From 24 to 29 October, 2022, Annika Schilling, Fenja Schrodt and Timon Steinmetz completed their BOGY internship at the Visualization Institute of the University of Stuttgart (VISUS). They got an insight into the world of programming, could try out different technologies and work on their own projects. The internship was carried out as a cooperation between VISUS, the SFB-TRR 161 and the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC.
Below you can find their internship report.
BOGY Internship at the University of Stuttgart
On October 24 our BOGY internship started at the Visualization Institute of the University of Stuttgart. Since the institute is located on the grounds of the University of Stuttgart, we got lost at the beginning. But when we found our way to the building on time at 9:30 am, we were greeted by a locked door. The corresponding door opener was, according to the note, not usable. Within the next few days, however, we would find out that it was, in fact, working properly. Surprisingly, the quota of women was higher than expected, namely 2/3. After an introduction, we started with our first topic - C++.
C++
We all got along very well, although it was a new programming language for all of us. There were many semicolons, which often caused error messages, but in the end, we had working programs. The task was to write a program that asks for user input and then checks if it is correct. It was understandable, unlike what we did the following day - Arduino.
Arduino
Absolutely nothing worked as it was expected or logically should have. Code even stopped working after one night and we are not talking about the wiring. Initially the task was to wire up an RGB LED and get it to light up. That was easy enough, but when the servo, a small rotating motor and the card sensor were added, we found no help even on the Internet. After getting through the theme rather poorly, we had hope that the next theme would go better.
Blender
We were given a brief explanation of the program and then given the task of modeling our room. At the beginning we had problems to orientate ourselves, but this got better over time. Later we had to deal with textures that didn't work the way we wanted them to and long searches for the "right" wood on the Internet. Unfortunately, we lacked the time and talent to make the models very detailed, nevertheless we all had a room standing at the end. Our favorite was the next occupation - lectures
Lecture
We were given the opportunity to attend a lecture in Visual Computing. Surprisingly, it was much more interesting than expected and we could even follow because it was the first lecture of the semester. Therefore, we couldn't quite understand why some students left the lecture hall earlier or why some were busy with other things.
Since the first lecture had excited us all so much, we didn't want to miss the chance to attend another one. We chose a chemistry lecture the following day and after a short deliberation we sat down in the second to last row. The chemistry room was much bigger than the previous one and the lecturer, contrary to expectation, was very humorous and provided us, as well as the students, with some funny moments. Surprisingly, we were also able to follow quite well, partly because it was again one of the first lectures.
Insights
During our time at VISUS we of course also got an insight into the research at the institute. On the first day, we got a tour of the facilities and got to look at things like the Powerwall and its computer labs. We thought it was funny that the computer room was actually just filled with refrigerators for the technology so they wouldn't overheat. In the room with the Powerwall, we found a paper mask, which we named Jürgen.
Later, we also tried out the new HoloLens, which are AR (augmented reality) glasses. The special thing about it is that models stay in the same place in space and you can walk around them. Additionally, we were shown the application of MegaMol, which is used to test new scientific methods.
Conclusion
We all had great fun at our BOGY internship, despite some frustrations. We all agree that lectures are better than classes at the Gymnasium and are sad that we have to go back after the fall vacations. We also want to thank VISUS for allowing us to do our internship here. We had a lot of fun, could get a good insight into the daily work and also learned new things. We can definitely recommend it.
Annika Schilling, Fenja Schrodt & Timon Steinmetz
More information (in German) can be found here.