Today was a very stressful day! Everyone had free time until 2 P.M, when the presentations began. Each group had a maximum of 25 minutes to present their topics, and 10 minutes for questions. Our Faurecia presentation mostly focused on a PESTLE analysis, as well as the company’s research and development innovations. My group was specifically focusing on Faurecia’s new project, which was developing hydrogen fuel cell storage systems for hydrogen powered vehicles.
Sydney, Oday and I started off the day early at about 9 am, where we ate breakfast and took the tram on our own to the University of Augsburg. Oday forgot our gift for the Augsburg students back at the hotel, and he had to run back and take the tram on his own. Oday eventually made it to us, but it was tough finding him at the University because of very little cell service.
At the University, the three of us finalized our scripts for our presentation and practiced with each other. It was very difficult to work on our presentations, however, as our iPhone hotspots refused to work. We eventually borrowed Niko’s phone, an Augsburg student from another group, and finally were able to work after almost an hour hiatus. Elena and Clara didn’t come until about noon, when we had to eat lunch at the University. After lunch, we planned to meet Mona at 1 to go over our presentation at least once as a group. But Mona didn’t arrive until 1:50! During our hour of practice, Clara and I at least got to rehearse our parts together, as they were both about research and development.
Our team got to present second overall, which was really nice as I didn’t have to think about my speaking part for too long! I put on my near-sighted glasses to look more intelligent, and we took the stage. My part was towards the end of the presentation, right after Oday’s. We were given a five minute warning during Oday’s section of the presentation, so I had to shave off a decent portion of my speaking points. In the end, I still felt pretty good about the presentation as a whole, and was super relieved to be done with the academic portion of Plus 3!
My favorite part of the rest of the presentations had to be when Peter directed a question at Oday, who decided to later get his revenge on Peter. Oday sat in the front for Peter’s presentation, and asked him a question as well.
Everyone did a great job on their presentations today! Watching everyone present today was a wildly different experience than our initial presentations in Pittsburgh, as I felt like I had more of a stake in the success of my Plus 3 peers’ presentations. We’ve all come so far as a group, and I can’t believe the program is about to come to an end.
After our presentations were over at 6:00, we left for the hotel to change for our final dinner together at Ratskeller. I ordered a chicken mushroom dish with a side of spätzle (not mac n cheese), which was fairly tasty. Jason and I were coincidentally sitting next to each other, so we continued out trend of feeding each other. We ended the dinner with a final goodbye to Maxi, in the form of a glorious photo op.
Join me tomorrow for our final day in Salzburg. Bis Morgen!