tesis/tesina/trabajo fin de máster/proyecto final... and London!

As that September deadline slowly creeps up, I have finally established a topic and started working on my master's thesis. Despite having been exposed to so many new ideas and such a wide variety of fields in the master, it was extremely difficult to find a project that satisfied my criteria: interesting, do-able by September, and useful in some way. I'll have to admit that at first, my biggest concern was the timing and being able to submit the thesis by the September deadline. I talked to A, one of the professors of the master, and I started doing research on the topic of cost projections for electricity generation in California. The problem? The topic was extremely open-ended and was purely for my own benefit; my (supposedly 300) hours spent would not contribute the slightest to any current project nor any future project. I understand that a master's thesis is not nearly as extensive as a doctoral thesis, and I'm not trying to make any huge steps for mankind while writing it, but it would be nice to know that my work has an application outside of my own education. When I expressed these concerns to A, he told me with all frankness that the only other people (other than the two of us) who would read my thesis would be the three professors on the master's defense 'tribunal.' 

This brings me to the second part of the post title. Last week, I found out that I was selected to receive a scholarship to attend USE Efficiency Summer School, a university energy efficiency course that is held annually. There are 11 participating universities from around the EU and each sends three students to the course; during the course, teams are formed to perform energy audits and, of course, the idea is that bringing together students from different cultural and academic backgrounds will allow for knowledge exchange and so-on. Last year, the course was held in Valencia and this year, it will be held in London to coincide with the Olympics! The details are still a bit fuzzy, but before the course the three of us from UPV will put together an energy audit and during the course, we will also perform an energy audit of an Olympic building or facility. Needless to say, I am extremely thankful for this opportunity and I really plan to make the most of the course! (I should also mention that the two groups who received the highest grades on the energy audit project were interviewed for the scholarship to 'test' their English. Since there are students from all over participating in the course it is conducted in English, and a big part in taking full advantage of the course is being able to communicate well in English. Luckily I scored a 9.5 out of 10 on that part.)

So you're probably wondering what these two unrelated topics have to do with each other. I ended up changing my thesis topic and working with a different professor C on a completely different project both of which are related to the energy efficiency topic of London. My new project is developing a methodology for the measurement and verification after an energy audit is performed (for example, how do you measure the savings after you install energy-saving lightbulbs? it doesn't just improve your electricity bill but also your air-conditioning bill since it produces less sensible heat.) as well as the results of demand response improvements (what are the savings on cost and emissions if you run your washing machine in off-peak hours -in the night for example- rather than in peak hours?). Part of the project is also making a proposal for developing an organization and course that would be analogous to USE Efficiency but for UC Berkeley, where my advisor is collaborating. Anyways, this topic is much more interesting and I do enjoy the fact that a) my work is useful in the very immediate future and b) being a native Californian and also having studied in California, I can provide some unique insights and experiences. Furthermore, my thesis work will help me in London and I'm sure I'll also pick up ideas there as well. 

Looks like it's all starting to come together.