Today started a bit later than yesterday, with a brief but informative presentation about the Bilbao School of Engineering. It was fascinating to learn how different the engineering program is here compared to back home, especially the significantly lower cost of education, which surprised (and maybe even annoyed) all of us. After that, we visited three projects that students at the university are currently working on: an F1-style race car, an electric guitar, and a rocket.
Our group started with the race car. The professor in charge of the club explained to us how the racing worked; essentially, the team of students had to build the car completely from scratch and make sure it could withstand all weather conditions. After watching the students put duct tape all around the car, we got to see them do a water test to ensure the car was fit for rainy conditions. Apparently, it hadn’t passed the day before, but today it did! We then went into the lab where they do some of the work for the car. The professor talked about the race itself and some of the stats of the car; the top speed wasn’t very fast at around 100 to 108 kilometers per hour, and the car could (at maximum strength) reach this speed from rest in about 3 seconds. Last year, the team won four trophies at the competition, so seeing the engineering and technology behind the success was very cool.
After that, we visited the guitar-making lab, where the students would use recycled materials and different electrical components to create a working instrument. I was super interested in this project because I could actually understand a lot of the science behind what the professor was talking about; things like magnetic fields and electric signals that we learned about in Physics 2 this past semester were finally being put to a more practical and fascinating application. The professor explained that the pickups on the base of the guitar could detect the variation of magnetic fields from the vibrations of the strings and transmit that to play the music through the amplifier. Circuitry and electrical signals play a part in bioengineering, so it was super exciting to see how that science can be applied to something as artistic and meaningful as music (which I really love). We also had a jam session and heard one of the hand-made guitars in action; it was overall a lot of fun!!
We then visited the third and final lab: the rocket lab. There, students are working on building rockets with the ambitious goal of reaching the Kármán line, the edge of where our atmosphere ends and space begins. The presentation about the rockets was engaging, but my favorite part of the experience was when we got to explain to the students the tradition of waving around the rally towels at football games. It was a fun little cultural exchange moment. The projects we explored today really motivated me to engage more with organizations like those we have available on campus at Pitt!
After lunch, we did a walking tour through Bilbao’s Old Town. There were so many beautiful buildings and charming little shops, plus places for pintxos that we are definitely going to visit later this week. I took a lot of pictures and really enjoyed the walk through the streets of such a historically rich area of Spain. Between visiting the labs and walking through Old Town, today was a truly amazing and fun day, and I can’t wait to go back shopping and eat pintxos!