Blogs

Research stay in Mexico City (Francesc Wilhelmi)

(Entry by Francesc Wilhelmi)

I didn’t really know how to address this blog entry, which I supposed it is at encouraging other students to spend a research stay in a foreign University. But the only thing I can tell you is based on my very personal experience, which probably won’t hold for other people and universities.

The fact is that I always wanted to spend a relatively long period in Mexico, and that’s why I chose “Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)” for my research stay. Mexico is a wonderful country with a lot of incredible places, extremely nice people, an amazing history and delicious food. This personal motivation probably explains why my experience here is so positive to the date, but, of course, there are other factors. Note that, besides granting you a priceless experience, a research stay allows you to get the “international mention” when concluding the PhD.

I landed to Mexico City last August and I will be here for 3 more months (until March 2019), thus completing a 6-months stay. The first two weeks were really difficult because of the huge sociocultural impact and the Chilango[1] (not Mexican!) lifestyle. Living in Latin America has nothing to do with living in Europe. First of all, we are talking about an extremely large and populated city. Officially[2], approximately 8.9 million people live nowadays in Mexico City, therefore being the 4th city most populated in the world. But that is not all, since a massive number of municipalities (the state of Mexico) are currently surrounding the city. By taking them into account, we have 25 million people living in the same metropolis. As a result, one imperatively feels overwhelmed when setting foot on Mexico City. Travelling during rush-hours is particularly dramatic, and sometimes you are forced to do so. First of all, you may spend a lot of time on your journey (crossing the city may take you more than 2 hours, if you are lucky!). But that’s not the worst, since you will have to deal with masses of people that are travelling at the same time, not to mention careless drivers. However, if you get used to it and learn how to get around the city, your quality of life will significantly increase.

Regarding the University (UNAM), I only have positive things to say about it. The UNAM itself is one of the biggest universities in Latin America, and you can feel it when being there. In particular, there are many campuses spread along Mexico and other parts of the world. The main campus (“Ciudad Universitaria (CU)”) is truly a city itself (there are 13 bus lines!), where 135.000 people (students, academics, staff, etc.) coexist[3].

I am currently working in a building called IIMAS (“Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas”), which is located at CU, and where several post-graduate activities are held. From the very beginning I was gently received, and my work here is really being supported by my local advisor and other colleagues. The fact is that the theme of my thesis fitted very well with the work that was currently being done here. That is why I strongly suggest to anyone willing to do a research stay to carefully select the destination. I found that it is very important to find synergies with other research groups in order to really get them interested in your work. In my particular case, I agreed to write a paper that is very related to my thesis during the research stay, which is being done in collaboration with the Wireless Research Lab – UNAM.

To conclude, I wanted to encourage other PhD students to do a research stay (when possible). Collaborating with people from other universities is really rewarding, but the experience of living in another country is definitely what makes the difference. However, one must carefully choose the destination (both the country and the University). Otherwise, the experience may become negative.

 


The Central Library in UNAM (decorated by Juan O’Gorman) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, together with the central campus

 

[1] Chilango refers to people from Mexico City, despite it initially was meant for Mexicans out from the city that went to live there.

[2] Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), ed. (2015). «Principales resultados de la Encuesta Intercensal 2015 Estados Unidos Mexicanos» (PDF). Consultado el 16 de febrero de 2017.