DAAD-WISE Internship Experience Report

28th September, 2010

Vineet Maheshwari
4th year student
B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat

Internship at :

Institut für Strömungsmechanik und Technische Akustik,

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)

Getting selected for the WISE scholarship was a dream coming true for me. Though I was
always hopeful of getting selected, the highly competitive nature of selection process had also
given me jitters. The process of obtaining visa (which happens to be a rather complex affair)
turned out to be a simple cakewalk thanks to the immense assistance by DAAD. Soon the wait
was over and I was ready to fly to Germany. I had never been to a foreign country before, so
there was a feeling of nervousness mixed with excitement. It was certain that this trip was not
going to be just another summer internship. I knew it was going to play a vital role in making me
recognize my own aspirations.

Upon landing in Berlin, I found myself in a wonderland. It was 15 degrees in the month of May;
there were more Merc’s, BMW’s and Audi’s on roads than there are autorickshaws on
Ahmedabad streets; everyone around me spoke a language that I couldn’t grasp at all and sun
used to set at 10 p.m. After initial days of awe, I quickly came to terms with life in Berlin. Unlike
many of my fellow intern friends who got to stay in small but more peaceful towns like Dresden,
Aachen, Kaiserslautern and Hannover, I had the opportunity to explore the colorful, urban life in
the political and cultural capital of Germany.

My apartment was located about 7 kilometers from the institute but it took me just 10 minutes in
the U-Bahn (underground metro) to reach there. People at the institute were mostly PhD
students under my host professor and I had to work with them in their research projects. Since I
was interested in experimental stuff rather than numerics, I was assigned some work related to
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). I learnt various aspects of this technique and assisted in a
research project about Active Flow Control (AFC) in jets. The cutting edge technology at the lab
and amazing work environment used to keep me working till late in the evening and enjoying it
thoroughly. There were people from all over the world involved in high quality research.
I could also make many new friends and come in contact with an international network of
professionals. I got the opportunity of working with people from Germany, USA, Canada, Syria,
Turkey, India, Israel and Egypt. This not only made me aware of various cultural aspects of
these countries, but also let me expand my professional network beyond geographical and
political boundaries. I love and truly appreciate the German way of working that essentially
involves weekdays of hard work and weekends of sheer fun. Punctuality, tremendous civic
sense and concern for nature are some characteristic traits of Germans that I hope I managed
to inculcate in myself in these 3 months.

If someone asks me to summarize this summer, all I could do is just give a few tags. They
would be – work with cutting edge technology; exposure to advanced research environment;
weekend trips with friends to beautiful locations in Europe; travelling in German high speed
trains; relishing on delicious Turkish Doner kebaps; enjoying commuting in Berlin’s super-
advanced public transport; cooking my own dinner and appreciating my culinary skills
whatsoever; partying hard in colorful night clubs of Hamburg; cycling around beautiful localities
of Berlin and Potsdam.

These little experiences cannot be described completely with words. But one thing which is
absolutely certain is that this internship has taught me a lot about the world and my own self.
Thanks to DAAD-WISE summer internship experience, today I find myself more confident about
my aspirations and goals in life.