ISG_RSAP 2017_Corbett

RSAP 2017: Italy,
Switzerland and Germany
Slides by: Cherese Corbett

Italian Culture
We took a lovely and informative cruise
along the canals on our first night in Milan.
Not only was it beautiful, we also learned a
lot about Da Vinci and his work with the
locking system that was used to secure the
canals.
The many churches we found scattered
around the city demonstrated the huge
influence Catholicism has on the region.
Excluding the Duomo, most of the churches
had very unassuming exteriors, but inside
were beautifully and ornately decorated
with statues and stained glass.

Italian Cuisine
On our last day in Italy, took a day trip from
Milan to beautiful Parma where we visited a
Winery. Not only did we get a lovely view of
the vineyards, but we learned a lot about
the long and intricate process of making
quality Italian wine. Not to mention getting
to taste some of the favorites.
From the start, it was evident that food
played a large role in Italian culture. I was
very much looking forward to Italian cuisine,
and I was not disappointed. From the
cappuccinos to the pizza to risotto, every
dish was masterfully prepared down to every
detail.

Italian Engineering
Our first company visit was far more interesting than I was
expecting. The engineering behind Goppion’s display cases was
quite impressive. It is a very niche area, so they little competition
for their clients. Goppion creates entirely customized pieces,
which is a huge trend that is seen across Italian engineering. This
differs greatly from the mass production that is far more common
in engineering in the U.S.
Arup, our second company visit was quite impressive. The huge
scale of Arup’s projects include the construction of massive soccer
stadiums to the restoration of historic hotels. While Arup does
have projects across the globe, their projects in Italy tend to be
working with buildings and amongst traditions far older than in the
U.S., so there is the extra added pressure of trying to innovate and
move forward while still protecting and respecting the culture and
history of the region.
Dallara was another very impressive company. They have a near
monopoly on formula 3 racecars. Due to serving so many clients in
competition with one another, confidentiality is pivotal to
successfully serving their clients. My favorite part of the visit was
getting to see the driving simulator. Unfortunately, we did not get
to see it in operation, but it is still an extremely impressive
machine.

Geneva and CERN
From Milan, we took a beautiful train ride through the
snowy mountains of Switzerland to Geneva. The
difference between Milan and Geneva was immediate.
Everywhere you turned in Switzerland was like a
pristine landscape painting with the crystal clear water.
Switzerland definitely has the cleanest cities I have
ever seen.
On our first day, we had a lovely cruise along the
famous Lake Geneva and got a fabulous view of the city
and the geyser.
The highlight of Geneva had to be visiting the CERN
facility. It was an immense privilege to be lead around
by such brilliant people through locations where historic
discoveries were made. We even got to see the office
where the internet was created. We got to briefly visit
France to visit the site of the particle accelerator. We
could not get to the actual machine because an
experiment was being conducted, but we got close and
still got to see the surrounding machinery.

Entlebuch and Lucerne
On the way to Lucerne, we stopped in the Entlebuch biosphere, a
quaint little self-sustainable town. There, we visited a sawmill run
by an incredibly smart entrepreneur. He was able to see use in the
byproducts of his sawmill and began to provide heat and hot water to
the whole town. His advice for success: you will only learn so much
from school, you have to learn to think ahead and think for yourself.
My highlight from Lucerne was hiking Mt. Pilatus. We stopped about
halfway up the mountain for a few hours to spend time on the ropes
course, then we headed to the top for and incredible view. Our way
down the mountain was on and incredible mechanical engineering
feat. One of the steepest trains in Europe is built up the side of the
mountain. It was a incredibly cool ride down. Once back at the
bottom, we embarked on a marvelous cruise across the lake to get
back to Lucerne.
As we left Lucerne, we stopped at the Grimsel Power Plant to learn
about how they create hydroelectric power. Their facility was very
impressive, and they are able to produce power for the entire town.
However, the most astonishing fact was that they had to slow
production because of the large amounts of wind and solar power
coming into Switzerland from Germany. They had too much power
purely from renewable resources, just further emphasizing how far
behind the U.S. is when it comes to clean energy production.

Salzburg, Austria
The first stop on our day trip to Salzburg was
the Festung Hohensalzburg fortress. Inside
the fortress we learned a lot of interesting
facts about the history and founding of
Salzburg. Plus, the view of the city from
above was amazing.
On our mini bus tour, we got to see sites of
where The Sound of Music was filmed
including the home of the Von Trapp family.
The highlight of Austria is definitely the tour
of the salt mines. It was a very cool
experience, and the slides, light shows, and
boat rides made it almost like and mini,
underground amusement park. It was also
cool to see the engineering behind such a risky
task as underground mining, and to learn more
about how they were able to take advantage
of the natural salt deposits.

German Culture
We took a visit to the Residenzmuseum Palace. It is
a magnificient Austrian palace ornately decorated
and expertly preserved. At the palace, we got to
learn a lot about the history of the Austrian empire
and how Germany came to be.
We had a lovely lunch at the Markplatz. There was
lovely outdoor seating under the trees surrounded by
stands of delicious, authentic German food. I was
never a huge fan of sauerkraut or soft pretzels, but I
loved them when I was in Munich. However, the food
did eventually start to feel redundant after my third
meal of sausages.
We had extra time before our visit to the BMW
museum, so we walked over to Olympia park, the
site of the historic 1972 summer Olympics. It was
not quite as impressive as I was expecting, but it was
still very cool to be there.
The Hofbrau Haus was definitely a highlight of our
time in Munich. It was just tons of fun all around.
Great food, fun music, and waiters with lots of
personality. I had a lot of expectations going in, and
I was definitely not disappointed.

German Engineering
I was not really sure what to expect from the
Deutshes Museum, but I really enjoyed it. I did
the tour group focused on mechanical engineering,
and the guide did a great job of explaining the
engineering behind many of the inventions on
display.
At the BMW museum, we got to experience the
innovative history of BMW engineering from their
first airplane engines to possible cars of the
future. One thing that stood out was their
emphasis on sustainability, which was evident
throughout the museum, and we were able to gain
some background on the process of designing such
popular cars.

International Experience
On this trip I learned a lot about the planning
process behind such a huge trip abroad. From
hotels, to itineraries, to transportation, there was
a lot of planning involved to make this happen
that I can learn from for future travels.
I also gained a lot of knowledge about interacting
across cultures that is imperative in modern-day
engineering. From working through language
barriers to making cross-cultural connections, I
learned how to make connections with others
from different cultures in a meaningful way and
learn from our differences. It was truly an
amazing, unique experience that I am extremely
grateful to have had.