Tuesday, May 16th
What a fun day! Today we started off the day on a journey to Utrecht, a city outside of Amsterdam. I would describe the city as similar to Amsterdam, but a little less touristy and spread out. We began the day at Aurea Imaging where we had a lecture and tour by Ruan. He talked about his background and how he was a Political Science major in college, but later realized he has a passion for drones. Aurea Imaging is a leading crop intelligence provider for fruit growers and breeders. They use drones to collect data from crops about emergence, flowering, temperature, crop health, and growth. With this data they are able to determine which plants need assistance and or have good bud re-growth. Though this process and the machines are expensive it saves farmers with large amounts of land time and energy. Without this technology the farmers would have to walk around their land and look at each plant one by one. This process represents the concept to consumers well because engineers have come up with this idea and technology that has helped make the consumers effective and efficient at their job. Something that I think would be cool to have later is self flying drones that could be programmed with coordinates to the location of the farm. This would help save time and money of finding licensed drone pilots in that area. I also learned on this visit that I would really enjoy working in a small work place when it is time for me to find a job. The building was rented out by many small start ups and those companies were able to rent out rooms for events. This is a great concept because when you have a small team it can get lonely. This way you can meet others outside of your company and have a flexible work space.
We then went to the center of Utrecht and had a personal tour from Sophia. Utrecht was once not a part of The Netherlands and was its own city/ state. We got to walk around the streets, see the state house, walk in some university buildings, and visit a beautiful church. Dr. Bursic and Frank were so kind and got everyone ice cream that everyone got to enjoy by the water. Thank you!!!! The church was particularly interesting because it once was a Catholic Church which was evident by some of the artwork inside. During the Protestant Revolution the church was taken over and the statues of the saints were beheaded. This was because Protestants do not believe in the saints. This was something that I did not know about and was really intrigued by some of the history in that area.
After our day of touring we headed back to Amsterdam. A group of us decided to rent bikes and tour the city just like the locals. The city is definitely hard to navigate, but truly an amazing experience overall. I really enjoyed today and was happy to have a sunny day. Our trip is nearing the end which makes me sad, but that just means that we have to make the most of the next few days!!
