 My name is Adele Young, I am from Trinidad and Tobago and I just completed my MSc in water science and engineering with a specialisation in hydraulic engineering and neurophobesian development. I actually heard of IG some time ago. I really wanted to specialise in my field and I knew they specialised in water studies. So online I would have seen the type of programmes they had but unfortunately I would not have been able to apply because I don't have the resources or the money to come to the institute. I thought maybe I could do a short course. I went back to the website and I looked at the short courses and during that experience I realised that there was the VISTA fellowship I thought okay this is a perfect opportunity to actually go there and do what I wanted to do for such a long time. So within a one month period I actually applied and I submitted my application and I was successful. At the time that I applied to do this course I was working in a consultancy back home and many of my projects were based on land use development, looking at spotter regularisation and in particular we looked at infrastructure design and I saw that there was really a need to go into more detail and develop aspects of that. For example looking at flood risk assessments, looking at drainage design which is one of the reasons why I chose this topic of hydraulic engineering and neurophobesian development especially in the Caribbean where more and more we're seeing that there's like a lack of preparedness and resilience towards our extreme events. I think this field of study really opens up a lot of opportunities and can really bring back much needed skill to the Caribbean. What can I bring to this field but it's not necessarily about killing up at something as I said ground breaking but rather using what is already existing to come up with something that is new. So I think while I've been here I've been exposed to so many different things and you're knowing it's not only from a technical point of view but you have so many other aspects to consider whether it be social, environmental or what not. Really just adapt to your surroundings and I can get an example of that really is I think crowdsourcing of data which has existed for so many years. In terms of like floods or disasters people are always taking pictures of the impacts of floods but now they're realising you can actually use this data towards like validating and calibration models so you can actually just adapt to it. Just adapt what you already have and evolve it into something new and innovative. I mean most of my experiences have been in the Caribbean so I can't speak about other countries or even other cities but I think personally there's a gap between research and industry. So for example you have people doing research, you have people in the industry doing their jobs but there's no interlinkage, there's no transfer of skills in that respect. And being here I've really been exposed to a strong research base and a strong knowledge base and I think that really needs to be developed. So how I would like to implement these skills is really bridging that gap using what technology and what ideas and approaches have been successful in other countries and trying to translate it and really just downscale it to a Caribbean perspective. So I always tell people if you want to hear God laugh you tell him your plans because everything is just really so unpredictable and you just don't know what will happen. But from a professional point of view I think after the COP23 in Bonn last year which was hosted by Fiji I think there's a lot of much needed impact and focus that's been put on sits and with the most recent disasters in the eastern Caribbean. I think there's a lot more focus in the Caribbean islands and with the future I really hope to just be a part of that momentum and contribute in whatever way that I can.