Gabrielle Fernandez, Business, Technology, and Engineering: The German Way Summer 2024
The German Way Program consisted of daily lectures at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany. Our lectures focused on industrial engineering principles and practices such as lean production, takt time, technological advances, German business culture, and product innovation. The classroom and university environment were very similar to Pitt. The engineering building where we took our classes was set up similarly to how Benedum is and even had a coffee/snack bar inside that is like Einstein’s. The classrooms had smaller amounts of students, but the students used similar technology to what we do (iPads and laptops) and conducted lectures similarly to how professors at Pitt do.
The biggest difference I saw was that the German college system is more favored towards long days with a lot of classes and not much homework; however, exams are weighted very heavily, and the final exams dictate if a student will pass the class or not. At Pitt, we can do homework and projects that often factor into our final grade, but in Germany, the students will take their final exams and that will determine their final grade. Due to this, many students in Germany end up retaking semesters and graduate a lot later than American students. However, since the tuition in Germany is a lot cheaper than in America, this is more feasible for German students. I learned all of this by talking with the German students who worked in a group with me on a project. I enjoyed being in class with German students because they were as curious about American culture as I was about German culture; this gave us an opportunity to ask each other questions and bond as we learned more about one another.
Our industrial engineering classes were very fun. We got to conduct a lean engineering simulation where we were split into teams and had to produce 30 machine parts in 30 minutes. On our first attempt, our team really struggled, and we only produced 10 parts. After we discussed where our team was lacking and what strategies we could implement to optimize our assembly line process, we were able to produce 30 parts in under 30 minutes. I was very impressed by our team’s ability to work together and with the ingenuity of lean production. I enjoyed the hands-on classroom days because I felt like I learned the best when I was actively attempting a task. I could see firsthand how important lean thinking is to process optimization because I was building the parts myself. Our other classes consisted of lecture style learning where we sat through PowerPoint presentations. We had to give our own presentations on the last day about aluminum die casting and this was very fun because I got to create a posterboard presentation and practice my public speaking skills.
The academic culture was surprisingly very similar to Pitt, and I enjoyed learning about engineering in another country. I would love to have an experience like this again where I get to study at another university, whether that be in the United States or abroad.
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