ESR1 – Mr Xicon LI, Northumbria University, UK
Secondment at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Dates: 19/02/2019 – 14/05/2019
As part of my research I spent about three months at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria working on a number of things including analogue pre- and post-equaliser designs and circuit implementation for visible light communications under the supervision of Professor Rafael Pérez Jiménez. The visit was very interesting, productive and managed to achieve quite a bit of technical work.
After my arrival in Las Palmas, I learned that Sanmao, the renowned Chinese female writer, was living on this island before and her former residence now has become a tourist attraction. As Sanmao is so well-known for her books and legendary life in the Chinese-speaking world, I expected locals to know her or at least her Spanish husband. However, my collogues in ULPGC who grow up on the island told me they had never heard of the names. Despite this, I planned to visit her house someday during my stay on the island. Time flies when you are debugging in the lab. In the end, I didn’t make the visit. On the way to the airport, I located the place with Google maps. Surprisingly, this place has received quite a few comments expressing their memory of the author. Sanmao is remembered for her books and stories; A researcher can be remembered for his or her contributions to science. (Marie Curie is a good example).