This year a group of six students of the Joint Ukrainian-German Faculty of Institute of Mechanical Engineering, went to a monthly internship at the University of Magdeburg Otto-von-Guericke (Germany).
This month has been very important for us. We learned a lot of interesting things for our specialities. In addition, we familiarized with the structure of the university where will study for a year. And in general, we have learned a lot about the education system in Germany.
Now in more detail about the actual practice. Classes begun at 9:00 am and lasted for three hours. We conducted many experiments, saw in the work variety of technical tools (eg, 3D-printer, 3D-scanner thermomechanical simulator Gleeble), as well as listened to the theoretical material. We familiarized with the Institute for Process Engineering and Quality, the Institute of Mechanics and Institute of mobile systems. We listened a lecture on the topic of "Mechatronics", carried out a lot of experiments related to the study and improvement of internal combustion engines. Also, we visited the laboratory FabLab (where students can realize their engineering ideas to life), laboratory of compounds technology, metrology lab, etc.
We also remember the practice with simulation programs Simpack and ANSYS. And we were delighted to see the work of 3D-printer.
In addition to the experiments and lectures at the university, we had the opportunity to visit several factories: powder metallurgy plant, located in Thale, plant Enercon, which specializes in the manufacture of wind generators, and dreams of every engineer - Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg.
As for Enercon and Volkswagen, I want to say a few words separately. Enercon - a true paradise for the engineer. Just only imagine - to see firsthand how to make wind turbines, which are capable of producing from 800 to 2300 kW electricity! Production of one of the wind generator lasts several months, and it is able to provide electricity to the city with a population of 50,000 inhabitants. The weight of the wind turbine is about 3,000 tons, and it reaches a height of as much as 135 meters.
In my opinion, every connoisseur of good cars once in his life should visit Wolfsburg, because there is all history of the automotive industry. And in many pavilions you could look at new models of cars. In addition, we had the opportunity to visit the factory, and we were amazed at the automation of production.
But our practice is not confined to the experiences and excursions at the factory. We had a great opportunity to live in a German environment, improve our language skills and imbued with German culture. Every day after practice we discover Magdeburg. We went for a walk around the city, visited various museums, architectural monuments and had a wonderful time. So, we visited the Museum of the Otto-von-Guericke and Millennium Tower (the wooden tower in Europe), which is dedicated to the development of mankind. Every weekend we traveled to other cities - visited Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig. And also we had the opportunity to visit Prague.
Finally we can say that a month of practice has not passed in vain. We gained invaluable experience of living abroad, learned a lot of new and interesting things about the German industry, traveled to Europe, and generally had a great time.