As a designer that wants to work in the yacht industry I felt like I needed to work on my material knowledge. Therefore, I enrolled for two mechanical engineering courses at the DTU. Especially in the beginning it was very tough to familiarize myself with the terminology that mechanical engineers use. But over time and with the help of fellow peers I was able to understand it. This was a big milestone for me. I proved to myself that I was able to go from basically zero knowledge about material knowledge to successfully passing two mechanical engineering courses on a master level. And this over the timespan of a 15 weeks. Next to that, I followed a course named “X-Tech”. It is an accelerated-learning program that combines engineering, business and marketing students with inventions, patents and technological needs from industry partners and DTU research. In collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Roche we tackled the ever growing knowledge gap of oncologists in Denmark. Again, something completely different which allows me to see how different industries, topics and problems relate or differ to each other.

Next to that, I significantly developed on a personal level. For the first time I living on my own abroad definitely got me out of my comfort zone. Resulting in me exploring Denmark and getting in to contact with fellow peers from all over the world. This was definitely the most valuable, fun and enjoyable part of my exchange. Seeing the core values of so many different cultures and how these values translate into their work is such a valuable experience. Especially, since in the future I will most likely work in multi-disciplinary teams that will consists of a variety of cultures.

Key learning points:

• In-depth material knowledge in advanced applications
• Material selection methods
• How to design with plastics
• How to create a startup, what tools / resources to use
• Working in multidisciplinary teams
• DTU mindset
• Living on my own abroad
• Cultures core values from all over the world