Freshman year of college was one of the best years of my life and Plus3 Germany was the perfect way to close it out. I remember hearing a presentation on how engineers can study abroad at Pitt. The presenters discussed how difficult it can be for engineers to balance their curriculum abroad, unless they did…

Friday, May 19th Today was our free day. So naturally, I chose to get on a train and travel two hours away from my group to look at cars! I met up with a family friend who showed me around Stuttgart as well as the Mercedes Museum, Motor World, and Castle Solitude. It was an…

Thursday, May 18th Today gave me another chance to practice my German train station skills before being on my own tomorrow for my trip to Stuttgart. This time I made sure to sit so that I could tell when everyone got off so as not to be paranoid about accidentally exploring Germany. We had been…

Wednesday, May 17th Today we had our company analysis presentations. The companies being presented on were SGL, KUKA, Hirschvogel, Faurecia, and BMW. My group did the analysis of BMW and talked a lot about their strong past and ability to shape the future through the usage of greener energy sources and autonomous driving. We wanted…

Today we visited Castle Neuschwanstein, Fuessen, and the Wieskirche. Surprisingly, construction for the castle was started in the 19th century, well after the construction for other castles similar to it. It was built to be the home for Ludwig II until he died at which point construction stopped. Nearly 70% of the castle is not…

Monday, May 15th Today we took a tour of BMW World and a tour of BMW’s production facility in Munich. BMW World is a beautiful building within which is a showcase of the incredible things that BMW has built and is developing today. Inside their are separate sections for BMW’s electric models, performance models, motorcycle…

Sunday, May 14th You learn in school about the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. You are told what happened, when it happened, who it happened to, and how it ended. When I learned about these things in school, I felt as though I understood what went on, and I still think I did to…

Saturday, May 13th Today was our visit to the city of Munich. We road the train into Munich, which gave me great practice for my travels on our free day at the end of the trip, but more on that later! I made the mistake of sitting out of line of sight of the rest…

Friday, May 12th Our day started with a bus ride to SGL for a presentation on their company and a tour of their factory. SGL provides a number of different carbon solutions for the automotive industry from carbon ceramic break disks (shown below) to carbon frames for cars like the BMW i3. SGL is striving…

Thursday, May 11th Today started very well. We got to sleep in longer than usual and instead of eating breakfast at the hotel, we were treated to Bavarian culture. We got on a bus, and because of our extra hour of sleep I did not sleep the entire way, and traveled to a town called…

Wednesday, May 10th The two main events for today were our company visit to Hirschvogel and our cultural excursion to the top of Oberammergau. Hirschvogel is a forging company that provides precision parts for use in the Automotive industry. We were told during our site visit that almost every vehicle on the road today has…

Tuesday, May 9th Today was our first company visit: Faurecia. Faurecia is a French company that supplies parts for the automobile industry such as exhaust systems and interiors. To get here we took the Tram; I had to buy myself a new set of tickets so that I could legally ride the public transportation. The…

Monday, May 8th Today, we were thrown right into the thick of things. We were given about an hour to put together a presentations on our assigned companies (mine was BMW). This does not seem like much of a task until you remember that you are in a foreign country, sleep deprived, and have just…

Sunday, May 7th This first day of our trip was really more like three days rolled into one. Prior to leaving for Germany, we all met as a group at Pitt on Friday. We had dinner together as a group for the first time and decided to go see a movie that night instead of…