory in Logatec, Slovenia and address challenges and discover the midpoint of Sustainability and Fire. (https://www.frissbe.eu/)

My main responsibility during the internship was to research and write an analytical paper on Sustainability and Fire. In this regard, I learned how to do Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and familiarized myself with the different life cycle stages of a product, system, or building through enrolling in a summer school for LCA. I also enhanced my LCA knowledge by talking to fire/environment experts such as Frederick Knez, Robert McNamee, and Margaret McNamee. Life Cycle Assessment has its own inherent challenges, but I saw myself being compelled to answer: how does one highlight sustainability without compromising fire safety? The challenging part of any LCA, aside from the data gathering, was defining ˝Sustainability˝. Because it entails that in carrying out an LCA, the limitations, scope, input and output flows, and system boundaries of what you want to assess are defined by the user and his/her capacity to carry out an LCA.

Aside from the research paper, I also conducted interviews for FRISSBE with local fire safety groups. This is indeed important because to establish a center of excellence for fire safety and sustainability in that part of Europe, we needed to understand fire safety culture in the country. I interviewed Mateja Gris, Project Manager from Slovensko združenje za požarno varstvo (SZPV) / Slovenian Fire Protection Association. We had an illuminating discussion about the fire safety landscape and the processes of certifying fire safety professionals and professional firefighters in Slovenia.  

Prof. Dr. Tomaž Hozjan from the University of Ljubljana also provided some insights from the education standpoint regarding competence building of fire engineers within their curriculum. My major takeaway from the interviews was that Slovenia has a robust system of volunteering to be a firefighter, as it is tradition for them. The massive number of volunteer firefighters, some employees of ZAG, was especially beneficial during the wildfire between Kras region, Slovenia and Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Italy last July.

My timing in Slovenia had been opportune too because I arrived during the laboratory set-up in Logatec and the institute was getting ready for the grand opening in September. To be part of the historic opening was a great experience. Prof. Jose Torero, as a keynote speaker, reminded the general audience that competence and resources are at Slovenia’s disposal, and it is up to them to maximize these. As such, Slovenia is well positioned to do meaningful research and create change.

Opening of the fire laboratory in Logatec. Attended by many prominent individuals, namely the Minister for Education in Slovenia

During my internship, I saw myself going around Slovenia to attend two significant gatherings and visit the InnoRenew Center of Excellence. The first gathering was the Fire Takes No Vacation seminar. Organized by SZPV and ZAG, the seminar brought together legislators, engineers, firefighters and fire safety professionals. The discussion highlighted that sustainability solutions are rapidly increasing while fire safety is trying to catch up to the growth. Funding for research and stringent policies to regulate these sustainable solutions are imperative. The other important conference I attended is WoodRise 2022. Held in Portorož, Slovenia, WoodRise 2022 gathered experts from around the world in the field of engineering, architecture, and timber construction. I was there on volunteer duty, but I had the privilege to talk to many experts and attend some of the lectures. I also supported Andrea Lucherini, senior researcher in FRISSBE, as he gave a talk entitled Towards a sustainable built environment based on fire-safe design with timber and wooden products. As a fire safety engineering student, I saw the importance of the event as a good avenue for the fire safety community to start vital discussions on fire safety in timber. Although timber is indeed sustainable, there are still gaps to address in terms of designing a fire-safe system with this material.

Of course, my time in Slovenia was not just all work but also, I had time to play. By play, I got to discover the wonderful Slovenian countryside and pristine beaches, and ate mouthwatering food. With Slovenia’s strategic location, I was able to travel to Florence and Zagreb as well.

My time in FRISSBE was wonderful. This statement is in part due to the experiences but is mainly due to the people in the FRISSBE and ZAG teams. They helped me to assimilate well in the world of research. At the same time, we also connected and hung out outside of the professional setting. Every individual was a stark reminder that personal development means enhancing your technical skills as an engineer while also cultivating your personal interests and hobbies. I am grateful for the lunch recipes!

Although I didn’t get to participate in experiments, it was still a good experience because I got to refresh my knowledge of the equipment and fire experiments. The internship also helped me realize that for starters, the research field has many depths and complexities. And because of those layers, I had to hone my communication, time management, and analytical skills. In doing meaningful research, one has to ask, what new knowledge am I bringing to the table? Are the analysis and data value-adding? How can I effectively bring the message across to all stakeholders?

I will miss the carpools in the morning because they were great informal mentorship sessions. I learned a lot about what makes a good dissertation and defense presentation. I learned the art of humility, when to say I needed help. Research is about being proactive and that every day is a learning process. I learned that with the onset of the EU green deal, fire safety engineers should quickly adapt to regulation changes and innovative sustainable solutions. In terms of trying to look at sustainability from a more well-rounded perspective, we must also look at societal and economical impacts. Environmental impact, in itself, also encompasses material depletion, soil and water pollution, and particulate emissions – factors that are in fact concurrent with fire safety design. Sustainability drivers have centered the focus on global warming potential but we must strongly highlight, first and foremost, fire safety and people safety. Fire engineers should assert their seat in the table of sustainability practices.

I will end this blog by saying thank you to Grunde Jomaas, Andrea Lucherini, and the rest of the FRISSBE Team for this internship opportunity and for guiding me throughout the summer. I’m now up to 50% convinced in considering a Ph.D. after the master’s programme 😉 Hvala, and I hope to work with everyone again real soon!