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Description: "I was given a couple of projects which formed most of my work. In addition to those projects I occasionally did research on the web for various other projects for my colleagues. My two projects involved designing experiments. The first was a project to compare an old material to a proposed new one. I had to decide what the important parameters were and design an experiment to see if the theoretical properties of the materials were indeed correct and to compare the performance of each material. After researching possible tests and such and designing the experiment and writing up the proposal for the experiment, I carried out the experiments, and wrote a report of the results. The second project was to test the adhesivity of the material under extreme temperatures experienced during their space flight. I designed the experiment for this one too and wrote a proposal, but never had time to carry out the experiment itself."

Comments: "I had never designed an experimental procedure for such an industrial purpose, and without a specific guideline. I learnt how many details there were to be taken care of, and how much was not possible on an industrial level because of costs. ... The subject matter was very interesting, there was just always really interesting projects going on around me, and I was able to see space launchers being built and designed and tested which I"ve always had a huge interest in. ... I definitely felt as if I learnt a lot about the German culture, living in a WG [Wohngemeinschaft] and working entirely in German all the time. Living in a beautiful city like Munich was great, and learning about how to live and go to work full time at a real intellectually challenging job was very interesting to me."