August - September

-

Dear diary,

this is probably going to be the longest post I have ever written.
It happened so much stuff during these past 2 months that I do not even know where to begin. 
As usual, I will try to make a summary. If you, reader, are in a rush, please skip the parts you think are boring. Otherwise, enjoy!


Back to Italy

Since my team and I planned to travel to the US in September, it made sense to get the vaccine in Italy. So I took the chance to spend some time with the family, of course. It is always very moving to go back to your hometown and see that (almost) nothing changed.
Summer in Trieste is always nice. You just need to go to the Topolini and have a Clanfa or two and you are good to go. (more info about clanfe here). So I had some really good time. Biking, getting the vaccine, awesome meals prepared by my lovely mother... the whole package. I was also able to join again the Triskell, a celtic festival that I used to go to when I was this small (ok, you can't see my hands but try to imagine me very small). Amazing! And the last live music event I went to was a veeeery long time ago that I do not even remember. Probably DragonForce in Reno. Uff, so much time.



2 weeks in Zurich, Switzerland

After spending another weekend back in Italy, I took the train to Zurich (Trieste-Venezia-Milano-Zurich) where I attended a 2 weeks of integration with the team there. What an amazing experience. The guys there have a very organized way of working. Nothing is left to randomness. The goal of the journey was to the my robot ready to be deployed in the DARPA SubT challenge (see below). And we kind of achieved the result. Of course later on we found out other N things to add/fix, but that's another story.
Zurich is amazing. Full of young people, beautiful architecture, historical places, parks and nature everywhere. My classic 'human-based' kind of city, not built based on cars but thought to be lived by humans. BUT it is veeeeery expensive. And there is no sea. Yea, the lake is ok-ish I guess. But is not the same thing (especially after living in Norway for a year). 
On the train I also met an amazing person that took me around the city like no other could have ever done.





In Zurich a lot of stuff happened:

Hagerbach Underground Mine

This mine ~1h driving from ETH, was used to test a lot of the functionalities developed during the first 10 days of integration. The test went quite well and the robot successfully completed 3 missions. You can check the results here.





Lake Zurich Bike Tour

On a Sunday, I took my fellow mate M to a bike tour (that I rented for free, and I was so close to rent a city bike mono speed). We got some rain midway, but nothing that could stop us!
I suggest this tour to anyone who's around that area. The roads are in perfect conditions and the panorama is simply amazing!





Via Alpina Hiking Route

On the last weekend, again with my friend M we took a very nice hiking route in the Alps. What an amazing trip!







Back to Trondheim - More climbing

After 15 days in Zurich, I moved back to Trondheim for another field test in Løkken Mine, our favorite field testing place around here in Norway. We did not manage to navigate the whole tunnel of the mine, but we got pretty close, which in my opinion is a very nice result. Our robots work, dude!
On the next available weekend we also went out for some brutal climbing in Storvika (check previous posts, I already mentioned this place many times). Amazing weather for Norway standards. Which means an amazing day.



3 Weeks in Louisville, Kentucky

After all the above, my team and I went to Kentucky for the DARPA SubT challenge Finals event. It has been crazy busy, we were literally working day and night. And guess what? We won! I mean, that was totally unexpected, out of nowhere. Here some more videos of the competition.
And it was so nice to have the Reno gang back together after so much time! With all of this corona situation it was kinda hard to see each other. It has been more that a year!
I even got to see my very good old Italian friend M!!! He drove 3 hours just to spend some time together!










The story could go on for hours, but I try to keep it short.

All the best guys, stay safe!

Peace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No(r)way!

-
Image
Dear humans, As promised I am going to start a new blog after my transfer in Trondheim, Norway. In case you do not remember, I have been living the past 14 months in Reno, Nevada. The change was quite brutal: switching from the one-day-of-rain-per-year, the desert, the guns, the land of freedom, the super sizes to the Norwegian culture will take some time.  Someone could ask "what the heck are you doing near the North Pole?" - I will continue my PhD in aerial robotics at the NTNU (which is Hogwarts). So far I'm shocked. I will make a clear example that reflects how the things are going here. On the 14th of November, the day I landed in Trondheim airport, on the way home I noticed a bike dropped on the ground nearby my house. Well, guess what. After 11 days the bike still there. Nobody took it. Insane right!? People here are extremely honest. They follow the rules (as an Italian, this is unbelievable), can you imagine that? I spent these past 10 days of quarantine training...
Read more

September - October

-
Image
Dear Diary, I have to admit that lately I have written a lot, but with pen and paper. I found that writing with real tools has a more profound meaning. It almost feels like your feelings are leaving the body to through the ink, ready to be deposited there forever. It's a nice sensation, at the end of the writing session you can really feel lighter sometimes. I have a hole ritual: after the morning training session, while I cook stuff for lunch, I sit down, light up a candle and some incense, deep breath and let the pen flow. No judgements, no second thoughts. As they come, they are written down. And I have been doing this kind of self-therapy for more than 3 months now, I feel like I won't stop any time soon.  I am also devouring books. Of any kind, but lately I am particularly interested in psychology and philosophy about everyday life problems. Modern-stoicism, for example, helped me a lot in this last period. Many researchers from all around the word agree on the fact that y...
Read more

November - December - January

-
Image
 Ciao Pino! Just joking Dear Diary. Did you miss me? I know you did! But I am keeping journaling every morning on the physical one so do not get offended if I do not care about that much anymore. I also wander if anyone is actually reading this. But anyhow! here's the latest from my not-so-still life, enjoy! Sevilla Following the conferences trend of the last few months, here I am, again, travelling around the world. This time I had to present a paper in Spain and, needless to say, it was an amazing trip. Escaping the dark, cold and saddest Norwegian winter time and find refugee in the warm, loud and crowded streets of Sevilla was the simply the best. But the people!? Oh, how I miss to talk to strangers! How I miss the hugs, the physical contact, the touch, the kisses on the chick when you meet someone new! I would have never thought I could say this but OMG it feels so good to have some human contact after a long time. Norwegians, if you are reading this, please take exa...
Read more