Work

I worked as an assistant at the Particle Physics Group at the University of Bergen. My supervisor was a young engineer showing me all the tasks and controlling work progress. My task was to upgrade the microscope, which is used to test silicon chips. The task was to select new components, motors, rails, connect and install everything and start the device. In addition, I dealt with debugging code in LabView or analyzing temperature stress in Ansys.

Experience

Bergen is Norway's second-largest city - nearly 200,000 inhabitants. The city is picturesquely located and beautiful, but also very extensive. Fortunately, public transport is wonderful, it has a dedicated application that finds routes and stops, and the price of € 45 for a monthly ticket is not so excessive. The accommodation was at the highest level - I was renting a room in a private Norwegian flat. I had full access to the washing machine, kitchen, TV, even to Play Station. During my stay, the owner of the flat went on vacation, so I lived alone for almost 4 weeks. The worst part of the trip were prices - especially food prices. Norway is the most expensive place to live, and average grocery products cost 4 times more than in the rest of Europe. The salary was correspondingly higher, but still, if we want to visit and get to know the country we have to add quite a lot. There were about 8 apprentices in Bergen this summer, I made special contact with the Portuguese and German. We often met and travelled together. I participated in two IAESTE weekends: Stavanger and Oslo. And I went on my own to Tromso – the city far north (400km above the arctic circle).

Discover

The whole practice was quite inspirational - I certainly met other people dealing with a similar field of study as me. It was interesting to work in a multi-person and multi-national team. I also made contact, which I hope will be useful in the future.