Page 25 - Inventing Tomorrow

EUROPE > Europe is the most popular destination to study abroad for University of Minnesota students.
There he teamed up with a Macedonian post doc who
was impact testing industrial materials. Finnegan’s job was to
use SolidWorks, a computer-aided design and engineering program
to model objects and machines in three dimensions. The SolidWorks representation was a step in the complex math analysis of the impact testing.
His roommates were Polish and Swiss, and he worked with people from Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, and Norway. Finnegan considered himself the fortunate one as, “there were interns from all over the world and English turned out to be the common language. Yet, they weren't all uent in English,” he said.
What fascinated him most was the workplace milieu. It was much more relaxed than the internship he had in the United States the year before.
“In Macedonia the whole feel is a
lot more laid back,” Finnegan said. “There were some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Every night you go to a bar, you go to a cafe. That’s the standard. It’s more about the people. You always go to coffee. I went to coffee many times with my boss. I think the most valuable lesson learned was how important it is to cultivate personal relationships.”
Even though Macedonia may not be on anyone’s list of global high-tech centers, Finnegan said the internship was a “good decision.”
A senior now, he anticipates looking for a job in advanced manufacturing. He gures employers will look for employees willing to “go out of their comfort zone.”
“I was planning to have an internship that summer. Being able to do it abroad, I was able to check off two things from my to-do list, and now
I won’t have to delay my graduation at all,” Finnegan said.
Ben Gelhaus: Teaming up in Tanzania
Ben Gelhaus, a chemical engineer- ing senior, wanted to go abroad, but didn’t want to delay graduation.
So he looked at one of the winter break, shorter-term Global Technical Seminars.
“This one stood out to me,” he said. The seminar was “Design for Life: Water in Tanzania,” led by Paul Strykowski, CSE associate dean
of undergraduate programs and professor of mechanical engineering.
CSE students who signed up for the seminar were sent to Tanzania to engineer solutions to water supply problems. Working with St. Paul Partners, a nonpro t organization, CSE students provide the plan, St. Paul Partners raises money, and local
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