My name is Shaoqing Cui, a PhD candidate in Swansea University, which main research area is heterogeneous material modelling based on the statistical characteristics. I have just successfully completed the three-month secondment of the TCAiNMaND project in CIMAT. During the period of this secondment, I am impressed by the academic ability level of the researchers in CIMAT and the research atmosphere there.

The main targets of this secondment for me are (1) to develop a novel statistical reconstruction algorithm for heterogeneous material modelling, aiming to provide amounts of digitalized material samples for the following studies; (2) to study various statistical descriptors adopted in the statistical reconstruction, and select the fittest one(s) for the reconstruction of different types of materials respectively.

In CIMAT, I was honored to be supervised by Prof. Ivvan Valdez and Prof. Salvador Botello. Based on the aims of my work, I did a deep discussion with them at the beginning of this secondment, and got much helpful advice. Even though some technique barriers, such as the premature problem and the low efficiency problem, were met during these three months, the relative solutions were figured out according to exchanged ideas with Prof. Ivvan and Prof. Botello in time. Finally, with the help of Prof. Ivvan and Prof. Botello, a novel statistical reconstruction algorithm, i.e. a kind of stochastic optimization reconstruction algorithms, was successfully developed by combining with the estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) that is one of the main research areas of Prof. Botello’s group. Up to now, the developed reconstruction algorithm has already been able to be adopted to reconstruct different types of heterogeneous materials in both 2D and 3D. Also, in one of the regular seminars, I made a presentation about my project to the researchers in CIMAT, which gave me a very good chance to exchange the ideas about the statistical reconstruction with them, and I did get inspirations from this. After then, I knew many researchers in CIMAT, and learnt from each other frequently.

What’s more, I enjoyed the three-month life in Guanajuato very much. Since it is the first time I was in Mexico, there are lots of things that I have never seen or tried before. The local foods and drinks are attractive to me, such as tacos, chimichanga, tamale, churros, tequila, etc. There are also traditional costumes and festivals that are different, e.g. the Day of the Dead, the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc., while I heard many interesting stories about these from my friends in CIMAT. Yes, I made many good friends there during this secondment. They are nice and warm. There is no doubt that this secondment is a wonderful experience to me, and I learnt lots of things from the people there, not only about the academic study.