Sunday, 3rd of February
After traveling some 22 hours from Joensuu to Warwick (or, traveling about 13,5 hours and waiting the rest, mainly at Helsinki-Vantaa), I arrived by bus to Coventry, the major city nearby University of Warwick. Ant with his EM fellow were kindly waiting for me and took me to my B&B, via a delicious noodle dinner and a cup of tea at Meurig’s place. After having settling down to Ferndale House in the beautiful town of Kenilworth, I really was ready for 10 hours sleep (I spent the previous, not so comfortable, night in the bus between Joensuu and Helsinki…)
Monday, 4th of February
The morning showed what a British winter is all about. I was little disappointed because sun was shining and temperature was around +10 celsius. No rain or wind at all. I had a possibility to take a look to the town of Kenilworht before Ant came to bring me to the university, the headquarter of Empirical Modelling. Monday was in general an easy day. I had some time to prepare a presentation for the next day as well as get familiar with my brand new MacBook Pro. Other than that, the program consisted of some discussions with students at the department, as well as listening to a lecture about Empirical Modelling. Of course, a lunch and tour at campus were important for this day. I really have to say that I like Warwick campus, especially after relaxing and having a pint of great full ale after work day in one of the many restaurants all around the area.
Tuesday, 5th of February
If Monday was an easy day, Tuesday was full of program, indeed. In the morning I quickly finished my presentation for afternoon, and then it was time for the first meeting about possible collaboration between the EM group and Gifted and Talented Youth project. I was also there, eagerly introducing SciFest collaboration, with little success though, because of scheduling issues. However, we kind of agreed that Antony would have a workshop about Colour Sudoku at SciFest. This particular EM project has gained much popularity for EM group, as Antony has reported in his blog. And more to come… 
After this meeting, it was a time for afternoon coffee before the presentation. The audience wasn’t that big, but more active instead. It was a really pleasure to present the University of Joensuu and our department along my own research and get very much comments and suggestions for my research agenda. After the presentation, we tuned up strategies for the next day and went to a dinner to yet another restaurant in the campus area.
Wednesday, 6th of February
Today’s most interesting and important part was a meeting with people from London Knowledge Lab. They were looking for collaboration with the EM group around mathematics teaching. We presented some EM stuff with Wiimote in a screen which would be nice to have…
The visitors showed some really interesting gadgets called Sun SPOT. They are quite close to the concept of smart stones which we have been discussing every now and then. I think this could be useful and interesting technologies especially for special education. It was also nice to notice that we found a common interest between London Knowledge Lab and EdTech group at Joensuu around the Kids’ Club concept. I think that there would be even possibilities to apply a joint FP 7 project in the area between us, Warwick, London KL, and for example, Henrik Lund’s group. But that’s another story totally.
Ant took me back to my accommodation bit earlier today, and so I had a possibility to explore Kenilworht more in daylight. I set out as soon as possible, but it still got dark while I was walking to the Kenilworth Castle ruins. So I had to find something else to explore. And see, what I found. A nice pub next to the castle, and great ale with a price of 3,5 EUR / pint. Yep, I love this country! After enjoying the atmosphere and good drink I walked to town center to have another pint of ale and Italian dinner. Very nice evening altogether.
Thursday, 7th of February
The modeling day. Today it was a time to do some concrete things for our joint initiatives in EM. We tried to find ways who to combine the efforts as efficiently as possible in a way that everyone’s work (me, Ant and Meurig) would benefit all of us. So, we ended up to play some Sudoku and while doing that, Ant developed a mechanism to replay students’ actions with Sudoku model while I was concentrating to learn some principles of Donald and Scout scripting and trying to figure out what kind of environment I should provide for teachers. My thoughts are not ready yet, so more on this will follow later… Anyway, a good day again and very useful for me, in the terms of clearing the ideas. On the way back home, Steve (one of EM fellows) suggested me a pub called Green Man. So, I took a challenge and walked there. The food was good, and not forgetting the pints of great beer. When I was back at Ferndale House, I thought to do some Empirical Modelling but writing of this diary was far more attractive option – not so that I would be bored on EM, but it’s more or less what I should do lot as my work in a near future, so it’s better not to bite too big piece at once.
The second part of my Warwick trip will appear, in a near future, sooner or later…
