We started the day with a walk to the mensa and a light breakfast. It looks like my breakfasts for the foreseeable future are going to consist of espresso, fruit, and a croissant. Not a bad deal but certainly different from my usual milk and cereal. In class, we kicked things off with a continuation of the workshops we started yesterday, working with the microcontrollers and introducing DC motors.
Today is the day when everyone seems to be hitting their stride. Just about everyone has shaken off their jet lag and is in good spirits. We started the day with a walk to the mensa and a light breakfast. It looks like my breakfasts for the foreseeable future are going to consist of espresso, fruit, and a croissant. Not a bad deal but certainly different from my usual milk and cereal.
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In class, we kicked things off with a continuation of the workshops we started yesterday, working with the microcontrollers and introducing DC motors. Everyone seems to be getting more comfortable with C/C++ and shaking off the rust from their intro to programming classes. It’s been very refreshing to have a good mix of backgrounds among all the students, with many of us coming from mechanical engineering, but some coming from electrical, civil, aerospace, materials science, and more. Having the different perspectives come together has helped everyone grow and learn differently than we would have if the group were more homogeneous. Where one student might have more experience with designing hardware, another student might be more inclined to software, and everyone has been excellent at going the extra mile to teach each other.
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So far during my time here, I’m astounded at how different daily life can be, and generally for the positive. I’ve been very impressed with the layout of Winterthur and Zurich, particularly in how the cities seem to really prioritize the pedestrian experience rather than being at the mercy of cars and trucks. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many people biking to their destinations in one place. Not only that, but the trains and streetcars seem to provide so much freedom to actively move around a city without being constrained by a car. It really makes me wish that we had a public transit system half as fleshed out as what the Swiss offer. The weather has been amazing as well, so Winterthur really feels like a living, breathing city. There are always people out and about, and it really makes the city feel like it’s more “lived in” even though Winterthur has less than a quarter of the population of Minneapolis. The experience so far has been amazing, and I’m looking forward to what comes next!
—Blog post by Brian
