Today we had a super unique experience at a Dutch university today! The University was called InHolland, where we got a hands on experience with aerospace and aeronautical engineering! We took the train to Delft and took a walk on this beautiful day down to the university, where we were greeted by some current students and led up to a lecture room. We were given firstly a presentation about the university – which surprisingly has a huge population of various international students from all over the globe! We also got a detailed run down of what exactly this kind of engineering entails, which was so interesting to see considering we don’t offer it at Pitt. We were also given a presentation about the progression of aviation over the years and what the future entails for methods of comfort and sustainability. This truly allowed me to critically think from a business perspective of concept to consumer. I observed how the original demand was to simply fly a plane period, and how that concept has shifted over the years from that original goal, to war usage, to shipment and passengers, and now to achieve high level comfort and sustainability. The concept and goal has changed periodically and engineers have adjusted to meet current demands. After these presentations we had a yummy lunch break and then began a walking tour of the university. We firstly got to see a flight simulator that a current student was working on reprogramming to be functional to actually train pilots again as it once did before. I even got to try flying it for a few seconds – which I managed to set off an alarm in the simulation for. I don’t think flying’s my call. Afterwards we walked around the university some more and got explained a future potential project to send their own student built satellite into orbit! The project is projected to be finished in 2027 and the students have made steady progress so far. To finish off our day at the university, we had an interactive activity to build our own planes and have a competition whose could soar the farthest. I am very much not an engineer so I definitely struggled trying to put a plane together, but we ended up not doing too bad. The university was so cool seeing because it was such a different environment than what I’m used to at Pitt. It was also so informative to see engineering projects I usually don’t see in the business world and see how my role in business can work hand and hand with engineers.
After our explorations at the university we all had an ice cream run provided by our great professors (thank you!!) for some “freak shakes”. They were crazy but so so good. It started pouring right after we sat down to eat so we got to escape the downpour for our sweet treat. I settled on the pink dragon flavor – a strawberry milkshake topped with every pink candy you can think of!
We also took a boat tour of the city in a canal! It was very similar to Amsterdam but less touristy with a lot of beautiful landmarks to see on the journey. We also stopped for dinner while we were in town and I got a flatbread at a cute local restaurant. We took the train back home and took it easy for tonight to prepare for another early day tomorrow to take on the North Sea!
