Author: Jackson Burnett | Major: Mechanical Engineering | Semester: Summer 2024

Selfie in front of the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria

My name is Jackson Burnett, and I lived in Germany for one year as part of the International Engineering Program at the University of Arkansas. The International Engineering Program allows students the opportunity to earn two degrees in five years, namely a Bachelor of Science in engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in German. In my case, I study mechanical engineering, but the program is open to students in all fields of engineering.

In the fourth year of the International Engineering Program I moved to Darmstadt, Germany to complete an exchange semester at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, from September 2023 to February 2024, where I took master’s level mechanical engineering courses as well as several German foreign language courses. While I was studying in Darmstadt, I joined several local community groups, such as ESN (Erasmus Student Network) which is a group for international students to help meet local students as well as fellow international students and better integrate into their host city, as well as the Darmstädter Lauf-Treff, which is a local running group that met near the outskirts of Darmstadt and ran in the many forested trails that neighbored the city. Most of my time during the semester was occupied with my engineering and German class coursework, but I also took time to travel and was lucky enough to be able to visit France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Croatia as well as most of Germany during my weekend excursions or school holidays, such as going as far north as Hamburg in the winter to see the port city and the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and as far south as Garmisch-Partenkirchen to see the Alps and hike around the trails that dot the rolling southern landscape.

One of my favorite courses I took while studying in Darmstadt was ‘Experiencing and Learning German in Public Urban Spaces’, which was a bit of a non-conventional German foreign language course. Instead of meeting in a classroom, which was the norm for all my other classes, we had different weekly meet-up points all around Darmstadt and would spend the class period walking around that area and discussing the local or cultural significance of it. This ranged from the local administration buildings to the courthouse, the library, the university, several local parks, affordable housing initiatives, the football stadium and the downtown Christmas market during the winter months. It was a great way to learn more about Darmstadt while getting to discuss it all with a local who had spent her whole life there (all in German, of course). It’s a course I would absolutely recommend to other students who do this program in Darmstadt, as a means to better discover their surroundings and improve their German skills. I did naturally take a variety of other courses while in Darmstadt, such as my month-long intensive language course at the beginning of the program, as well as German Grammar, Debating and Discussing (in German), Listening – Comprehension – Discussing, as well as my engineering courses, Composite Structures and Machining Technology. My semester there, unlike the American semester system, ran until February with my final exams being held at the end of January and into February. During my time at Darmstadt, I was also actively applying for internships and was able to secure one at Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, which is a company that focuses on creating a variety of cleaning devices and machines, such as high-pressure washers, vacuum cleaners, and floor sweepers.

After finishing up my exams in Darmstadt, I moved to the Stuttgart region in mid-February 2024 to begin my internship at Kärcher and was there for 6-months until mid-August 2024. While I was interning at Kärcher I was mostly responsible for assisting in the acoustics laboratory, where I helped perform acoustic measurements, vibration measurements, and acceptance tests on a variety of machines to make sure their acoustic/vibrational levels fell within acceptable limits. Kärcher additionally has two other laboratories in addition to the acoustics laboratory, the electromagnetic compatibility laboratory and the cleaning performance laboratory; and even though I was primarily occupied with the acoustics laboratory, I also assisted with the other labs as well in a smaller capacity. During my time in this region of Germany I became accustomed to taking public transportation to get to work every day, which was a new experience for me, as I have always relied on my car to get around in the US. Additionally, I was surprised to find that my company had a very well-equipped canteen with daily rotating menu items that were tasty and affordable. Ultimately, I had a very nice time working with Kärcher and appreciate the insights I gained from working with experts in the field of acoustical and vibration engineering. And again, thanks to this additional time here and the vacation I was afforded, I was able to travel to Italy and got to experience the beauty of the Amalfi coast as well as Vienna, Austria, to have a quick tour of the city that has been rated as having the highest quality of life in the world.

I decided on this program when I was a freshman coming into the U of A, as I had heard about it in the weeks prior to the semester starting, and I immediately knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. It was so appealing to me since my grandmother moved to the United States from Germany after the Second World War and left many of her relatives behind, many of whom I was able to visit during my time there, so Germany and the German language were always interesting to me as I wanted to learn more about my family. Essentially, this program was the perfect opportunity to combine my interests in mechanical engineering with foreign language study and my family history, and I’m very glad it was something I got to experience.