Going Abroad to Bochum, Germany

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Hi everyone! I have the incredible opportunity this summer to participate in research at a university near Dusseldorf, Germany. I'm so excited to use this blog to keep track of all my adventures and maybe offer advice to people in the same situation! Here's a rundown of my plans for the summer :)

The Research

I'll be doing research with a German PhD student and her team at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB). The project is focused on the face stability in hydro-shield tunneling, and I'm so excited to do more lab-based research as a change from my usual data analysis/MATLAB based research at Mines.

The University!


The Scholarship

I'm super fortunate to have been awarded a scholarship through the DAAD RISE program, coordinated by the German government. There's a monthly stipend from RUB, and DAAD helps cover some travel expenses and coordinates a research conference in Heidelberg. 

The Housing

I'm also incredibly excited to stay in one of the dorms at the university, run by a company called Akafoe. I'll be arriving in Germany on June 2nd, and will be staying in an AirBnB for a few days before moving in to the dorms on June 5th. Apparently in Germany, you can't move into new accommodations until the 5th working day of each month. 

My building!

Travel Plans

Since I'll be so close to a bunch of cool countries in Europe, I'm really pumped to make some weekend travel plans! Here are my ideas/soft plans so far.

Planned

  • Some students from my program are planning a via ferata trip in Germany on June 29-30. It's kind of like rock climbing mixed with a high ropes course!
Doesn't this look awesome???

  • Black forest hiking trip with a different group of people from my program on June 22-23
  • My parents coming to visit on July 10-14! We're also visiting Prague over the weekend :)

Potential

  • I really want to go to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Luxemborg, Munic, Hamburg... SO MANY places on the list! I'll be really happy if I get to visit 2-3
  • There's a company in Germany that manufactures tunnel boring machines, Herrenkenecht, that I think would be really interesting to tour or visit!
  • My friend Caroline lives in Ramstein, and I'm hoping to be able to visit her at some point too.

Overall, I can't wait to see all the fantastic adventures I'll have abroad and get to experience the research culture in another country! Follow along here for more updates :)

Comments

  1. Generic_PseudonymFebruary 5, 2022 at 7:10 PM

    Hey! Cool to see this. I did the same internship (tunnel face support) through DAAD in 2018. Hope you had a good time.

    I stayed over at the student dorms in Querenburg, near Kemnadersee.

    ReplyDelete

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