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, tried out different technologies and worked 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 the 24th of October we started our BOGY internship 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 in the beginning. But when we found our way to the building on time at 9:30 am, we were greeted by a locked door. According to the note, the door opener was not working. Within the next few days, however, we would find out that it did in fact work 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, even though 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 would ask for user input and then check that it was correct. It was understandable, unlike what we did the following day – Arduino.
Arduino
Absolutely nothing worked as it was expected or logically should have. The code even stopped working after one night and we are not talking about the wiring. The first task was to wire up an RGB LED and get it to light up. That was easy enough, but when we added the servo, a small rotating motor and the card sensor, we found no help even on the internet. Having got through that topic rather babdly, we hoped that the next one would go better.
Blender
We were given a brief explanation of the program and then given the task of modelling our room. At the beginning we had problems with orientation, 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 on the internet for the “right” wood. Unfortunately, we lacked the time and talent to make the models very detailed, but we all ended up with a room. Our favourite was the next occupation – lectures.
Lecture
We had the opportunity to attend a lecture on Visual Computing. Surprisingly, it was much more interesting than expected and we were even able to follow along because it was the first lecture of the semester. That's why we couldn't really understand why some students left the lecture hall earlier or why some were busy with other things.
Since we had all enjoyed the first lecture so much, we didn't want to miss the chance to attend another one. We chose a chemistry lecture for 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 and the students, with some funny moments. Surprisingly, we were also able to follow the lecture quite well, partly because it was one of the first lectures again.
Insight
During our time at VISUS, we of course also got an insight into the research at the institute. On the first day, we were given a tour of the facilities and were able to take a look at things like the Powerwall and the computer labs. We thought it was funny that the computer room was actually just filled with refrigerators for the technology, so it wouldn't overheat. In the Powerwall room 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 them 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 have all enjoyed our BOGY internship, despite some frustrations. We all agree that the lectures are better than classes at school and we are sad that we have to go back after the fall vacations. We would also like to thank VISUS for allowing us to do our internship here. We had a lot of fun, got a good insight into the daily work and also learned new things. We can definitely recommend it.
Annika Schilling, Fenja Schrodt and Timon Steinmetz
More information (in German) can be found here.