As I said, I’ll give a brief account on my encounters at the ICAE conference. It’s always good to write down your experience before you forget most of it, right?

The ICAE 2017 conference is a conference organized by the editorial committee of the journal Applied Energy on applications and studies related to energy issues in general. It was held at Cardiff, Wales from the 20th to 24th August, 2017. While most people in my research group attend it regularly, it was my first time to attend the conference, and it’s exciting to meet other people working in the same field. Here are some memorable remarks:

  • It seems that more and more research groups are developing big frameworks now. Framework to develop machine learning algorithms for calibrating building models of a community of buildings, framework to estimate models of energy systems to estimate energy flow for a nation, framework to use communication technologies on smart grid…… I never develop my methods into frameworks that are like stories and can be easily digested and used by others. That explains why the journal Applied Energy and their authors get so much attention! I really need to catch up on that.
  • At the same time, it’s always good to see brilliant researchers working on methods that solve technical problems and studies to contribute to the world. It’s a while since I saw excellent presentations on the development of good methodologies.
  • It’s good to know what the local researchers are doing in the energy aspect in the City Hall. Having the audience to stand up for your opening ceremony in the City Hall may not be a good idea; it got too noisy to listen to the government official up on the stage.
  • The keynote speakers are great! There are usually one or two keynote speakers who fail to address the audience appropriately, but none of them in this conference fails to impress me. It’s also good to see Prof. Garimella again!
  • It’s fun to chair a paper session. It forces you to pay attention to the speakers and discuss the materials with the other chair at the end of the conference. It’s a really good experience, and I am really thankful to the one who put me on the list. I am also thankful to Dr. Wallin who chaired the session with me.
  • It’s almost two years since I have a chance to attend a series of presentations from other research groups in a conference to get inspiration. Although you can do literature review and look for research articles, you can read it with the speakers’ enthusiasm and the search results are always narrower than what you can see in a conference. It’s always good to listen to topics related to Organic Rankine Cycles, bioethanol, thermal storage materials and windcatchairs!
  • It’s been two years since my last conference presentation, and I really need to remember how to keep calm in a presentation.
  • It’s exciting to see research from the social science and design fields to research in this energy area. I have read their papers, but never got a chance to interact with the people in person! Thanks Dr. Wang for that. It’s really eye-opening.
  • It’s always good to make new friends and connections at a conference!
  • It’s good to meet Prof. Chen’s group at Huazhong University of Science and Technology during the conference banquet. I have heard of them all the time in the research group, but never have a chance to meet them in person.
  • I thought the official medium was English, and that’s why I spoke in English during the registration. Didn’t expect the conference volunteers to get scared because of that and make mistakes right away! I am so sorry!
  • It’s a good idea for the conference organizers to limit the number of wine bottles on the tables during the conference banquet. It really is.
  • The tea at the hotel is excellent, the desserts at the hotel are also great, but please do forget the coffee and the rice.