Peak shear stress distribution in finite element models of concrete slabs

On September 2nd, I gave a presentation with the title: "Peak shear stress distribution in finite element models of concrete slabs" at the Fifth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation in Cape Town, South Africa.

What I presented at this conference was not part of my PhD research, but related to a side project that we did together with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.

The abstract of the paper associated with this presentation is the following:
For the evaluation of existing slab bridges in the Netherlands, the governing shear stress resulting from composite dead load and live loads is determined from a finite element model. It is necessary to determine over which length (expressed as a multiple of the effective depth) the peak shear stress can be distributed for comparison to the design shear capacity. To answer this question, a numerical model is compared to an experiment. A continuous reinforced concrete slab, representing a half-scale slab bridge, is tested under a concentrated load. The support consists of 7 bearings equipped with load cells, measuring the reaction force profile, that can be compared to the stress profile determined in the finite element model. The comparison of measured reaction force profiles over the support to finite element models results in a research-based distribution width that replaces the rules of thumb that were used until now.

Peak shear stress distribution in finite element models of concrete slabs from Eva Lantsoght

Silver Linings: Resources for yoga on the go

When you are traveling for conferences, having a very busy time in the lab or simply don't feel like coming out of your house, a virtual yoga teacher can provide you with the stretches and relaxation your body is craving.

By all means, I'm not advocating for you to drop your regular yoga class and roll out your mat between your bed and desk for the rest of your days.
Practicing yoga in group and with a teacher who can correct your poses is still a superior way of learning.

Once you have some practice, however, you can use a virtual yoga studio to take your sun salutations anywhere.

Previously, we've looked at how a quick sequence of standing yoga postures can get your blood running again after sitting too long, or simply can give you a lovely break in between pomodoros.

This post gathers a number of resources for you, to practice wherever you have access to the internet, some time and some space.

1. YouTube
YouTube has a virtual endless number of yoga classes available.
The following YouTube channels offer a good number of enjoyable (short) yoga workouts:
Psychetruth (never mind all the conspiracy theory talking and the ugly fonts on their videos, the yoga by Jen Hilman is lovely)
Yogatic - or the YouTube channel of Eckhart Yoga by Esther Eckhart.
LiveStrong Woman has great, short instruction videos by the glorious Tara Stiles.
YogaDownload contains a few slideshow sequences that are clear and easy to follow.
Sarah Beth Yoga also contains good information on how to do certain poses.
Ali Kamenova - power yoga that leaves me dripping from top to toe
eFit30 - a fitness channel with also yoga videos
Yogea ArtFlow Yoga - offer, well, something called artflow yoga
HolmTVs channel - yoga sequences at the beach: pretty to see
YJ Mag short for yoga journal magazine
Danielle Walsh - besides some cheesy astrology stuff, she offers great yoga classes
Yogajan06 or in the flow yoga
BeFiT offers workout videos and some yoga videos

2. Dedicated online websites
My Yoga Online - offers a 10-day free trial of their service. This website is currently my go-to resource.
GaiamTV - not a free website, and I haven't tried it, but the reviews are positive.
Yogayak sells DVDs, and also offers some free yoga instruction classes.
MyFreeYoga has lots of resources, but runs horribly slow
YogaGlo - again, not something I've tried as it is a paid service, but the reviews are positive.
Do yoga with me offers free classes.
Eckhart yoga - again, a website with rave reviews, but I haven't tried their paid-for service

3. Smartphone apps
Yoga for Weight Loss - I have the free version of this app, and the breathe cues are very good
After trying out a number of iPhone apps for yoga, I realized I simply don't like trying to see what's going on on that tiny screen. Also, most apps might come free, but then require a payment to obtain a class.

4. DVDs
An option I haven't really explored yet, but why not browse your local library for a yoga DVD that you can borrow for the time of your conference, or in that extremely busy week?

Have you been taking your yoga along with you?

Silver Linings: Conferences, and Flying around the world

A few months ago, I did some crazy conference traveling: I flew from Amsterdam via Rome to Japan to attend ICCS 213. After that conference, I flew out of Japan via Minneapolis to Pittsburgh, to attend IBC 2013.
I shouldn't forget to mention that less than a week after touchdown in Amsterdam, I also had to defend my dissertation.

Traveling from one conference in Asia to another in the USA threw me from Central European Summer Time to GMT+9 in Tokyo, and then to Eastern Time zone in the USA (GMT-5). Of course, I also crossed the date line (although I have no memory of actually doing so, as I was asleep).

As you can imagine, by the time I arrived to Pittsburgh, I couldn't tell the difference between my toes and fingers, and felt as if my brain had stayed in Holland.

If you want my advice on this crazy conference traveling, I would say: don't do it.

If you must, try to find a day of rest somewhere during the trip to catch up on sleep.

In my case, I managed to put in 2 days of rest at the beginning of the Pittsburgh-leg of my trip. The first rest-day was literally that: I went to bed sometime between 9pm and 10pm, and only woke up the next day at 2pm (and that is because my husband walked in because he took half a day off from work). The next night, I had a head-splitting migraine, combined with being unable to breathe and having my limbs go numb.

Regardless of the fact that it was terribly exhausting, I did find a few ways to cope with the draining elements of travel, and enjoyed myself a lot.

Here's what I did:

1. Don't try to do everything
I needed time to prepare for my defense presentation, so I took time off from the conference, instead of working through the night on my presentations. It's OK to miss out on sections in conferences, as long as you "do your work" (the networking, the presenting, the learning, etc...).

2. Eat your veggies
If you do something as crazy as I did in terms of traveling, getting the right fuel is more important than ever. I went with green juices (from juice bars, or those Odwalla or Naked juices that are sold in virtually every gas station) to get some veggies. I ordered veggie sides to my meals, although I got some green beans that were swimming in butter at a certain point.

3. Exercise
Go for a run. Drop in on a local yoga class. Do push-ups. Pump some iron. Walk around a few blocks.
Whatever you need to work up a sweat, helps your body. If possible, work out outside, in the daylight, when you are jetlagged.

4. Bonus
Take this little piece of advise from my promotor: "Don't worry about the trip. You'll fall asleep somewhere, sometime, eventually."

Have you had a crazy conference-trip like this? How did you survive?

Writers' Lab: How to write your Conclusions, Part I: Journal or Conference Paper

If you are the type of linear writer like me, you will typically start your paper from the abstract, then the "Introduction", and on and on - all the way down to the "Summary and Conclusions."

When you start proofreading your entire opus, you might find that you didn't quite keep the same red thread throughout your work that started at the "Introduction" section. You might have trailed off, adding something along the way that seemed relevant when you were writing that section. In the very worst case, you'll end up with a "Summary and Conclusions" section that is completely running in the wild.

Now, what do we not want in a "Summary and Conclusions" section? If you've been reading a number of papers for your literature review, I'm sure you might have come across a few papers where the final sections left you puzzled. Here are the typical ingredients of a poor "Summary and Conclusions" section:

• Contains new ideas: The final sections happily comes to serve you up with an unexpected dessert. No background, no reference to the experiments, no analysis - just an out-of-the-blue statement that leaves you startled.
• Contains nothing beyond the current state-of-the-art: If you are pressed for time and want to quickly get a grasp of a paper, you will typically browse through the abstract, then glance over the figures, and then read the "Summary and Conclusions." If this section is filled up with general statements of things we all know already, then you will start to wonder what original work this paper contains - and toss it to the side.
• Only sums up one part of the paper: If you read a "Summary", you expect a quick recap of all parts of the paper. Some authors (presumably pressed for word count or paper length) come in wham-bam with a list of their conclusions - without the soft bed of a few sentences that repeat the problem, literature review results and methods.
• Is not a self-sufficient unit: Take a summary out of a paper, without knowing the contents of a paper, and the paragraph(s) still need to be a logical unit that requires no further reading of the paper to understand the "Summary and Conclusions."

So now that we got these typical mistakes highlighted, I would like to share with you how I write my "Summary and Conclusions" section. Admittedly, I learned it the hard way, by getting a paper returned and the "Summary and Conclusions" part torn to pieces by the gentle reviewers. To repair the damage done, I used a strategy that I have been implementing ever since.

The approach that I will discuss is mostly suitable for linear writers. If you prefer to nibble and scribble at different subheadings at more random points in time, you might as well find this approach useful - it will help you get a grasp of the entire paper again and focus on the main points to wrap up your writing.

As I said, I typically start by writing my outline, then filling in what I already have from reports or earlier work, and then start to rework the sentences to actually write the paragraphs. The only thing that I never do is the following:

I never write my "Summary and Conclusions" section before a first round of proofreading.

I simply leave it blank - a completely blank section. Instead of finishing up my very first draft -as good as that might feel- I leave it open.
Then, I use the following sequence:

• I sit down to proofread my very first version.
• While proofreading, I take notes of the main points of every subchapter.
• Once I reach the end of the paper, I reread these notes.
• I use these notes to write the "Summary and Conclusions" sections.

Let's quickly look back at the list-of-shame for a "Summary and Conclusions" section, and link that to this strategy:

• No new ideas: it is virtually impossible to take notes of the main points and use these as a guidance and still manage to slip in a new idea.
• No general truths: Noting down your contributions helps you to keep your focus on your own work, and helps you stay clear of the random chatter.
• You cover all the parts: If you take notes of the main ideas of every subchapter, you'll be able to cover all the contents of the paper.
• Self-sufficient unit: Make sure you proofread your "Summary and Conclusions" to see if you wrote it as a stand-alone paragraph. Don't reference to elements of the paper, just keep it sharp and shine a light on the major elements of the paper.

How do you write your conclusions section? Do you agree with my approach?

Quick Scan Method - Presentation at the International Bridge Conference

I recently presented in a technical session of the International Bridge Conference in Pittsburgh - a great venue for practitioners and researchers that work on practical applications for the bridge engineering field.

The proceedings will be published over the summer, and the abstract of my paper is the following:

To assess a large number of reinforced concrete slab bridges for shear, recommendations based on experimental research are implemented in a spreadsheet-based “Quick Scan” method. In particular, transverse load redistribution is studied. The resulting method is used to study cases of existing slab bridges in The Netherlands, indicating the benefits of the proposed method as compared to previous “Quick Scan” approaches.

You can see my slides here:

Quick Scan Method from Eva Lantsoght

Presentation at fib Symposium 2013

Last April, I gave a presentation at the fib Symposium in Tel Aviv. The abstract of the paper and presentation is the following:

Existing solid slab bridges under a combination of wheel loads and distributed traffic loads sometimes do not fulfil the code requirements for shear. However, reinforced concrete slabs loaded close to the support are subjected to shear stresses which might result in a failure mode of combined punching and shear. This behaviour is studied in a first series of experiments on slabs under a concentrated load close to the support, and these experiments resulted in a set of recommendations. To verify if these recommendations can be used when assessing solid slab bridges under distributed and concentrated loads, slabs under a combination of a line load, representing the dead weight, and a concentrated load, representing a wheel load, are tested up to failure. The experimental results are used to assess the ultimate shear which can be carried at the support and the influence of the varied parameters is discussed. The results demonstrate how different types of loading such as dead loads and live loads can be superposed and how a stress check at the support can be carried out.

Here are the slides of my presentation:

Shear capacity of slabs under a combination of loads from Eva Lantsoght

Silver Linings: Flowing through Conference Travel

Conference travel can be exhausting, and I for one always notice how tired I am after a conference because suddenly I need an alarm clock to wake up.

After preparing months for a conference, you shouldn't just shoo away from the place of action because you feel that it becomes taxing and overwhelming. Instead, try to support yourself as much as possible through these extra-busy days, so that you can benefit from it as much as possible.

Instead of wearing yourself out by placing extra stress on your body, make a few conscious choices that make you go those few extra miles before your gas tank runs dry:

1. Go well-prepared

Don't arrive to a foreign airport in a frenzy, trying to remember your hotel name and trying to figure out how to reach the hotel. Avoid late nights in your hotel room to finish up your presentation. Instead, just make sure you have all prep-work out of the way so that you can focus your concentration and energy on learning and networking.

2. Prioritize

Make a realistic schedule - you can't be sitting in lecture sessions from 8 am to 10 pm, meet people AND visit the exhibition. Before the start of the conference, take a few moments to list your priorities: Who do you want to meet? Which company should you visit on the exhibition? Which sessions should you attend? When should you hang out in the hotel lobby and catch up with your acquaintances.

3. Make a few conscious food choices

If possible, try to select a few extra nutritious meals from the buffet. Replace a coffee by a green juice or smoothie. Try to stock up on nutrients in a healthy way before you load up your plate at the dessert buffet. And then indulge in your favorite foods - a conference is not the place to put yourself on a strict diet. Just make sure you get what you need before you start with coffee, alcohol and sugar.

4. Exercise

Bring your sports clothes, and exercise! After sitting an entire day, the best treat you can give yourself is exercise: running in the city you are visiting, trying out the hotel gym or pool or practicing a yoga sequence in your room - just try to make time for movement, at least 15 minutes every day.

5. Find some quiet time to read or relax

If you feel that fatigue and overwhelm are starting to creep up, then try to withdraw from the noise and business for half an hour to read, sit in the sun, take a nap or whatever feels right for you at that moment. Taking this one small action might be just what you need to keep going again, and might work better than a double espresso.

What do you do to avoid crashing down with exhaustion by the end of a conference? Please share your tips in the comments below!

First Time at the TRB Annual Meeting

Last January, I attended the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington DC.

The Annual Meeting, nicknamed the Superbowl of Transportation, attracts between (estimated) 11000 and 20000 participants, of which 5000 international participants. The Annual Compendium of Papers holds about 2500 papers. Between 20% and 30% of these papers make it into the Transportation Research Record Journal, a journal that has seen its impact factor rise steadily over the past year: from 0,093 in 2003 to 0,482 in 2010 (click here for the full analysis).

TRB is by far the largest conference I ever attended. At first, I was absolutely overwhelmed, and therefore I decided to share my lessons learned with you:

1. Get the app

If you have a smartphone or tablet, make sure to get the app. In a next post I'll go at length into the excellent app and use of social media by TRB, but as for now it is most important to know that the app will hold your schedule, and will show you where to go.

2. Travel early

I arrived on Saturday evening, with the conference starting on Sunday morning (even though the schedule at a glance does not really show that you should expect to dive in at 8 am on Sunday:

As a result, I missed out on Transportation Camp on Saturday, and didn't really get to opportunity to get the jetlag out of the way.
If possible, I'd also recommend finding the time to explore the hotels and surroundings some time before the conference, to avoid loosing too much time trying to find your way around.

3. Prepare your schedule

If you use the app, prepare your schedule in the app (the online scheduling option won't sync to the app). Otherwise, use the online version and print it out or send it to your Outlook or Google Calendar.
With so many sessions, workshops and committee meetings to attend, you can't just decide on the go where to go. Also, keep in mind that the distance between rooms can be large, so you can't plan to hop from one session to the other.
Keep some time available to have a look at the exhibition hall as well.

4. Book early

I had to wait for my paper acceptance to request travel budget, but if you can, register early and book your hotel room early!
If you're late, you end up in one of the overflow hotels. Some of these hotels are just next to the three conference hotels, but for other hotels (like the Mayflower, where I stayed) you need to take the shuttle or the metro, and the commute becomes long (especially during rush hour).

5. Use the metro, not the shuttle

One morning, I left at 7:12 with the shuttle, only to make it at 8am to the conference hotels. The metro might be crowded, and have tracks that are closed, at least it is not influenced by rush hour traffic.

6. Define your committee(s) of interest

In the schedule, you can see which committees organize the sessions. If you are interested in the research supervised by one of the committees, it'd be wise to search by the committee number in the schedule.

7. Eat at odd times or locations

Trying to get food at lunch time or dinner time in one of the restaurants around the conference hotels is a challenge. Therefore, go a little earlier or later, or take the metro to a different location.

Have you attended TRB? What would you advise first time attendees? What would you have done differently?

TRB Annual Meeting - Social Media and an App, done Right

The Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board is the first conference I attended that really created a buzz online.

Attendees shared technical information, thoughts and discussion from the sessions, used Twitter to get into a dialogue, and to create a community (connecting, sharing tips of where to eat, and how to get around).

The result: a mass of tweets:

3,968 tweets using #TRBAM Sun. Jan. 13-Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. In 2012, we had 2,830 during the same #TRBAM timeframe cc: @my1sttrb
— TRB (@TRBofNA) January 23, 2013

I'll leave the analysis of why TRB managed to get this discussion going to the experts, but here are a few thoughts from my side:

• In every mail, on every opening screen, the @TRBofNA handle and the #TRBAM hashtag showed up.
• First time attendees were sent for help to the glorious @My1stTRB
• With over 10000 attendees, there must be a decent number of people that are into using Twitter for professional purposes. Percentage-wise this group might be the same as in other conferences that I attended, but the net number will be larger, which gets the discussion going.
• TRB is particularly welcoming to young members (up to 35 years). Being oriented towards younger people includes reaching out their means of communication too.
• @TRBofNA consistently tweets high-quality content, and has a large following.

Besides the great use of social media (especially Twitter), TRB also provided an app for its attendees. In my opinion, every conference should take this step. Here's what I liked so much about the app:

• you have your schedule in your pocket at all times
• you can read the abstract of the presentation, without having to carry the conference proceedings along
• you can quickly see where the room of the meeting or session will be
• you can type notes into the app

The TRB app is developed by Conference Compass, which turns out to be a company from Delft (a nice surprise, that is).

Powerposing to boost your conference presence

I recently feel very inspired by an article and a TED talk that I came across.

The article gives advice on how you can succeed at conferences as an introvert. As an introvert myself, going to a conference can feel like a daunting task, but I recognize myself very much in Brooke's story.

Similarly, I tend to give myself a virtual kick in the mind when I head out into a crowd of unknown, awfully smart people who might discover a flaw in my work. I tell myself to keep my shoulders low and my chin up. Little did I know that actually altering your posture might have a positive influence on your performance. Therefore, I feel eager to share Amy Cuddy's TED talk. She advices us, not to just "fake it until you make it", but to actually "fake it until you become it".



Do you have a way to push yourself out of your comfort zone during conferences?

Presentation at ACI Fall Convention

In a session on "Recent Developments in Reinforced Concrete Slab Analysis, Design and Serviceability" I gave the presentation for which you can find the slides in here:

Shear capacity of slabs and slab strips loaded close to the support

View more presentations from elantsoght

A variety of topics with regard to reinforced slabs were covered in the session: from punching reinforcement provisions, over the history of slab design and the development of prestressing methods and analysis for slabs.

Structural engineering conferences

There are a few websites I regularly check to see if there's an interesting conference coming up to which I should submit an abstract. These are:
ACI: International conferences
fib events
ASCE Conferences

After attending a few conferences, I now also receive calls for abstracts in my mailbox regularly.

Over the past two years, I've attended the following conferences:

Structural Faults and Repair
This is a conference specialized in repair and strengthening of existing structures. Case studies from practicing engineers as well as academic research are presented. It's organized in the marvelous city of Edinburgh.

fib PhD symposium in Civil Engineering
This conference is organized for PhD students, mainly for PhD students researching structural concrete. Presentations are 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion - so there is plenty of time to go in-depth. It's also a great place to practice presenting skills among your peers.

ASCE Structures Congress
Eight parallel tracks, featuring all topics related to structural engineering... This conference bundles a vast amount of expertise and information into a few days' worth of time - planning your schedule ahead is a must! I learned a lot on bridge engineering, as I chose to mainly attend the sessions in the bridge engineering track.

fib symposium
This conference is entirely focused on structural concrete - and I was very pleased to find several entire sessions dedicated to the problem of shear in concrete. Again, with several parallel tracks, planning your schedule in advance is required.

fib Symposium 2011 - paper and presentation

Last week, I attended the fib Symposium 2011 in Prague, and presented some of my experimental results in the Friday morning session on Construction Technology.

The full paper is published on the CD proceedings, and the short version of 4 pages is published in the printed version of the proceedings. The abstract is the following:

Reinforced concrete one-way slabs subjected to concentrated loads are designed for shear by checking beam shear over an effective width and punching shear. Only a limited number of test data regarding the shear capacity of one-way slabs subjected to concentrated loads is available. To better evaluate the shear capacity of reinforced concrete one-way slabs, a series of experiments has been carried out on continuous one-way slabs (5m x 2,5m x 0,3m) loaded close to the support. The influence of the shear span to depth ratio is discussed. Conclusions about the influence of this parameter on the one-way shear capacity of reinforced concrete slabs and possible explanations for the difference with beams are provided. Test results are compared to the Eurocode provisions and a method to calculate shear capacity from the literature. A higher shear strength is found as compared to the Eurocode. As a result of these experiments expressions resulting in a higher theoretical shear strength for the design of one-way slabs under concentrated loads are recommended.

The keywords were: Shear, One-Way Slabs, Effective Width

Here are the slides I used for my 12 minute presentation:

Experimental study of shear in reinforced concrete one way slabs subjected to concentrated loads

View more presentations from elantsoght.

As you can see, I added the tables with the experimental results which I used in the paper as a few extra slides at the end of my presentation. I didn't want to go over all the numbers during my talk, but I wanted to be prepared for more detailed questions. And in fact, I had a question about the flexural capacity of the tested slabs, so I could simply show the table with the reinforcement ratios and explain how we designed the reinforcement.

How much time does a conference take?

I'm getting ready for this spring's round of conferences (only two, I still need time for research of course) and I was thinking about the time a conference "really" takes. So, while I was in the gym today, I listed all the steps through which you need to go when attending a conference.

Step 1: Preparation - 33 hours

1.1. Finding a suitable conference - 1 hour
For a new PhD student, it's important to identify which conferences are important in your field, and have an idea how often these conferences take place as well as how long before the conference abstracts are due. I've submitted in late 2010 an abstract for a conference in 2012 to which I would love to go.
Your advisor might point you towards interesting conferences, or you might (as in my case) mainly feel like looking for them yourself and then propose going there to your supervisors. Keep an eye on the websites of technical committees in your field - they might organize a workshop on your topic during a certain conference.

1.2. Writing and submitting an abstract - 2 hours
Bring your abstract down to these four (six)pillars: (background), problem statement, (scope), methods, results and conclusions. I like to copy the questions from this website in a word document and simply answer the questions:
Why do we care about the problem and the results?
What problem are you trying to solve?
How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem?
What's the answer?
What are the implications of your answer?
Then I merge them into an abstract and call it a day. Submitting the abstract itself can be a separate task too - typically you'll be working your way through some online system and if you're a perfectionist like me, you'll feel the need to check, double-check and triple-check every step and waste a lot of time on the entire process.

1.3. Writing a paper - 20 hours
I've been tracking my time for the past 9 months now, and I've discovered that a conference paper takes me about 20 hours to write, while a journal paper or a paper for a special publication takes me 40 hours. I don't work in a straight 20 hours (that would mean I could finish a paper in half a week), instead of this I typically work in different stages: making the outline, making additional calculations and figures, throwing words to the screen, edit, re-edit, discuss with supervisor 1, edit, discuss with supervisor 2, edit, re-edit. The bulk of my time does go to the steps after making the outline and before showing it to someone else, in which I preferable work in isolation, but typically get disturbed by whatever is going on in the lab, educational tasks and other activities which at that moment distract me from my writing - which I don't like then. I should consider trying out this bulk phase in the library or at home.

1.4. Preparing a presentation - 6 hours
I tend to spend a fair amount of time on making carefully designed slides and then try out my presentation enough times to be sure I'm meeting the time restrictions. Over time, I might become more confident with this step and spend less time on it, but currently I prefer to have carefully prepared material and a well-rehearsed talk to kill my nerves.

1.5. Dreadful administration - 4 hours
I spent my entire morning and some part of my afternoon today on this work, and even though the forms are now digital and the workflow process is much better organized, I still dread this part. It's not science, it's administration and I tend to put it off because I don't consider it important. Requesting permission, registering, arranging the payment, booking the flight and booking the hotel all take some time.

Step 2: The conference - 3 days

2.1. Searching for interesting talks - 1 day before the start
Take some time to skim through the abstracts and set your itinerary for the conferences so you get the most of it. Allow some time to discover presentations on topics which at first you would not attend, and allow some time to simply rest during the day as well.

2.2. Networking - 3 days
Before even writing the abstract, you have probably looked at the organizing and scientific committees of the conference. Identify who you would like to talk to, but also allow plenty of time to meet new people: fellow PhD candidates, professors with years of experience, engineers from the industry - try to get a good sample of the population of the conference and resist the temptation to stick around with your peers.

2.3. The exhibition
The ideal chance to have a look at what is happening outside the walls of academia! I've not been paying enough attention to the exhibition on my conferences last year, but this time I'm planning to pay more attention to the input from the industry.

Step 3: The aftermath

3.1. Getting in touch - 2 hours
Classify the business cars you've collected, connect on LinkedIn or send an e-mail to your new acquaintances and write a message. I didn't get much further last year than just thanking a few people for the interesting discussion we had. I probably should do a little more effort to keep in touch, but I still am in doubt how to exactly do this.

3.2. Reconnect to the lab - 1 day
So what has happened while you were away? Talk briefly to all people involved in your project to feel "the temperature of the water". If the lab is boiling, solve a few problems, and get ready to dive back into your research work of every day. Don't forget to show your colleagues your trophies: announcements for conferences/workshops, the proceedings, and any interesting story you heard.

3.3. Tired? - 1 week
I noticed last year (when I went to 2 conferences in a row) how tiring conferences can be. I had been continuously in sponge-mode (trying to soak all information around me from presentations, the exhibition, talking to people) that I had an overly full head when I came back home. Just allow yourself some rest, and time to let all the new information and impressions sink to the bottom.

How much time do you devote to the preparation of a conference?

Reimbursement

I was happy to see that there is a new PhD comic today, titled "Reimbursement"

I've heard similar stories, of course, but I am glad to write here that TU Delft has a perfect method for travel arrangements, and I think it could inspire other universities as well. Traveling for conferences can be expensive, and for graduate students it can be financially very painful to be waiting and waiting until after the conference the reimbursement can be arranged. I really appreciate the way my university has solved this, in what I think is a very elegant way.

When I plan to go to a conference, it is important to start arranging well ahead of the registration deadline. Here's how it works:

Registration
I fill out the registration, but the central finance services of university take care of the payment for the registration. It does take 4 to 6 weeks to arrange it, but I don't need to pull out my credit card at all.
WIN!

Flight
I contact the university's travel agency, and they book the flight for me and e-mail me the link to the e-ticket. There's also a group insurance to take care of us in case something goes wrong.
Again, this doesn't cost me a cent at all. WIN!

Other costs
The secretaries have files in which examples of estimated costs per major city in all possible countries are listed. Based on those rates, an estimate of our costs during our traveling is estimated, and two weeks before the conference 70% of these costs are put into our account.

I think this is a very good solution, and a great way to stimulate graduate students to get moving and take their story abroad without the menace of an excessive credit card debt.