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My name is Felix Heineken, I’m a student in mechanical engineering from Germany and I had the opportunity to spend three months in Australia to work at the University of New-South Wales in Sydney.

This journey started back in January when my boss showed me a flyer about an internship at UNSW Sydney he got from a former student, that worked at the same company a few years back, Dr Susann Beier. As a big fan of Australia in general I did everything to make this opportunity possible and so a few months later I was on my way to Sydney. When I arrived, I was both excited and scared because it was the first time for me to live away from home and now I’m also on the other side of the planet, but everything worked out even better than expected and I wish I would’ve been able to spend more time there.

My work at UNSW consisted of many different things. The main part was the preparation of a lecture for micro- and biofluidics, where I wrote the lecture notes, tested the presentations and quizzes and prepared an assessment for a paper-based microfluidic device. This was really interesting because as a student I usually don’t know how much works goes into preparing a lecture and there I was able to see the other side, which helps me appreciate lectures even more.

Aside from the lecture I also got to work with a research group on stent design optimisation. Even though I didn’t have much time to familiarize myself with the research that had already been conducted and the topic was a few levels above what I usually have to deal with, I was able to learn a lot about stent design, flow simulation and data evaluation. The flow simulation was especially interesting for me because my dream is to work in the automotive industry in the future, where knowledge about flows is particularly valuable.

On the weekends I was able to see Sydney and the surrounding areas. I was blown away how beautiful it is there, especially when I went hiking in the blue mountains. The weather was great, even though it was winter, the people are really nice and the food was good too. I got to make new friends, experience how it is to live on my own and generally just learn a lot for all facets of life.  Overall the time in Australia was amazing and I can’t wait to go back.