Today was our last official day on the Plus3 Germany trip, capping off the program with the final group presentations. 4 groups have a half hour presentation on each company we toured in the previous week – Hoerbiger, GROB-WERKE, FORVIA, and lastly Audi. The groups were composed of both German and American students, and was the highlight of collaboration between the groups of students. 

Before the presentation, I met with my group of 7 at the University of Augsburg to practice our presentation and complete the final error checks. Some errors were found and fixed, and our presentation was on the target or 28 minutes, exactly where we wanted it to be. Satisfied with our work, the group went to lunch at the university’s Mensa. 

The menu in the Mensa was all vegan today; I had vegan meatballs and vegetables over ramen, a small salad, sparkling apple juice, and fries with “fries sauce” (it was just mayonnaise). The meatballs were very salty, but the rest of the meal was very good. Throughout the meal, the Americans kept saying that the Mensa was so much better than the Eatery food at Pitt; it most definitely was. We’re all sad to have to return to American food in a few days.

The presentations went very well, for every group. They were all very descriptive about the company, and very insightful about the future of the company given the changes in the automotive industry. The overall message was that there is a strong need for automotive OEMs to shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric ones. How each of these companies are approaching this shift is different, with some more prepared to do so than others. But there’s no denying that change is coming, and we are very likely to see these changes in the next 10-15 years.

After a short break and a stop for ice cream, we had our send-off dinner at the Ratskeller in the basement of the Rathausplatz in Augsburg. The majority of students had pork schnitzel with fries, and a tall glass of water. The dinner was the perfect send-off to our wonderful trip, but will make me miss my time in Germany.