2010/6/14

5th International Symposium of Computational Wind Engineering

by Cris (D3)


On the last week of May, I had a rare chance to attend and present in an international conference in Chapel Hill in North Carolina. The event was called the 5th International Symposium of Computational Wind Engineering, which was held in University of North Carolina.

gLarge eddy simulation of coherent structures and canopy flows within a near-neutrally stratified urban boundary layerh was the title of my presentation, with Yamashita-san, Inagaki-san, Takimoto-san and Kanda-Sensei as my co-authors. My session was held on a Wednesday afternoon, with presenters mostly from the University of Hamburg, including the two chairmen, Dr. Leitl and Dr. Schatzmann. My presentation was a collaboration of the LES model, the COSMO experiment, and the PIV experiments for the urban boundary layer. The reception to my presentation was very good. In fact, I almost got a job because of it.

The University of North Carolina opened 215 years ago. Therefore, the campus in Chapel Hill constituted of old buildings that were very beautiful.

The Kenan Residence Hall, where I stayed, is an example of a classic building in the gold southh. It is actually converted to a dorm by the Kenan family. Most of the buildings and roads were named after families who have contributed to the university, as is usual in the United States.

I saw a very large compass in front of the campus planetarium. Written on the base of the compass, it says, gIt is always morning somewhere in the world; Today is yesterdayfs tomorrowh.

Across the street from Kenan Residence Hall, therefs some sort of park called Coker Arboretum (collection of plants, mostly trees). Like most things in the campus, the plants were donated, this time by the universityfs first professor in botany, Dr. Coker. It was free of charge, and open from dawn to dusk.

A few strange and interesting things I also noticed around the campus: two signages that says gFDCh and gPIVh. Could these be gflow duration curveh and gparticle image Velocimetryh?

(Actually, they stand for fire department connection and post indicator valve.)

There were many squirrels in the campus. At first I thought they were cute. But, running into so many of them during a morning jog (maybe around 20 at one time) is a bit scary.


I met with Hagishima-Sensei and her student Ikegaya-kun, from Kyushu University. Most meals were taken cared of by the conference. But we had to take care of our dinner, which was an opportunity for us to explore the local cuisine.

The best restaurant was called the Carolina Crossroads, which is in the Carolina Inn, the premier hotel inside UNC. Hagishima-Sensei was too shy to have her photo taken, so, I just took a picture of the place and our main dish (scallops) and dessert (ice cream). Every dinner, we would have beer.

We also had dinner in the surrounding area, with dinner servings typical of American sizes (extra extra large food, such as Philly Cheese Steak inside an omelette).

I also had the privilege to meet famous researchers and professors, such as Dr. Ian Castro.


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