My name is Kaltham Tahnon. I study at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. I applied for the summer student programme through my scholarship ENEC (Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation). Eight students were chosen by the scholarship as candidates to the program but only two were selected at the end. All what I knew about CERN then was that it was the place where Higgs Boson was discovered and that it was located in a beautiful place in Switzerland. When I came here (July 8^th) I had no idea which project I will be working on but I was sure that it would be something cool. Well, I was somehow right since I am working on a ‘cooling’ project for the detectors.

My experiment is ATLAS and my job is to establish a technical background for my team related to soldering connectors for the micro-fluidic channels in the wafers and bonding of metallic connectors. I was not familiar with any of this since I am an undergraduate mechanical engineering student. I had to read about my topic for about three weeks to understand before I could start establishing the ‘data base’. This job helped me develop a researching skill that I can use later on in my own research and independent studies. I am planning to work for the company sponsoring me after finishing my undergraduate studies. Later, I would like to continue my graduate degree most probably in environmental engineering; so currently I have no plans on moving on with my research at CERN. That gave me a reason to take out the best of my stay here at CERN, in Switzerland. I am enjoying my summer here very much.

I went to many workshops at CERN and visited the CMS detector. I also visited Old town Geneva, cruised in the famous lake and visited city Lausanne for a whole day. I am planning to visit Paris for two days with my friends and we might visit Italy as well. Being in Switzerland gives us the opportunity to travel to many countries since it is located in the centre. Moreover, I have never seen snow in my life so I am thinking of climbing the Mont Blanc as well.

From my time as a summer student here I will remember –and value the most- the friends I made from all over the world; the time we spent together cooking, playing cards, playing table tennis and visiting different places. I will remember the team I worked with and of course the beautiful nature and the cool weather of Switzerland and France. When I go back home I know that I will be asked about what I learned back at CERN. I would say: cooking, basic French, playing cards, taking trains and trams, English accent of different nationalities, and a little bit of Nuclear Physics.

Being a summer student here is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.