Dienstag Ist Schnitzeltag (Tuesday Is Schnitzel Day)
By: Raven (Ruiwen) Tang (SEAS ’27)
GRIP: Engineering Research in Aachen, Germany
I arrived in sunny and lush Aachen 12 days ago, and have since developed some semblance of routine. On most weekdays, I utilize the city’s excellent public transit system to bus from my dorm, close to the border of the Netherlands, over to campus research and learning facilities. I typically spend the full day at the Institut für Regelungstechnik (Institute of Automatic Control), where I’ve begun my project on digital twins (think: simulations of machinery that can also interact with sensors and actuators) and convolutional neural networks. My time is split between the model factory, which houses tank and pump systems, and the “Hiwi” (short for “Hilfswissenschaftler,” or research assistant) Room, a beautifully lit computer lab where I discovered that the “Y” and “Z” are switched on German keyboards. At lunchtime, I make a short trip with the Hiwis to the dining hall, where a meal is almost always under 4 euros. Dienstag ist Schnitzeltag (Tuesday is Schnitzel Day)! After lab work is done, I typically opt to walk back to my dorm. The trip takes me through quiet meadows and dirt paths, and is lovely even when it’s drizzling.
On Monday and Wednesday mornings, my schedule is a bit different. I attend German class for a few hours with fellow research interns from the United States and Canada. Dining hall lunches provide the perfect opportunity to practice our newly acquired vocabulary and grammar skills. On Wednesday afternoons, the research program organizes an excursion. This week, despite some light rain, we hiked to Dreiländereck, where the borders of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands intersect. Sehr cool!!!
Last week, our full cohort traveled to Köln (Cologne) together. We climbed the incredibly gorgeous and genuinely breathtaking Cologne Cathedral to view the city from above, and enjoyed a scenic boat trip down the Rhine River. This trip, like several others in the books for this summer, truly represents how well Aachen is situated, unlocking plenty of great opportunities in other European cities.
Crucially, I’m taking time to explore all that Aachen itself has to offer as well. The city is rich with legends: it’s said that the stunning cathedral was built with money from the devil, and the shiny symbols embedded within its cobblestone streets were placed there to help orient the allegedly illiterate Charlemagne. Its grocery stores and bakeries offer the most delectable and varied range of chocolates, wafers, and breads I’ve ever tried, and shopping for cooking ingredients is a German language exercise each time. Green spaces breathe life into the city: my favorites that I’ve discovered are Der Elisenbrunnen, where locals gather for weekly salsa dancing within a spacious pavilion that spouts out water from Aachen’s thermal springs, and Frankenberger Park, which is filled with families enjoying ice cream by an incredible 14th century fortress.
I am very grateful to have the opportunity to live, study, and work in Aachen, a city that can only be described as being absolutely saturated with culture, history, cross-border influences, and knowledge. In the coming weeks, I hope to deeply immerse myself in this culture, history, influence, and knowledge, and in turn learn from and contribute to the community.
Tschüss!! Until next time!
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