Since mid-August, the Dwr Uisce have been lucky to have an additional member on the Trinity College Dublin team, Julia Wetzel. She is a visiting intern from TU Dresden in Germany who has been working on network models using Epanet, looking at opportunities for energy recovery in group water scheme networks. Sadly, this is her last week, and her last day, so before she goes we thought we would find out how she has found the Dwr Uisce experience.
1. So what have you been doing in Dublin on the Dwr Uisce project? "I worked at the Water-Energy Nexus. I wrote the feasibility reports for the Heath GWS and the "Caherleske/Coolagh GWS. For that, I created the Epanet models for both networks and had a look at locations of high pressure in the networks."
2. Has there been any challenges in the work that you have undertaken, and how did you overcome them? "The first challenge was to learn how to work with Epanet. But it was very easy with an tutorial. Epanet is a very user-friendly software. The main challenges were to get the information for the networks from the GWS. During my work I noticed, that I need more data or some values didn`t make sense. So we went to the GWS and talked to the people there to get the missing information."
3. What have you most enjoyed your time in Dublin, other than the project that is? "I really enjoyed working with the group on the project and get friends with them. I also enjoyed the atmosphere of Dublin with the pubs and the Irish live music. I also did some lovely trips to the countryside. I will definitely come back to Ireland to see more."
4. What did you learn from working with the Dwr Uisce team? "I learned from working with the team that a good communication in the group is important. We could often help each other with problems or when we had some questions."
5. And your plans after you return to Dresden and finish your studies? "My first plans are finishing my studies and then I will try to get a good job with support and challenges for myself."
Good luck Julia with the rest of your studies, and thank you for your contribution to the Dwr Uisce project!