Nicholas Erni: May 8th
Today was an extremely long day once again, the longest of the trip excluding the travel day. We woke up and were out of the hotel @ 8:00 am and did not arrive back home until 9:30 pm. The day started with scenic a 2 hour bus ride throughout southern Germany to the town of Regensburg where the company Continental is located.
After the 2 hour ride and 1 hour nap, we were ready to go for a tour of the city. We started off in the middle plaza of Regensburg, our tour guide gave us descriptions of the large houses surrounding the town. The majority of them used to belong to rich patriarchs in which was Germanys second largest city at one point with 20,000 inhabitants. The city proved to be a powerhouse for spice trading and battling, as it is located on the largest river that runs through Germany, the Danube.
The Danube connects countless smaller rivers together and eventually brings all the water back to the Black Sea. The extremely rich empire, resulted in a richness of architectural feats. Two of the main attractions to tourists as well as myself personally, were the St. Peters cathedral and the bridge that stretches over the Danube. The Cathedral comes in first for being the most beautiful cathedral I have seen in Germany, yet it is a close second to my favorite cathedral, the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh, PA. The cathedral has various different designs representing architectural ideas from different time periods. This is due to the fact the cathedral took so long to build. 200 years to be exact. The detail featured outside and inside is absolutely stunning. One feat of engineering I admired was the worlds largest hanging organ. It was literally hanging from 4 steel wires over the cathedral.
A story I found interesting was the competition between the builder of the cathedral and the builder of the bridge. These two architects were given two extremely difficult jobs, yet while building, they completed to see who could finish their project first and be labeled the greatest architect of the time. Featured on the bridge is a statue of the architect looking over at the cathedral in which was finished first. The bridge even though it was finished last, is an incredible engineering feat of the time. To build such a massive structure over an extremely large, aggressively flowing river is absurd. Credit in my mind should be given two with architects, as their feats are both equally impressive in my opinion.
After the tour of Regensburg we took a short 15 minute ride over to Continental, in which is my company I will be presenting on. Right when you arrive on campus it is evident the company is very into the automotive industry. Nearly every car driven by the workers was a BMW, Audi or Mercedes Benz. The room we walked into was littered with goods the company was gifting us with. The first presentation we were given surrounded Continentals purpose to innovating in the industries it participates in as well as showing us their true mission. After this we went to lunch where I had my first even schnitzel . It was alright, I would give it a 6.5/10.
After lunch we made our way back to the presentation room where one of the heads of innovation, Dr. Thomas gave us a lecture on innovation and ownership. The main purpose of this presentation, was to encourage us students to take ownership of our ideas, and pursue our passions. This idea is employed in Continental everyday, due to the fact their environment is changing so rapidly with new technologies. Dr. Thomas stated one of Continental’s main focuses right now is on Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is being addressed in the company in a multitude of ways, such as engineering new softwares for cars developing new machines to produce their cars, tech, and other products in a more efficient manner.
This display of innovation was right in front of us when we took our tour through the production plant. Before entering every student was ordered to put on a jacket type thing, special shoes covers, and leave or phones behind. This is an effort by Continental to keep out static electricity from their technology plants. The static electricity can inhibit and hurt the machinery which produces their various products. The production plant we visited in Augsburg was a hub for computer boards and other advanced tech. The tour guide told my group it almost acts as the Continental technology incubator, due to the fact new programs and protocols are tested here. One of my favorite examples from this dealt with the little robots they had roaming around the plant. These robots had the ability to deliver products around the plant without the help from human direction. This was just the tip of the technology on display, other parts I was able to admire in my hour inside the plant included presses, programming machines, and other mind-blowing robots. (Sorry for the poor descriptions of the technology, my engineering terminology is not up to par).
After the amazing tour at Continental the group ventured back to Regensburg for an amazing dinner at Weltenburger. This was a traditional German restaurant, with some of the best food I have had so far on the trip. I got schnitzel for the second time today, and this proved to be what I was expecting it to be. The breading on the pork was made from pretzels, the pork was covered in fried onions and potatoes and then drenched in bier sauce. This had to be my favorite meal on the trip up to this date with an exceptional rating of a 10/10. A
After this filling meal, we headed back to the bus for a fun 2 hour bus ride where my group collected the information we gathered today and put together and outline of what we will be working on for the next couple days.
Today my car of the day goes to an Audi RS5, this car is not a huge standout vehicle, but it is truly powerful.