Can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Daniel Darles, I’m a PhD Student in cognitive psychology at the University of Poitiers. I’m interested in cognitive development related to the visual search for verbal information in written documents.
What is your home university and where did your mission took place?
I work at the University of Poitiers and I went to the University of Turku, in Finland.
Why did you choose this particular university?
I’ve chosen this university because researchers from my team, including my PhD supervisor, were in contact with a researcher from the University of Turku. Besides, this Finnish researcher is also an expert in my field of study, so this visit was a great opportunity to improve my working method.
What was the objective of your mission?
The objective of my mission was to set up a survey among a Finnish audience in order to publish a scientific paper.
How did your mission unfold?
It went very well. We started by setting up a pilot study, for which we had to precess information and work on material in persue to implement the planned experiment. I’ve also presented one of my previous work during a team meeting. I’ve met many researchers and PhD students coming from different countries (Romania, Iran). It was very nice to be in contact with them.
Unfortunately, this mission, that was supposed to last 4 months, from January to April 2020, could not be completed due to the Covid 19 crisis. I had to leave Finland sooner than expected, on the 15th of March, and couldn’t finish what I have started.
Have any collaboration projects come to fruition from this mission?
We agreed to stay in contact in order to porsue from a distance the setting up of the study and our collaboration.
Could you speak the local language? If not, was it a hindrance to communication?
I didn’t know any Finnish, but I’ve learned some words during my stay. Fortunately, Finns are almost all speaking English, which helped me communicate with them.
Any anecdote to tell us?
During the winter months, the temperatures are very cold in Turku (-20°C). It is so cold that the Aura river that runs through the city, is totally frozen. You can see the locals ice-skating on it in the middle of the day.
What can be, according to you, the benefits of the EC2U project?
EC2U is a very interesting project as it offers mobility funding, for students and staff, that enables them to grow professionally. In my case, it made my research study abroad research possible. The communication and links that have been established between the University of Poitiers and the other EC2U universities offer many benefits and could be of great interest for students who want to do part of their studies abroad or more broadly wish to build up their resume or for researchers who want to develop collaboration projects.