Being a Visiting Researcher at the University of Utrecht (Week 1)

I have just finished my first week at the University of Utrecht as a visiting researcher. I decided that during my time away I would try to write blog posts to discuss what I have learnt, be it through furthering my PhD, the work I am collaborating on, or just reflections on the differences in academic environments. It feels like this trip has been a long time in preparation, probably because It was first spoken about at my last trip to the Netherlands back in January. It was therefore nice to come to an environment where I already knew some people I would be collaborating on, and I, therefore, had a few ideas about what the projects I would be working on would entail.

This first week has been mostly about getting myself into a routine. Unlike my home institution, all PhD Students and staff work from the office at least 3 days a week, the offices are grouped in research groups – so I am in the Music Similarity Lab. I find that this stimulates collaboration from the very beginning, there are people working specifically on similar research projects to you not only within your own office but in the offices either side of you. One of my favourite things about the environment here is that everyone goes to lunch together every day. Not only is this a lovely social activity, but I feel it really brings the group together as a whole. I have met lecturers, professors, heads of research groups, heads of faculty all through lunch. I think this is something we could all learn from in our institutions as it provides a really enjoyable working environment, where you feel equal and respected by all.

This week I have begun working on two projects and discussed some guest lectures. In my thesis, I have been working with Chordify’s annotator subjectivity dataset, with other researchers in the department. This work looks like it will develop into a paper, and I have many meetings in the coming week to discuss how we further work on this together. I am also working on using the results from my first study (musicsimilaritiy.soton.ac.uk) with the departments work on pattern detection – to see how my participants’ perception of similarity may or may not align with current pattern detection algorithms.

Along with all this, I have had a great time just exploring the city I get to live in for the next two months! I’ve climbed the Dom tower, explored a Robots love music exhibition and seen many canals. I’ve also got an OV-Chipkaart and learnt how to claim back money when you forget to check-in or out at a station… I am definitely starting to feel like a local.

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