GERMAN INTERNSHIP

This past summer, I was granted a Research in Science and Engineering (RISE) scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service. This scholarship included a placement at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics, where I worked on the development of an automated palletizing system. The system uses a robotic arm to move packages on and off the pallets, and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to store pallet load data. While working at the institute, I wrote the software that allows the computer controlling the system to communicate with the RFID tags, and I designed a format for storing pallet load data using minimal amounts of memory. 

My internship in Germany was a huge learning experience. My job at the institute consisted mostly of writing software in Visual C#, a language I had no prior experience with. To be able to do this, I had to learn independently using resources from the internet and my knowledge of other programming languages. I also learned many things of a less technical nature. I arrived in Germany equipped with a phrase book and a German vocabulary of about five words. Though no knowledge of German was required for my job, some German would certainly have been helpful outside the institute. Learning how to do simple day to day tasks like buying groceries or navigating the train system became challenges in themselves.

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity not only to do interesting work at a very highly respected research institute, but also to experience and appreciate the rich German culture.

Letter of recommendation