Author: Benjamin Burdes | Major: Mechanical Engineering | Semester: Summer 2024
Me posing with the Big Ben
My name is Ben Burdes, I am a Mechanical Engineering and German dual major and I studied abroad during the summer 2024 semester at The Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany through the International Engineering Program.
I was fairly aimless my freshman year at UARK, just knowing that I wanted to study robotics and engineering but needing a path to follow. So when I discovered the dual German and Engineering degree program I also discovered a fun and challenging way to shape my college journey. No one in my immediate family has ever left the United States, so I did not take this opportunity lightly.
Darmstadt is located centrally in Europe and I took full advantage of that while abroad, my first and longest trip took place right before the semester started. I assembled a group of fellow Engineering students from all around the world and we took first a bus, then trains, an airplane, and finally a rental car across the entirety of Italy and Spain. As an Engineer, I am not gifted enough with words to describe how special this trip was to me, seeing cities, art, and eating food that I had heard about my entire life. Particular moments that stuck out to me were picnicking with my newfound friends at a park in Rome, feeling connected to thousands of years of history of people having fun conversations, eating food, and drinking wine, and second, spending two days immersed in the otherworldly architecture of Antoni Gaudí in Barcellona.
We got back from that first trip a day before classes were to start. It was a hard adjustment going directly from traveling to taking classes. Four out of my six classes were in German, one of them being a technical language class and the others being advanced engineering classes. I had taken almost all of the German courses that UARK offers and I considered myself quite proficient, but my math skills were limited to counting on my fingers and simple addition. I was suddenly thrust into a world of differential equations, linear algebra, and artificial intelligence and I had to learn quick or get left behind. Luckily I had a strong basis in almost all of the topics covered in those classes from my studies at UARK and I got through by taking notes during class in German and later translating the notes and working through them in English. By the end of the semester I found myself able to not only keep up with class but take part in group discussions.
I was supposed to spend the year in Darmstadt starting during the fall semester but seemingly out of no where I landed my dream internship at NASA and was unable to start in the Fall. Everyone in the International Engineering Program and German Department were incredibly supportive of me completely throwing out the book of the normal exchange experience and helped me figure out how to make it on my own in Darmstadt in during the Summer. There was a point during my fall internship at NASA that I just wanted to be done with school and skip the study abroad program, but eventually decided that I wanted to prove to myself that I could do something as difficult as moving to another country and taking difficult classes in another language, and I am glad that I did.
The German semester is shorter than the American one, you finish earlier and are given up to two months to study for your final exams (that can be 100% of the grade for the class). I took advantage of the first part of this post-course period by fighting BattleBots in England. One of my main hobbies in the US is building combat-robots (come find me on campus and I can tell you all about the sport, it is a little much for a study abroad blog). I knew that while I was abroad I wanted to compete somewhere in Europe, and the UK has the most active scene, so starting in a midsemester holiday break I built my robot. I had managed to jam my 3d printer into my luggage on the way to Germany and I was able to cobble something together out of 3d printed parts and a Kevlar-urethane composite that I call RIOTITE (after the club I founded on campus). I threw this bot and a radio controller into a suitcase and a week after classes ended I flew to Bristol UK and fought against some of Brittian’s strongest bot builders. While my first big trip was full of experiencing new arts and cultures, this trip was all about experiencing things I loved in a new light. It was great to learn new techniques and skills in combat robot building from my English counterparts. I also rekindled a High School love for theatre visiting the Shakespeare Globe Theatre and seeing a reimagined production of King Richard III, as well as the London residence of Hadestown. Overall, England was a rejuvenating experience, after a hard semester of fighting my way through learning a new language I was able to speak my native tongue again and surround myself with hobbies and culture that I love.
My last few weeks in Germany were a blur of trying to jam enough vocab and reading into my head that I could pass my exams while trying to pack all of my belongings (which had expanded by a robot and a bunch of souvenirs) back into suitcases, as well as balancing in spending time with my new friends, most of which I will likely never see again as they return to France, Korea, or Tiwan. Needless to say, its been stressful. I am writing this on the first day of the Fall 2024 semester and three days after I got back from Germany. Though, reflecting back on it I don’t regret a single choice I’ve made throughout this study abroad experience, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.