Bienvenue à Louvain-la-Neuve

Dear readers, apologies for the lack of updates but the last module was our busiest yet — so I’m happy to report that our hard work has paid off as everyone passed the first semester and was able to (officially) go abroad! Congratulations, everyone 🙂

As I mentioned in the first post, I am currently on exchange at the Université Catholique de Louvain where I am specializing in nanotechnologies. I had been to Louvain-la-Neuve before, since my parents live in one of the neighboring villages, but I never ventured further than the shopping mall. What I’ve discovered so far is that Louvain-la-Neuve is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and even though it’s a planned city, it’s more confusing than it looks. My colleagues and I literally spent a day going from square to square, building to building looking for where the internatinoal students office was, where we were supposed to have our class and perhaps more importantly — especially on a student budget — where we could find the best deal for a sandwich. In the end, we were pretty successful and happy to learn that Louvain-la-Neuve has a lot to offer. We were pretty excited to sign up for a subscription to the sports center — €20 for 6 months for every sports activity you could dream of! (and this may or may not include parachuting lessons).

The building and set-up of the classes here at Louvain are so ‘picturesque’. For example, there are chalkboards and the students sit at desks that are facing the board as we listen to lectures by our professor and his assistent. After years of round-table PBL discussions in Maastricht, I was actually pretty happy to sit back and listen to a professor speak about a topic while I could take notes. (although last week we had a debate which everyone seemed to really enjoy). The seminars focus on the ethical aspects around technological innovation and the material we’ve discussed so far has been very interesting. Next week our professor has planned a conference for us where we will look further into the governance of nanotechnologies. It looks like the conference is split up into three parts:

1. Nanotechnologies, State of Regulation vs. State of Science
2. On Governing: Risks and Politics of Nanotechnologies
3. Closing Session. Discussion on Nanotechnologies, from Regulations to Risks.

I’m excited about what we’re going to learn and also that we get the opportunity meet  with people that are involved in the field of science and politics and discuss various issues with them. But that’s next week. This week I’m going to spend some time at the library as I go more in-depth into my research as I look for a thesis topic. That’s all for now, time to get to work!

Grace