Meet the local ESRA Committee

A Day in the Life of Thijs Carrière

Hi all, I’m Thijs Carrière, a PhD student in the Methodology and Statistics department of Utrecht University. My research focuses on app-based data collection and the effects of giving participants control over the data collection process. My work is part of a project of Dr Bella Struminskaya in which we develop a sustainable and open-source research app. Within the ESRA team, I was tasked with arranging hotels for the conference.

To let you learn more about me, I will take you along on a typical day of my life. As I live in Zeist, a village near Utrecht Science Park, I take the bike to the university every day. Now that the weather has been getting better over the past weeks, biking through nature for 20 minutes to the campus is definitely a nice way to start the day!

This morning, I am attending a longer meeting with the team that develops the research app. We discussed in detail what functionalities we want the app to have to collect geolocation data, where, again, my focus is on the features that would provide study participants with more control and privacy over the way such data is being collected.

During lunchtime, I decide to go for a walk in the University’s Botanical Gardens. Now it’s spring again; there is so much to see here, and visiting the beautiful butterfly garden forms the perfect break activity! With the (hopefully!) nice weather in July, I strongly recommend visiting these gardens during ESRA!

This afternoon, I spent most of my time working on my PhD papers. Later in the afternoon, I attend a Data Quality-group meeting. In this bi-weekly meeting, we meet up with all researchers interested in data quality or survey-related research. Today, Camilla presents her recent work on voice-answered survey questions. The Data Quality group makes up a large part of the ESRA local committee.

Today’s evening, we have another Data Quality group meeting: to celebrate Peter’s promotion to full professor, we are going out for a dinner at restaurant Blaauw, specialized in Indonesian food. Of course, I will take a bike to travel from the campus to the city center of Utrecht. This also allows me to pass by Broese, the big bookshop at the Oudegracht. I think this is one of the nicest bookshops in Utrecht, and I enjoy looking for new books or gifts for other people. I hope to find a nice book to give to Peter, but otherwise, I am certain that I will find some more books for me to read! After finding some nice books at Broese, I quickly biked to the restaurant, and I was more than ready for dinner! 😉