Sadly today was the last official day on program. Today all of our hard work visiting and interviewing companies such as Grob, Forvia, Hoerbiger, and Audi come to completion. We will give our final presentations with our group on the company to which we were assigned. I was given Audi. What I enjoyed most about this presentation was the chance to work with the German students. It was interesting to see their different take on the company and how they work. When completing the presentation we noticed many differences in our schooling styles just by making a presentation. In the US, normally professors prefer less information on the powerpoint and more knowledge directly from the student. But the students from Germany in our group told us it is the opposite for them. This was quite interesting.
We fortunately got to sleep in this day and we didn’t meet to practice until around 12:30. This gave me and the other American students to get lunch at the mensa before rehearsing. What I found interesting was that the mensa was all vegan. You would never find the eatery at Pitt all vegan for a day. After eating, we met with the German students to practice our presentation. While practicing we realized some minor spelling or information mistakes. However, we had one major issue. One of the main slides that needed to be presented somehow got deleted. Thankfully someone had the original presentation saved so we were easily able to recover the slide in time to present. Crisis averted. When we finished running through our time was at about 29 minutes which is almost right on the mark for the 30 minute presentation.
We then had our presentation at 2 and my group was second to go. I think our presentation went well along with the three others. I found all interesting and contained the same message. Each company whether tier 1, tier 2, or OEM need to switch from regular ICEs to electrical in the near coming future, especially in Europe as they have laws in place that forbid ICEs. What varied between these companies was their adaptability to this new change. Companies like Audi are all set to make the change and have gone into action so far as they plan to be fully electric by 2026. However, companies like Hoerbiger I fear will suffer when that time comes. Have of their business is automotive, strictly working on pieces that are only relevant to ICEs. This side of the company will either need to change or adapt their product or go under once electrical cars are the only option. The other part of the company should be okay as they make parts for all expertise such as the medical department.
To end the day, a few friends and I went to Rewe a grocery store by our hotel for some snacks for later and then ventured to get some gelato. This was only my second time having gelato and I enjoyed it greatly. It was only 1.50 euros for one scoop which I thought was a great deal. After eating our gelato we went to Ratskeller for dinner which was in the basement of the town hall. There I ordered the traditional pork schnitzel which was again a hit. After dinner we retired to the hotel to finish packing since we leave in two days.
