DAAD WISE Summer Internship Experience

I. Personal Information

Name : Pratik Y. Mandrekar

College: BITS Pilani, Goa Campus
Host Institution: Universität Augsburg, Department of Software Engineering
Mentor : Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Reif
Personal Email : pratikmandrekar@gmail.com
Phone No: +919823996146
Personal Blog : http://asliceoflifewithspice.blogspot.com

II. Internship Highlights

I had chosen my host as per my interests in Organic and Autonomous computing and my desire to
experience German culture, experience Bavaria and be close to the Alps.

a. The Research and Training Experience

The University of Augsburg is an excellent establishment and one of the few universities in Germany
with a unified campus location. I was quiet surprised to find students from over 100 countries studying
courses ranging from Business Informatics to Indian Religious studies. I worked at the software
engineering chair which was one of the numerous departments under Computer Science. My host
professor being the head of the department was often quiet busy but nevertheless I was able to learn
much from him. I was surprised by the ease with which I was integrated with the other researchers in
the department and made familiar with several interesting state-of-the-art projects in robotics, surface
computing and autonomous multi-agent system and formal methods.

I worked closely with Jan-Philipp and the work atmosphere was very open to exchange of ideas, devoid
of unnecessary formalities and involved a lot of personal exchanges. Not only was I able to learn and
solve my problem, but also add to several other parallel projects that were learning. I benefited
immensely from the brain- storming sessions I had with the extremely competent researchers and
professors at the university.

I met a lot of students on campus, attended their project presentations and learnt quiet a lot of things.
The level of education, technology used and industry orientation was fabulous and I could relate it very
well to the Practice School program of BITS Pilani Goa Campus. Having direct access to almost all
technical resources online was an added advantage as it helped me read the best quality of research in
the world with just a click which otherwise isn’t that easily accessible to us. Scientific documentation
 was also very well maintained. As far as the university was concerned, it was a completely international
environment and I language was never an issue.

b. College Life
I started by attending these International student gatherings that happened once a week on a theme
based party. I did make a lot of friends especially from South America and Central Asia and Of course
Western and Eastern Europe. I got to taste cuisine from all over the world too. Normally I would eat in
the Mensa maintained by the Studentenwerken and I did get to meet a few of their student union
leaders and through my discussions with Mathias et al, I got a pretty good perspective on German
Politics and Education including the Bologna Process which of course is what would be needed for
Germany to open up properly to Indian students willing to do their Masters akin to the US system.

Though I had my own apartment in the city center, I did get a glimpse of student apartments and life on
campus, especially the numerous fests and sales that happened. I really loved spending time among the
entire fiesta. Being a non-vegetarian I did not face any kind of problem in the food and especially loved
the barbeque parties.

i-The Barbeque Party ii- Hike with Software Engineering team

c. Travel and Living

Getting Accommodation was fairly easy with help from International Office of the university and
through networking sites. I didn’t really have any Indian contacts i n Augsburg, but it didn’t really matter
considering the fact that Taj Mahal is known everywhere and that Goa(the place where I come from) is
even more famous for its beaches and culture. I even found Bollywood DVD’s in the store. Getting Tea,
Basmati rice and even spices wasn’t a lot of trouble as there were many stores retailing them. I
personally found Turkish Food to be the closest one could get to Indian Mughlai food. You can find much
more about this on my blog.
 The quality of Public transport is the best. Student discounts and the weekend tickets on the deutsche
bahn gave us an opportunity to traverse the length and breadth of Germany as well as several other
European nations. The DAAD gave us the youth pass which we could use to travel on the superfast ICE’s
and thanks to the meeting in Berlin, we had the most awesome time of our lives.

iii- DAAD Meet, FU Berlin iv- BITS Pilani Goa Campus’ians

III. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the DAAD for providing me with this wonderful opportunity. I would like to thank Prof.
Dr. Wolfgang Reif and others at the University for making my stay there an awesome experience. I hope DAAD
continues to give us more such opportunities in the future.

IV. Survey Responses

I had hosted an online survey on my blog and I’m including some of the responses below which could
summarize the DAAD WISE Summer experience, 360 people attempted the survey while around 17 completely
filled the responses. I thank all the people who took the survey as it would help the DAAD in its future
endeavors. The survey can be accessed here http://asliceoflifewithspice.blogspot.com/2009/07/daad-wise-
2009-internship-feedback.html . In case anyone needs detailed reports they may email me personally.

A few responses to selected questions:

1. What made your stay in Germany memorable/ surprised you most?

 Work wise it was the freedom I was allowed in the laboratories. Personally, all the travelling.
 Informal interaction with prof. unlike india........
 Inspiring workplace
 The kindness of people surprised me
 How well organized their society is.
 Trans port ation system of germany....awesome
 DB and E urail
  Made memorable - Roaming Europe
 The hospitality & efficiency with which everything is done
 Sunshine till 10pm, helping people, car stop @ road crossing for walking person
 I was fined for the for the first time in life for riding bik e on left side during early days as in India we us ed
to ride on left side.
 Convenient public transport
 Lots actually! First thing is the way people greeted each other even if they didn't know one anot her..
Travellin in ICE s.. Barbeque partys...
 The warm welcome which they gave to us in our university and also in Berlin by DAAD team

2. Some feedback/Suggestions from respondents.

 It will be good if DAAD can give a masters scholarship for Indians..
 I was satisfied with the study culture there, but the biggest problem was that most of the things were in
German, if u don’t know German it’s a bit difficult to mingle with the local students.
 Since Germany's transportation cost is very high so DAAD should give some travel card for local transport in
Germany.
 Choose your city wisely if you have a choice. It can change a lot of things in terms of travelling to other
Countries and also the cost of living will differ.
 GERMANY IS A GODLY PLACE.............. I WAS GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ME TO GO THEIR AND
COMPLETE A WONDERFULL PROJECT. I would recommend every 1 should go to Germany and increase
their knowledge by doing project and travelling to beautiful places also.
 I would suggest that DAAD must provide scholarships for doing masters in engineering courses which is
not being done ( according to what I know). Also Germany is cheaper and is more powerful in research than
UK and Australia , so what I feel for less students turning up for higher studies in Germany is lack of awareness
which can be eradicated by organizing free seminars in India at different places
 Thanks to DAAD! I flew outside India for the first time.. And helped me to learn lots.. not only something
Technical , but how to live independently and manage myself in a completely foreign land, how to manage
without money for a month( unfortunately or fortunately, I was able to receive my stipend only after 31 days,
this is the only suggestion I could possibly give, It was really difficult:(...) one of the situations which I have
never faced before, to better my butler German, to communicate to any unknown person, to improve myself
completely...etc,etc..Everyone back in India found only one difference in me “You are so confident of yourself
now!” Danke Schoen!
 Its really hard to suggest to DAAD seeing their perfection and dedication. This is not exaggeration, but a fact
which I felt while I was in Germany.

3. There were mixed responses to questions on choice of higher studies post internships, interactions with
people and knowledge of German but most were positive. Almost everyone is more than satisfied with
their German DAAD experience. 