CONTENTS
Background
This page describes about the excursions for the students in the Waterpower laboratory. We usually have two important excursions: Autumn excursion, which is usually within Norway, Spring excursion, which is traveling to Nepal. During spring time excursion, the students usually travel to Nepal and attend international conference, and they make their presentation in the conference.
Autumn excursion
The Autumn excursion is usually held before winter sets in Norway. Usually, it is organized during October and visit a hydro power plant in Norway. The location is different each year and it is dependent on the permission from the power plant owner. We usually prefer open power plant that it undergoing refurbishment or under construction. This enables the students to see all components and engineering structure more closely. This excursion is also educational tour for you. Sometimes, students select to go mountain and hiking nearby the power plant depending available time. Sometimes, travel cost is supported by the internal research project, i,e., HydroCen/RenewHydro.
Students from other departments also join the excursion, usually Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering Departments. In some cases, PhD students also participate in this excursion when there is collective pull of finance.
Assignment
After this excursion, students from the Waterpower laboratory are expected to submit a joint report. The report should not be more than 25 pages and it should describe the what students learned and how experience was. Students should also include few pictures of the excursion. Deadline for the submission of the report is 15 November. You can also showcase your experience in one of the socialization event in the Waterpower laboratory. We have projector and computer connected centrally. The report should be submitted to the scientific assistance or supervisors.
Download the template for the report.
Autumn 2021 excursion at Nedre Fiskumfoss kraftverk.
Text about excursion planning comes here...
Spring excursion: Nepal
The Spring excursion is a relatively more elaborate excursion, with the possibility to present student's work as paper or presentation at an international conference. Historically, the students from the lab has been presenting their papers at CRHT (Current Research in Hydropower Technology) conference, organized by the partner University of NTNU: Kathmandu University. The students willing to participate in this excursion has to submit their work as paper or presentation at the conference. The conference lasts for one day, sometimes two; based on the number of papers received at the conference. After the conference, the participants visit the Turbine Testing Lab, Hydro Lab and several other hydropower projects in Nepal. The student group has the opportunity to decide and organize the trip themselves, including the powerplant they would want to visit, however it is also possible to get help from vitass and other employees at the lab. The excursion has been funded by several hydropower companies in Norway, Hydrocen and other relevant sources. Following are some of the recommended steps regarding the spring excursion to Nepal.
- Talk to each other regarding the excursion and find out how many of you will go.
- Find the lists of sponsors that have sponsored in the previous years and try not to be limited to the companies in the list.
- The list is long, so dividing the companies amongst yourself is a good strategy to be able to contact all of them on time.
- Its easier if only one of you deals with each parties, for example agent in Nepal, Berg Hansen, etc. so decide who will do what quite early on during your planning phase.
- Start thinking about what you will present in the conference and start working towards that goal well ahead of time. Talking to your supervisor is a good way to find a topic to write about.
- The conference coincides with the Easter holidays so you can plan accordingly to get a tentative travel plan from agents in Nepal and within Norway.
- Visit the vaccination center 3 to 4 months before the conference and find out if you need to take any additional vaccinations to visit Nepal. There are some vaccines that might need booster doses within 3 months time.
- Talk to the PhDs and Postdocs to find out if they will join the post conference trip with you, its easier if everyone is included in the same travel plan. They will find their own funding sources so you don't need to worry about including them in your budget.
- A substantial part of your budget will go into flight tickets, so try to book the flight tickets as early as possible to reduce the flight costs.
- You will receive confirmation from some sponsors very close to the conference date or even after the conference date, and its uncertain about the amount they will sponsor so be prepared to contribute some portion of the expenses yourself.
- Ask one of the PhDs or vitass to prepare the feltkort and submit it to the department. Examples of feltkort and travel plan from previous year can be found in \\kunde.it.ntnu.no\ept-eksperimentell\Vannkraft\Administrativt(Administrative)\Vitenskapelig Assistent\Ekskursjon Utland Masterstudenter.
- Be sure to pay the conference fee on time to get the early bird discount. If by any chance if you forget to pay the fee on time or come across other problems regarding paper submission deadlines contact Sailesh(sailesh@ku.edu.np).
- Don't forget to carry a passport size photo and some cash(USD) to get the visa at Tribhuvan airport in Nepal. You can find the details regarding the visa fee and other requirements here.