05/10/2026 Today we departed from Enschede and stopped in Munster for a day trip before making our way back across the country to Rotterdam in the evening. While in Munster we started our day off with a small tour of a portion of the city where we learned about the history of many of the…
Tag: Aleks Fiedler
Enschede: A City Underwater
05/09/2026 Today we had the opportunity to walk around the city of Enschede, by which the university of Twente is located. Before going off on our own to explore we met with a municipal employee who gave us a guided tour of some of the city and described how the city needs to deal with…
Windmills, Modern and Medieval
05/08/2026 Today we got to tour the campus of the University of Twente with a sustainability lens, the wind farm Windpark Groen, and the Medieval town of Elburg. This morning we got to walk around campus and look at the features that have added to make the buildings more energy efficient and integrated into the…
Ducks Geese and Swans Oh My
Today we had a long day of traveling by bus to the city of Enschede to visit the University of Twente. Once arriving we really got to stretch our legs with a walking tour of the campus, which is a lot more similar to an american university campus than other schools in the Netherlands, and…
Wooden Windmills and Clogs!
Today we took a train out to Zaanse Schanse to see some original windmills on the coast that are still operational. While there we also got to see some other classic dutch symbols like a clog workshop and the process at Henry Willig to make cheese. While in Zhaanse Schanse we got to see some…
The Neighborhood Built With a Goal
Today we had plenty of time to nap between our morning site visits as we drove out to a family owned tulip farm, a floating neighborhood in northern Amsterdam, and a company that works to design functional buildings with extremely high sustainability ratings. The Schoonship neighborhood was built by a group of friends with a…
Canals Chocolate and Clothes
Once arriving in the Netherlands with very little sleep, we got right into our tours with a canal cruise around Amsterdam. We learned about how they regulate the water levels or move water through them using the lock and dam system. As we moved through the canals we got to see the many house boats…
Excited for The Netherlands!
Hi! I’m Aleks Fiedler, a Pittsburgh native and a First-Year student in the Swanson School of Engineering studying Chemical Engineering. I also will be working towards a minor in Materials Science Engineering and the sustainability certificate during my time at Pitt. While at Pitt so far, I’ve joined the Engineers without borders chapter, Pitt AIChE,…