William Son Galanza went to meet his mentor from his affiliation in the Swetaly University Collaboration, Professor Lorenzo Chiari, an expert in digital health and biomarkers. William is particularly interested in Chiari's knowledge about telerehabilitation and healthy and active ageing, and the evaluation of movement, balance, and fall risk with wearable sensors.
– This was the first time I felt the potential of international and interdisciplinary work with an Italian collaborator. The meetings and discussions made me appreciate how valuable it is to engage with experts from different fields, not only for gaining new insights on how research is done in other European universities, but also for sparking ideas that would have never emerged within the confines of my research team.
Now he also knows how it is to live in Italy.
– I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in an old residential complex with a typical Italian internal courtyard.
What did you more learn during your research trip?
– One of the main outcomes of my visit is that I gained a deeper understanding of the fall prediction study on the DARE (Digital Life Long Prevention) project, the procedure, materials, and their challenges in implementation, especially among more frail older adults. I now have a more concrete knowledge of conceptualizing and potentially considering its application in Sweden, says William Son Galanza.
He met PhD students and postdocs doing similar studies and gave a seminar on his own project and the research at Movement and Reality Lab (MoRe-Lab) in Lund.
– My experience with co-production and structural equation modelling was recognized as a potential starting point for collaboration, says William Son Galanza who also discussed an Italian visit in Sweden in the future and a draft of a common project grant application.
He also had a couple of meetings to shadow in the data collection to predict falls.
– The visit was challenging yet one of the most rewarding experiences of my academic journey. Parallel to my visit, I worked on my studies, working on two detailed analyses, drafting two manuscripts, and steadily advancing my thesis.
His visit in Italy was partially funded by SWEAH travel grant (SEK 29,980).
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