written by Nikola Bogdanović
At the suggestion of my colleagues and friends, Anita Mijajlović and Milorad Igić, I applied for Sunrise Summer School. The topic was Real-time applications for enabling massive penetration of RES.
As the summer was coming to an end, and therefore the Summer School was approaching, I had to end my two-month-long holiday and return to Belgrade for a short time. The Summer School lasted five days, from Monday, September 9, to Friday, September 13. I was proud that my University hosted such a big and important event on a global scale.
On the first day, the welcome dinner was organized in the Ambar restaurant on the Sava River. Organizing the dinner was a great idea and an opportunity for lecturers and participants to get to know each other before the start of the lectures. The evening was very relaxing. I was sitting with my professors, my friends, and one PhD student from Saudi Arabia. This was a great opportunity to exchange experiences about our countries and universities. The evening was filled with various anecdotes about the profession, everyday life, jokes, and laughter.
The next day, at 9 o’clock AM, the Opening Session started. First, our vice-dean and professors gave a short welcome speech to the lecturers and students and then presented our University and Belgrade. After that, everybody introduced themselves and shared their area of research. Since the main topic of the Summer School was the software developed by the international company Typhoon HIL, we learned basic and interesting information about the company itself.
As a newly graduated student of power engineering, I had no difficulties following the lectures on relay protection. Actually, the hardest part of the day was waking up early in the morning during the summer holiday, especially on the last day – the day after the Gala dinner.
The lecturers were great! The lectures were clear, detailed, and well-structured, making it easy to follow them. They also encouraged discussion among us.
For me, the special part of the day was lunch. As someone who moved to Belgrade at an early age and attended University while living at home, I had never tried food from the student canteen before. During the Summer School, I had the chance to do so for the first time on the first and last day. On those two days, we ate in a restaurant across the street from the University, located one floor above the student canteen. Interestingly, out of the four organized lunches, we had two in the University building, and the Sun was shining on those two days, which we spent tucked away indoors, while on the other two days, when we ate in the restaurant, it was cold and cloudy. Certainly, the School of Electrical Engineering was an excellent host.
We also had the opportunity to visit the Nikola Tesla Museum, located near the School of Electrical Engineering. It was a great opportunity to show experts from all over the world that one of the greatest minds to ever walk the blue planet was a Serb.
Considering that the people of Southern Europe love delicious food, great wine, and good music, the Gala dinner was held on the penultimate day in Manufaktura restaurant, in the city center. In my opinion, the chosen location couldn’t have been better. The food was excellent, the music was great, and the party felt like there was no tomorrow. As the participants of the Summer School walked towards the restaurant, they were able to get acquainted with perhaps the most beautiful part of Belgrade that has preserved its soul and peace, far from noise and traffic.
Although I am considered to be an attentive listener, I perhaps missed the most important detail from the first lecture when we were introduced to Typhoon HIL. I realized this on the last day, during the last lecture, although it was clearly and explicitly said that HIL is an abbreviation for “Hardware-in-the-Loop.” Perhaps it would have been better if I had kept my mistake to myself and had not said it out loud, because I think that my colleagues and friends, Anita and Milorad, will never forget it.
Although I didn’t know exactly what the main topic of the Summer School was until the beginning of the lectures because, as I said, I applied based on the suggestion of my friends, I can say that being a listener at the Summer School was a great experience. I met several people studying abroad, learned new things about protection relays, and had a lot of fun. I hope that during my career, I will have the opportunity to attend a similar Summer School again.