The last couple of days have seen us walking up and down the length of Manhattan, which is quite a feat! It’s incredible how much the atmosphere of the city changes as you walk from one area to another, each with their own distinct flavours. But let’s start at Rockefeller Centre! Sinead and I booked …
Colours of Autumn
This morning we pushed opened the window, stuck our heads out into the brisk air, and were delighted to see clear blue skies with not the slightest threat of rain! This called for a walk through Central Park! On our way there we visited Grand Central Station, but only briefly due to the the heavy …
New York, New York
It’s happened! I’ve finally touched down in the city that has been number one on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. The flights dragged on forever, we stopped off for six sweltering hours in an airport that has yet to escape from the 1970’s, and I came to a point of …
Final Days in Magical San Francisco
After returning from our spontaneous Yosemite trip I was suddenly faced with fitting my original week-long itinerary into the space of two short days! But I guess the great thing about travelling is that you meet awesome people, experience brilliant things, and any plans get tossed out the window! We had heard whispers of a …
Giant Sequoias
It’s been a while. I got back from my trip, life got hectic, and I abruptly stopped posting like I had fallen off the face of the earth! I was looking through my photos a couple of days ago, reminiscing on my trip while various pots and potions incubated in the lab, and figured I …
Oh Yosemite
After a rather terrible, freezing sleep in the car (I suppose that was to be expected) we woke up tired but grateful that there had been no bear attacks during the night. We pulled on our walking shoes, fuelled up with coffee, packed our bags with all important snacks, and set off up the mountain. …
California Road Trip
Sometimes spontaneous trips are the best kinds of trips, and this one certainly was. Early in the morning Alba and I made our way to the airport, hired a car, and hit the road on our way to Yosemite National Park. Four or so hours of California landscape, intense discussions about how best to deal …
Alone in San Francisco
Everyone has scattered back across the Asia-Pacific. Alba is at Stanford for the day. And I am faced with a day of exploring alone. The good thing is that this means I have the freedom to do whatever I want!! So first things first: find food. After food I am ready to take on anything …
Ultimate San Francisco Tourist
After a day spent recovering over coffee in Stanford, plotting how we’ll change the world, and meeting a Chiasma alumnus in Palo Alto, Alba and I jumped on a train: next stop San Francisco!! After throwing my stuff on the top bunk of my hostel (whyyy the top bunk) I jumped on a second train …
Summit Wrap Up
I know I know. I have been terrible so far at updating this daily. But in my defence I was not prepared for the intensity of the week and when it hit midnight or 2am I really just wanted to sleep rather than wake up my roommates with the click clack of typing. So much …
Design Thinking
By the end of the week we need to pitch a business idea to a panel of Venture Capitalists so today was centred around the design thinking process and idea generation. We started off with a keynote speech from Dr Richard Dasher and after lunch heard from Grace Hwang, an associate partner at IDEO. Her …
Squirrels and Fraternities
Today was the first organised day of the Summit and was spent forming teams for our pitch challenge and getting to know the other delegates and ASES members. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life…well at least it felt like that by the end of the day. We started off with …