VDE on the road: In distant lands

I had already been involved in the “BeBuddy” mentoring program at my university for some time when I met a few students from South Korea. I was fascinated by what they told me about the country, the culture and studying in their home country, and I was certain that I also wanted to spend a semester abroad and get to know South Korea. Because it’s outside the EU, it was clear that many traditional funding programs wouldn’t be available. So after completing my bachelor’s degree, I applied for the Herbert Kind Prize from VDE ETG for outstanding academic achievements and special commitment – and won it. With the 5000 euros, I was able to cover flight costs, tuition fees and some of my housing costs. My adventure at Seoul National University began in February 2023. Compared to RWTH (Aachen University), there are fewer traditional lectures. Instead, there are smaller courses with practice-oriented projects. However, the workload is also higher. In addition to my Korean course, I still had time for other activities. For example, I took part in taekwondo and calligraphy courses, spent three days in a Buddhist temple and enjoyed my favorite Korean dish, bibimbap, almost every day.

I’ve been an anime and manga fan since I was a little girl and had always wanted to go to Japan. I’d never have imagined that VDE would take me there. It all started when I took part in a university project in the field of bio-mechatronics. Our team developed a T-shirt that can measure the movement, especially the rotation, of the spine. The purpose of the technology was to prevent back pain by alerting the wearer to incorrect posture via an app. Our professor told us about the microsystems technology competition COSIMA organized by VDE – and mentioned that the winning team would get to travel to the international microsystems technology congress in Kyoto. Nothing could hold us back. Come November 2022, we could hardly believe that we’d actually won first prize with our T-shirt. This ensured our participation in the international iCan competition, and we flew to Asia in the summer of 2023. Before we presented our project in Kyoto, I spent five days in Tokyo, visiting temples, the locations of my favorite series and the Akihabara shopping district. It was a fantastic trip, which would not have been possible for a student like me without COSIMA.

My master’s thesis was funded through DKE’s Science-to-Standards program. That’s what brought me to Next Generation DKE, which I now head up on a voluntary basis. In 2021, I had a brilliant opportunity to combine my interest in standardization with my love of travel when I went to Dubai for the IEC’s annual Young Professionals Program. Staying in the center of Dubai with around 100 young people from all over the world – it was a huge adventure. The workshop on international standardization was accompanied by side events. For example, the view of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, one of the largest in the world, was impressive. During my time in Dubai, I made friends from all over the globe. I’ve also been traveling the world in my actual job for two and a half years, heading up risk management in the USA in Boston for my Lübeck-based employer Dräger. Let’s see where I end up next.

The USA is rightly regarded as the land of opportunity, and I feel that particularly here in Silicon Valley. This is the home of the big tech companies; Apple, Google and Facebook are all based here. And this is also where the Renewable Energy Test Center RETC has its headquarters. I did an international internship here three years ago as part of my business degree. This year, VDE sent me back here as a brand manager to bring the VDE Americas and RETC brands closer together. It’s about communication strategies and social media campaigns, but also involves integrating colleagues from the subsidiaries into our processes. I’m now more or less solely responsible for the tasks which, three years ago, I was still learning. But there’s always an experienced colleague I can talk to. Of course, we're concerned about Trump’s government – especially its tariff policy. But the debates here on the ground are much less emotionally charged than they appear on TV and social media.