Looking back at the two weeks I spent in Germany, I couldn’t be any happier with how it went. The company visits were amazing. From seeing molten metal being molded into different components at Hirschvogel, a completely electronic assembly line complete with robot helpers at Continental, and cars being assembled in front of us at…

Day 13: I apologize in advance for all of the car photos. There were amazing ones that I had to include, and so many more amazing ones that there wasn’t room for. The day started early as Frank and I needed to catch our train to Stuttgart at 7:05am. It was a little stressful trying…

Day 12: We woke up around 7:30 to leave for a traditional Bavarian breakfast at 8:30am, and my headache from the night before was completely gone. We boarded the bus and rode deep into the German countryside. We stopped at a place called Baindlkirch. Baindkirch is a small sausage place that is a less frequented…

Day 11: We didn’t need to be at the university for our presentations until 1:00pm, but we were there at 9:15 in the morning to finish up preparing and making sure everything was in order. We had the presentation submitted by noon, and then headed up to lunch at the Mensa before heading to the…

Day 10: I started off today excited for Ulm, as we would be able to see the view from the top of the tallest church in the world, the Münster. To get to Ulm, we took one of the faster trains that you can take in Europe, the ICE. We departed right from Munich, and…

Day 9: After a heavy previous day, we got up and got ready for our last company visit, SGL Carbon. We hopped on the bus and rode quickly there, anxiously awaiting it as it seemed like a very interesting company, and it being our last visit meant that everyone would be able to really get…

Day 8: We woke up for 9:00am again for today’s visit, and after eating a quick breakfast boarded the bus to Dachau. The 45-minute ride went by quickly as I worked on Munich’s blog for most of the trip. When we arrived, we walked through the puddles of the gravel parking lot and into the…

Day 7: Today wasn’t as early as previous days, only needing to leave the hotel at 9:00am (when it was announced we didn’t need to leave until then we all applauded). I got up, ate breakfast, and we left for the train station. The walk was about twenty minutes, and we got there a little…

Day 6: Today was Faurecia, a large automotive supplier employing more than 110,000 people. More than one-third of all cars on the road have at least one Faurecia component inside. The facility that we saw today oversaw developing and producing the exhaust systems for different vehicles. Because this specific facility was located right in Augsburg,…

Day 5: Today was Audi, the visit that convinced me to apply for Plus3 Germany in the first place. The day started out early as the bus was leaving for Ingolstadt at 7:15am. I unfortunately missed breakfast because I mistakenly set my alarm for 6:45am instead of 5:45am, so I had to spend that time…

Day 4: The day started early, getting up at 6:45 so that Nick (my roommate) and I could talk to the hotel receptionist about some Wi-Fi issues we were having in the room, being that there was no Wi-Fi. After giving them our room number and a quick breakfast, the group reconvened for the long…

Day 3: The day started off nice, taking a bus at 8:00am to the Hirschvogel factory in Denklingen which is about 30 miles south of Augsburg. Along the way, we rode through the German countryside again, a lot like the first day. There were large open fields and rolling hills that at one point turned…

Day 2: We started off the day with breakfast in the hotel at around 7:30am, getting ready to leave for the University of Augsburg at 8:15am. We walked down to the tram station (about 5 minutes away from the hotel) and rode the tram to the University. Today it was still cold, starting out in…

Hey everyone! My name is Lucas and I am currently a first-year student studying here at the Swanson School of Engineering. In addition to a mechanical engineering major, I am pursuing an economics minor, and eventually, intend to pursue a minor in industrial engineering. Additionally here, I have been involved in clubs like the American…