AVA Tom Troscianko Award and ECVP funded me to not only attend and present my work at one of the best conference in Visual perception but also to visit different labs where I learnt new techniques (TMS), discussed ideas for future work and met many researchers with whom I have always dreamed to work with.
During my 27 days UK trip, I visited University of Liverpool (presented my work at ECVP2015), York University (to meet Prof. Alan Baddeley), Manchester University (to meet Prof. John Wearden), University of Sussex (for one week, Prof. Anil Seth’s lab, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science) and University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (for one week, Prof. Patrick Haggard’s Action and Body lab).
ECVP2015 conference was very well organized and it was fun filled right from the opening session of Tim’s Vermeer documentary to the farewell dance party at Bombed out Church. Tim’s work and movie were very inspiring; it taught me how to work dedicatedly towards one goal. Keynote lectures as well as the venue where they were delivered both were amazing. Illusion parade was fun. Talks and poster sessions were full of novel and interesting findings in the field of perception. I got many compliments and feedback for my poster titled “Intentional action expands time perception: An ERP study”.
Meeting Prof. Alan Baddeley and Prof. John Wearden,was like an honor as I met two of the Legends in Cognitive Science, one in the field of ‘working memory’ and other in the field of ‘time perception’. Discussion with them regarding my thesis work, and time perception was very insightful.
Both the lab visits i.e. University of Sussex and UCL-ICN, was very helpful as it gave me opportunity to see their labs, meet the lab members and discuss their work in detail, attend lab meetings, understand and participate in their experiments. I also got an opportunity to give a presentation on my PhD work, and I am glad everyone appreciated it and was critically discussed.
Along with visiting these labs I also got the opportunity to see many museums, art galleries, monuments, parks, famous cathedrals and serene beauty of UK. I met people of different cultures and I truly found people of UK very helpful and sweet, especially Liverpool. This being my first international visit everything was new to me, but I got all the help I needed.
For many people this may be just like any other travel award but for me it is one of the best things that happened. It gave me opportunities which I always dreamed of.
I would like to acknowledge the support of AVA Tom Troscianko Award committee, ECVP, CSIR, CBCS, Marco Bertamini, Alan Baddeley, John Wearden, Anil Seth, Patrick Haggard, Ashish Kumar, Narayanan Srinivasan and all the people who have helped me, supported me, and who have accepted my requests and have given their valuable time to me. And last but not the least I would like to thank my parents, friends, and family without them this visit would not have been possible. Thank You
Mukesh Makwana (University of Allahabad)