ACTIVITIES:

This has been a week of learning and new experiences, I'm definitely sure there are much more to come. My flight departed Charlotte at 4pm and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany 7am the following day. It was only a 20 minute bus ride to Darmstadt where I was left to find my hotel. This may sound easy as first until you consider the lack of sleep and a less than accurate GPS. I walked Darmstadt for about one hour - including the ~.75 mile walk from the bus station to the city center where my hotel is located all the while in a state of shock to see the beauty of this city.

As of this writing, I have finally earned a solid night of sleep, explored some, and have began working with our partner at the Center for Advanced Security Research (CASED). I still have much to see and do in the remaining 9 weeks I am here so, there is more to come.  

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 

Just the basics in terms of living like navigating the city and arriving at my destination in a reasonable amount of time, in other words, not getting too lost; adjusting to the pace of the city and business schedule and the like. 

ISSUES/PROBLEMS:

As a non-german speaker I have had few encounters where language was a real issue. Due largely to the fact that the majority of the population speaks enough english to get by with almost able to converse, for this, I am thankful. Unfortunately for me, I have no prolonged exposure to the German language but I am listening very carefully and quietly observing the nuances of life here so that I can be a more active participant and less of a bystander. Otherwise, things are truly wonderful.

PLANS: 

Every day I try to eat at a new place and take a different route to the university, I will continue this as each day brings new experiences. Beginning next weekend, I will begin taking day trips to various parts of Germany and possibly neighboring countries. I have recommendations for places to visit and things to do outside of Darmstadt as the city is a little sleepy at times. 

This weekend I will also begin my workout routine again as I am expecting my sleeping patterns to further stabilize, this I am definitely looking forward to.

Papers Read this week: 

Kauer, M., Pfeiffer, T., Volkamer, M., Theuerling, H., & Bruder, R. (2012). It is not about the design - it is about the content! Making warnings more efficient by communicating risks appropriately.

Bartsch, S., & Volkamer, M. (2012). Towards the Systematic Development of Contextualized Security Interventions, 1–4.

Volkamer, M., Bartsch, S., & Kauer, M. (2013). Contextualized Security Interventions in Password Transmission Scenarios, 1–10.

This is almost my last day of being in Brazil but it is really hard for me to leave here and come back to Miami. I learned a lot of things, made a lot of friends, and started interesting researches here. In last three weeks, I’ve edited one paper and finished the other one and also we start to work on the other topic on software engineering.  I’ve visited many places in Rio de Janeiro and enjoyed the food and coffee of Brazil. Brazilian people are so kind and friendly and you can start conversation with all Brazilians (if they know English). There are many places you can visit but you need to have friends here to learn how you can reach. I can say they have really good public transportation, and you can use boats, buses and subway to reach to everyplace, but the problem is the language and in most places it is only Portuguese which is a little bit annoying.

Beside the people and country, I really enjoyed working at the university, everything and everyone is friendly and also, you have free coffee. My advisor, Professor Clua and his students are really friendly and they invited me to many places. Last day, I and Professor Clua went to sailing and it was first time of me to be in the ocean, I really enjoyed the trip over the ocean and I am very thankful to him to help me to enjoy my time and doing strong research in Brazil.

I am pretty sure that I will return to Brazil to visit other places, I really enjoyed the trip and find many friends, but three weeks isn’t enough to visit everywhere and know the whole country.

This week was amazing; I’ve just visited Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf.  Christ status is on the top of the tallest mountain of Rio and it is possible to see the whole city from there. But Sugar Loaf is beautiful for another reason. It has a great view over a lake, ocean and the city and also it is a wonderful place for rock climbers. In this week I need to finish a paper before 15^th of this month, so I just attach some pictures from my trip to Rio. I will add more information by next week.

I am pretty sure this trip will be one of the most important experiences of my life.  Brazil is really beautiful country with kind and friendly people and of course delicious foods.

After arriving to Niteroi, Professor Clua picked me up from Rio airport and he brought me to my current place in Niteroi. My place is quite close to the university (5 – 10 minutes’ walk). After that we went to the place near university for lunch and it was my first delicious meal in Brazil. They do have an amazing system for their restaurants, you must go there and pick a plate and put whatever you want in the plate (rice, meat, salad and …) then you should pay according to the weight of your food.

From the day after it, I just started my work in the university but in the weekend I go to Rio by using a boat which takes 20 – 30 minutes to reach Rio. And I don’t need to say Rio is one of the most beautiful places of the world with a lot of places for visiting including lot of catholic churches and beautiful beaches. For first week I’ve just visited some art museums and beaches which you can see some pictures from it.

The other important thing about Brazil is their people; they are really kind and friendly. I’ve got many friends in last week and they helped me a lot and have shown a lot of places to me.  

Last week was like other weeks, I need to wrap up everything and finish my project here. So I spent a lot of time on lab and tried to install open virtual switch on ESX hypervisors. For this reason, I needed to install 2 hypervisors and make a physical connection among them, after that I used a windows machine to manage these hypervisors. After installing OS on VMs, I had difficulties to give internet access to these VMs but after several hours of working, I just used my laptop as a bridge and passed firewalls.

I was working really hard and I got tired. On Saturday, I just slept for 12 hours for recovery. 

What I really miss about Raleigh is the great nature of North Carolina. This place is best for camping and enjoys jungles.

In last week, I was working hard to make a final note on possible changes in VCL code to get a confirmation from people who are working on VCL at NCSU before leaving. So I spent like 10-12 hours per day on working, but the problem was the lack of coffee. I work at NCSU engineering building and unfortunately there is just one coffee store around this building which closes at 3 pm. So it was hard for me to work after 6 pm and I was so sleepy.

On Friday, I had a meeting with Doctor Vouk and Doctor Wright about my project and he told me to do some experiment on tunneling side and configure a network topology manually. So, last two days I was working on this side and tried to make a connection among these virtual machines. I hope to finish experiments by end of this week and start coding at first days of the next week.

This is almost my last day of being in Brazil but it is really hard for me to leave here and come back to Miami. I learned a lot of things, made a lot of friends, and started interesting researches here. In last three weeks, I’ve edited one paper and finished the other one and also we start to work on the other topic on software engineering.  I’ve visited many places in Rio de Janeiro and enjoyed the food and coffee of Brazil. Brazilian people are so kind and friendly and you can start conversation with all Brazilians (if they know English). There are many places you can visit but you need to have friends here to learn how you can reach. I can say they have really good public transportation, and you can use boats, buses and subway to reach to everyplace, but the problem is the language and in most places it is only Portuguese which is a little bit annoying.

Beside the people and country, I really enjoyed working at the university, everything and everyone is friendly and also, you have free coffee. My advisor, Professor Clua and his students are really friendly and they invited me to many places. Last day, I and Professor Clua went to sailing and it was first time of me to be in the ocean, I really enjoyed the trip over the ocean and I am very thankful to him to help me to enjoy my time and doing strong research in Brazil.

I am pretty sure that I will return to Brazil to visit other places, I really enjoyed the trip and find many friends, but three weeks isn’t enough to visit everywhere and know the whole country.

Week 2 – Brazil

This week was amazing; I’ve just visited Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf.  Christ status is on the top of the tallest mountain of Rio and it is possible to see the whole city from there. But Sugar Loaf is beautiful for another reason. It has a great view over a lake, ocean and the city and also it is a wonderful place for rock climbers. In this week I need to finish a paper before 15^th of this month, so I just attach some pictures from my trip to Rio. I will add more information by next week.

 [You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file]

I am pretty sure this trip will be one of the most important experiences of my life.  Brazil is really beautiful country with kind and friendly people and of course delicious foods.

After arriving to Niteroi, Professor Clua picked me up from Rio airport and he brought me to my current place in Niteroi. My place is quite close to the university (5 – 10 minutes’ walk). After that we went to the place near university for lunch and it was my first delicious meal in Brazil. They do have an amazing system for their restaurants, you must go there and pick a plate and put whatever you want in the plate (rice, meat, salad and …) then you should pay according to the weight of your food.

From the day after it, I just started my work in the university but in the weekend I go to Rio by using a boat which takes 20 – 30 minutes to reach Rio. And I don’t need to say Rio is one of the most beautiful places of the world with a lot of places for visiting including lot of catholic churches and beautiful beaches. For first week I’ve just visited some art museums and beaches which you can see some pictures from it.

The other important thing about Brazil is their people; they are really kind and friendly. I’ve got many friends in last week and they helped me a lot and have shown a lot of places to me.  

 [You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file]

Last week was like other weeks, I need to wrap up everything and finish my project here. So I spent a lot of time on lab and tried to install open virtual switch on ESX hypervisors. For this reason, I needed to install 2 hypervisors and make a physical connection among them, after that I used a windows machine to manage these hypervisors. After installing OS on VMs, I had difficulties to give internet access to these VMs but after several hours of working, I just used my laptop as a bridge and passed firewalls.

I was working really hard and I got tired. On Saturday, I just slept for 12 hours for recovery. 

What I really miss about Raleigh is the great nature of North Carolina. This place is best for camping and enjoys jungles.