"The 1st DECODE summer school was organized by our partners at Politechnico de Milano in Italy at the end of July and was about the topic “Advances in Multiscale Modelling of cardiovascular use”. We’ve spent four days at the beautiful campus at POLIMI learning about the application of computational modelling of cardiovascular systems in different fields of research and industry from international experts. Although the ESRs of the DECODE project all come from very diverse fields and have different levels of background about computational modeling, the team from POLIMI managed to put together a program, which allowed everyone to take something away. As a biotechnologist, I have some basic knowledge in computational modeling, but the lectures of the summer school showed me the broad spectrum of possibilities that computer simulation of cardiovascular systems offers and motivated me to deepen my knowledge in this field. I especially liked that two “round table” discussions were organized, where we as young scientists could ask senior people from industry and academia questions about career paths. For young people at the beginning of their career, it is very valuable to learn from experienced people and get the opportunity to ask them for advice. We were also reassured that it is perfectly normal to not know yet, where we want to go after your PhD. In addition to the lectures, a guided tour of the city and a tour of the LaBs lab were organized, where we could see in more detail, what our colleagues in POLIMI are doing. Especially this aspect is something I find most interesting about the DECODE project, that we work so closely as an interdisciplinary team and get insights into disciplines that you might not otherwise come in contact with. All in all, I really enjoyed the 1st summer school, I was able to take home many new impressions and ideas, and I feel like we grew closer together as a team."
Linnea Tscheuschner ESR13, NKUA