8/18/14

I started my Monday by completing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on the balcony of our hotel in Curitiba. It was not warm, but definitely helped me wake up, and I did it for a good cause. Once I was nice and wide awake from that, we grabbed a quick breakfast - and I mean a piece of fruit and a roll with butter quick - and left for the Federal University of Parana. The University holds a research group called NPDEAS, whose focus is on the cultivation of microalgae to be converted into biofuel. The group's goal is to produce 60 kW to power their facility and achieve net-zero energy demand. We got to see the cultivating room and four photobioreactors (PBRs), which are a system of closed tubes that provide a controlled environment for high yields of algae. The other campus complex we visited was a large-scale hydrology modeling facility. This research group conducts studies for some of the largest, most complex water resources engineering projects all over the world. When a new dam is to be constructed, for example, the group builds a fully-functional scale model of the project to predict hydrologic behavior and environmental impacts associated with the dam's construction. The construction phase of these projects is often designed around the research - when one section of the project is analyzed and approved, the construction may begin. However, due to lack of regulations and communication, the group's recommendations are not always taken seriously by the owner/contractor when they have the potential to impact the budget or schedule. After the University visit came to an end, we hit the road for a nice seven hour drive to Sao Pedro do Ivai, Parana.

8/17/14

Today we woke up early feeling rested and rejuvenated. We hit the road for a 5 hour drive to Curitiba, in the state of Parana. Our tour guide Rodrigo pointed out that this was the third and final state that we would be visiting in southern Brazil. This was a nice thought because even though I didn’t get to visit Rio de Janeiro, I really did get to see a lot of Brazil geographically. Our first stop was the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, which was named after the most famous architect in Brazil. He is most famous for designing the nation's capitol city, Brasilia, which was moved from Rio in 1960 to increase national security by moving the capitol inland. The museum, also known as Museu do Olho (Museum of the Eye), was re-inaugurated in honor of Niemeyer, who donated and designed the eye-shaped annex of the museum at the age of 95. The best part of the museum, in my opinion, was the Niemeyer exhibit, which showed models of all his work along with descriptions of his professional accomplishments. 

After the museum visit, we made our way to the Miller Flats Hotel in downtown Curitiba, which had a very different vibe than Floripa. There were a lot of high school-aged kids hanging around the streets, who's style struck me as much more "hipster" than what we had seen in other cities. We went to a nearby mall, where we did some people watching and ate dinner. While in line at the food court, a Brazilian guy came up and asked in English if we needed some help ordering, and introduced us to his son who spoke nearly perfect English because he went to school in Canada. We found out that he is studying mechanical engineering at the Federal University of Parana, where we had our next company visit. His father was also an engineer, who happened to know the guy that recently purchased Heinz, so he was really excited to find out that we all study in Pittsburgh. Sadly, there was no Heinz ketchup in Brazil as far as I saw, and the packets were so hard to open that I went ketchupless for most of the trip.

8/16/14

We said goodbye to Florianopolis today and embarked on the more travel-intensive part of the program. First, we stopped just outside of Floripa for Apuama rafting. It was my second time rafting this summer, but last time didn’t even compare to today’s experience. The very first rapid was a 4 meter drop that seriously felt like a waterfall. Once we tackled that, I got a chance to look around and realized that we were in the middle of the jungle. The scenery was absolutely stunning; it was drizzling rain and the clouds were so low that they masked the mountaintops all around us. I felt like I was rafting through the amazon rainforest. We even saw some pretty big spiders that probably bit me when I jumped in, because I found some interesting bite marks on my legs when we were done. Next we headed to a hot springs resort for a much-needed recovery session. After drying off and getting a nice hot meal in me, we hit the sauna and indoor swimming pool, which was filled with natural warm water from the springs. Once everyone was feeling sufficiently revitalized, our class basically took over the game room at the resort for the night, where Dr. Abad and Ihor put Joe and me to shame in both pool and foosball. Shout out to Dr. Abad for putting me in my place tonight, and for carrying Ihor through all four well-earned victories!

8/15/14

Today was a free day in Floripa, and we wanted to go back to Lagoa to try sand boarding, but there was rain in the forecast and we weren’t able to coordinate a group move. Instead, we just walked around the centro (downtown) area of Floripa, exploring some shops and restaurants. We ate at a small sandwich and juice place where I tried Suco do Maracuja (passion fruit juice) and a traditional Brazilian style sandwich with meat and cheese cooked inside a doughy roll. We also checked out some of the local stands set up throughout downtown area which consisted of hand made artwork/gifts and locally grown produce. Right beside the public marketplace, there was a band performing a full on concert on a big staircase in the center of town. I thought it was pretty cool that they had a full sound system set up in the middle of the town without having any sort of permit, or getting any grief from local law enforcement, as would happen in the states. After we were tired of walking around, we went back to the hotel and made plans for a night out. We ended up going to a club called 1007, where we met up with another group of american students who spent the whole summer in Florianopolis through ISA. The club was lots of fun, and it was great to hang out with some fellow Americans (who knew way more Portuguese than any of us). They also introduced us to some of the locals who they had befriended over the course of the summer. Pretty much every English-speaking Brazilian that I’ve met so far has been extremely kind and welcoming!

8/14/14

Today we took a city tour of Florianopolis, which started out with a walk through the downtown area. We walked past shops, street vendors selling handmade goods and local produce, and tried some caldo do cana (fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice with lime), It was too sweet for me to finish. We walked to the historic fig tree in the center of downtown, which is so big it literally has steel columns all around supporting its branches. Next, we got on a bus that took us up to a mountain where you could look out over the entire city, and get a sense of how big and densely developed it is. It was one of the most surreal views of the entire trip, and was worthy of becoming the new background phone. There were also some really nice houses on the way up the mountain overlooking the city, which reminded me of something you would see along the PCH in California. After the mountain, we did a loop to the southern part of the island and back up, where we stopped at several beaches. The best part was when we went to Lagoa, a lake that runs into the ocean via a manmade canal. We walked up to these dunes where people were sand boarding, and raced down on foot. We also ate lunch at a beachfront restaurant right next to the mouth of the canal, where we had some delicious fresh seafood that I couldn’t finish (I think they gave me a whole fish). After lunch, the less intelligent guys in the group, myself included, decided to go for an icy cold dip in the ocean that had to be in the 50’s since it was only 65 outside. It was painful to say the least, but I couldn’t let myself be on the beach in Brazil without going in the ocean. Worth it? Absolutely.

8/13/14

In contrast to yesterday’s tour of a coal-fired power plant, today we got to experience renewable power generation first-hand. Ventos do Sul is a just one part of a large wind energy project in Osorio. The visit began with an informational lecture that covered topics including the generating capacity of individual turbines and the Osorio project as a whole, as well as energy diversity/security issues in Brazil. I learned that although wind energy faces a number of challenges like cost of production and storage, the technology is improving and becoming more feasible for large-scale applications over time. After the lecture, we were taken up to the roof of the education building to get a 360 view of the wind farm. Looking out over the open space with wind turbines as far as the eye could see, I realized that the land was not dedicated exclusively to harnessing wind energy, but its original function, rice farming, had been maintained. Cattle were still roaming and birds were still flying. To me, this exemplified a real life application of sustainability by taking advantage of a renewable energy source without compromising the existing environmental conditions.

8/12/14

Today was our first company visit, and we hit the road around 8:30 for Capivari de Baixo, a small, seemingly rural town with a few shops and restaurants along a main road.  I could tell that they weren’t used to visitors by the way that the heads were turning as our bus drove through the Brazilian countryside. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a buffet, where I got a feeling that our group was the topic of conversation for many of the locals. I also was faced with the task of trying to finish whatever was on my plate out of respect, even when I grabbed something that wasn’t my cup of tea. 

After lunch, we made our way to Tractabel Energia's Capivari de Baixo location, where we attended an informational session about the company. We learned that while most of Brazil's energy production (~80%) is government regulated, Tractabel dominates the private sector with their thermal, hydro, and alternative (renewable) electricity generation facilities. They are addressing the need to provide sustainable energy by researching new alternative power sources like wind, solar, and oceanic waves, while maintaining energy security by taking advantage of thermal energy sources (coal). We also took a tour of their coal-fired power plant, where we saw the control room for units 5 and 6 of seven, and got to peak inside the generator portion of unit 6. I had never seen anything of this scale before, and I definitely found a new appreciation for power generation, something that we generally take for granted, when I saw it first hand.