Aachen

You can definitely tell the semester is wrapping up by the amount of assignments due in the next few weeks.  Most of the week was spent working on our device design project (which all turned out well thankfully) but we did have a break on Wednesday with our group excursion to Aachen.

I had actually meant to visit Aachen earlier in the semester, at the suggestion of my host mom, but ended up never getting around to it.   After going I am very glad that I got the chance to go and see the sights.  The first part of the excursion was the visit to the Helmholtz Institute’s Cardiovascular Applied Medical Engineering department.   I had never considered myself very interested in the mechanical aspect of Biomedical Engineering until I came on this study abroad trip, and the visit on Wednesday only piqued my interest more.  It was really neat to hear about the development of the artificial heart and how they used flow modeling to create a better device.  The insight into PhD education in Germany was also interesting, but being able to actually hold an artificial heart pretty much topped it all.

After a delicious lunch (at which I ate more lasagna than I thought was possible to fit in my stomach) we were treated to a guided tour of the Aachen cathedral and treasury.  After the Köln Dom, you would think that no other cathedral could be impressive, but the Aachen cathedral did its best to awe me.  First off, I do not think you can even compare the two since they are so different.  Aachen was octagonal and the entire ceiling was covered with a gilded mosaic.  I loved hearing about the history and Charlemagne from the guide, and am very glad that we got to see this amazing place.

It was a long day with the excursion and putting the finishing touches on our device design project, but the awesome cathedral and the fact that the presentation went well the next day made it all worth it.