Getting into the Professional Practice

This week things began to pick up a little in the department. I’ll perhaps give a little insight as to what I actually am doing in this department. Here is the step by step of what I have seen so far…

• We get a car or motorcycle (or a piece of either).
• We place sensors (called accelerometers) on the cars. See picture below.

• We double and triple check that the mass of wires and sensors are correctly placed and connected to the software we use.
• We either shake the car or hit it with a hammer.
• We look at what the sensors record on the computer.
• We make a report of what we see.

If you ever wondered why your car began to shake at certain speeds or RPMs… or why you heard that annoying hum as the engine idles… it is because of the acoustics that we are testing in the lab. Our job is to provide the designers information that help them make the cars less susceptible to these problems.

That is just one way we hook up the cars though. The explanation was very general and really doesn’t do the test procedure’s complexity justice, but perhaps this is the less boring way of explaining it. It’s sort of like the guy on the treadmill with all the wires attached to him… only we put the cars on treadmills… or hit them with hammers…

Besides that, I’ve seen a few other very interesting things throughout the week. Between doing work in our department, I have been able to see some of the experiments done in other labs. One lab utilizes an anechoic chamber (the walls absorb all sound) and the cars are driven on moving rollers.

Another lab was for tire duration and basically consisted of a machine that runs tires until they break. Another lab had some sort of rig (it looks like it is straight from the Matrix) that shakes the suspension of a car as if it were traversing the Sahara. Why a BMW would be in the Sahara… I don’t know. The final lab I saw (or experienced, rather) was the Virtual Simulation Lab. This is a common lab in the car industry and is great for test driving a car without going to the dealer. They basically recorded driving data/stats from various cars (competitors too!) and put the data into some simulation software. In the lab room was a car body suspended by hydraulic rams. If any of you have been to Disney World, you know what I’m talking about here. We were able to drive these various car models on rough roads and instantly feel the difference in ride quality!

Later in the week, I witnessed, experienced, and learned a few other interesting things. On Wednesday I was able to ride in a Rolls Royce for the first time. I was hesitant to step on the lambswool footmats or touch the solid walnut burr dash, but I did get to ride the RR Ghost. With a 6.6 Liter V12, it had the potential to move… but unfortunately, we never really broke a speedy 10 mph in the test facility. Anyone what to purchase a $250,000 dollar car??

In other news, BMW and other firms in Germany do a few really cool thing with younger students. I did a voluntary mentorship with Honda when I was in high school, but in Germany this is actually required by younger students. We had an aspiring 15 year old student with us for his “Praktikum” this week. What a cool experience for a 15 year old! He had the misfortune of working with me on one project, where I probably felt more clueless than he did. At least he understood the German better! It was interesting to see that he asked me for my Facebook name and not the Facebook name of my German counterpart. My co-worker later commented that it was because I was an American. I’m not sure if that was the complete truth, but I did find it interesting to note.

My last lesson of the week deals with the toilet. Yes, the toilet. I am learning in every situation, Germans are very keen on saving and conserving. On our computers we compress all picture files we take. Germans recycle, they utilize automatic lights everywhere, and they even extend this to water usage. For three weeks I wondered why the toilets had two buttons above them. I finally just asked a co-worked, putting all shame aside. In his limited English, he explained to me that there are situations when one needs more water and situations where one needs less (this was very funny to listen to). You can fill in the rest… basically, the button you choose depends on the experience you had in the WC.

So that was the week in a nutshell. My roommate moved out on Thursday, so I am now alone in my dorm cell. I’m not sure if another roommate is coming soon or not, but in the mean time, I’m sort of enjoying the peace. This weekend will likely be smaller adventures and planning for the Rome trip. Only a few short days until I leave!