Because this was a summer research internship program, I spent about 30-40 hours a week in the offices and labs of RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany. My primary internship project was characterizing the impact of metal 3D support structures on support removal time. The goal was to determine what support geometry is easiest to remove while still providing adequate support structure to build a quality part. Through this project, I designed test parts in SolidWorks, set up experiment plans in Minitab, ran calculations in MATLAB, and analyzed data in Minitab and MATLAB. Additionally, I learned a lot about new developments in the field of metal 3D printing. This technology has a lot of potential to create a more sustainable manufacturing workflow, which alligns with my GCSP theme of sustainability. By determining the optimal support settings for best removal, we also aimed to reduce the total amount of material that is used to create a part, as well as the energy that is required. Because of this experience, I will embrace these new technologies in my future work as they will help transition to a more sustainable manufacturing environment.

Because I had spent some time in Germany through an exchange program in high school, I wanted to use this experience to increase my German language skills. In order to do this, I tried to speak to my supervisors and coworkers primarily in German. I found that speaking to people in their own language when one is in a host country makes people a lot more welcoming. In fact, it is not even that important that someone speaks the language well, but rather that they are really trying to learn and get better with the language. This shows that you are making an effort to learn the language and culture of the host community, which makes them much more welcoming to you. 

Spending time in a workplace in Germany taught me a lot about the German work culture and I had many learning experiences that I would have missed out on had I not been in that work environment.

Additionally, I was very impressed by how much thought was put into sustainability in the workplace environment. Sustainability was made a core part of the workplace, from the building itself being energy efficient, to smart lighting schemes, to workers always keeping sustainability in mind when developing new technologies. Many of my coworkers were working on projects to measure and analyze the effect of these new manufacturing technologies on the environment. One coworker developed a tool that analyzes the cost and environmental impact of building a part using different manufacturing methods. This prevalance of sustainable thinking in the workplace has inspired me to integrate sustainability into my future workplace culture and connects back to my GCSP theme of sustainability.

I spent a lot of time doing sports on the weekdays and traveling on the weekends. I lived in a WG, or 'Wohngemeinschaft', which translates to living community, during my time in Aachen. This consisted of about 12 university students living together in a shared flat with 4 stories. It was a great experience living in this community because there was a great community. We would often cook dinner together, play board games, and sometimes drink together afterwards. This helped me learn a lot about the specific local community in Aachen. 

I would also often go running or to the gym after work. Some people in my workplace would go to the gym before or after work together, but I did not join them since that gym was further away. Still, this really speaks to the sense of community I experienced in the workplace. I did find some german friends to go running with and that gave me a greater circle of friends from people outside of the DAAD program and my work. I also had a great experience going to the gym, which was a smaller, old-school style gym. This was a hardcore bodybuilding gym, which was a bit scary at first, but the people there were the some of the kindest people I have met. Since there were only about 20 people who regularly showed up to that gym in the hours that I would go there, there was a big sense of community there. People would give me training tips and I would get to know some of the other people there. This was a very different experience than some of the gyms I had been to in the U.S., where most people had headphones in and were just focused on their own workout. The majority of people in this gym did not have headphones, which speaks to the openness of that community.

Aachen is located very close to many major cities and countries in Europe. I traveled to a new city almost every weekend using the great train system and saw a lot of new places and cultures. It was also wonderful to reconnect with old friends and my host family from my exchange year in my sophomore year of high school. Overall, my DAAD experience was one of the best summers of my life, and I was able to gain a much deeper understanding of the German culture and life there than I had before.