LUT Summer School

Since I had the time, I decided to enroll in the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) summer school. I figured I might as well get ahead while I’m already here, plus it would be a good way to meet people before the school year begins. While neither class was apart of my degree program, they were both useful and challenged me in different ways.

The first class was Additive Manufacturing – 3D Printing. My only experience with 3D printing was a computer-aided design (CAD) class I took last semester, so I was excited to learn more about the topic. About half the week consisted of seminar work where the goal was to create a company that utilized the technique. I was randomly assigned to work with a middle-aged Finnish man. As a person who isn’t particularly talkative in group settings, it’s difficult for me to work with people who are quieter than me. Though initially disappointed, I took it as an opportunity to get better at working with different types of people. And it turned out well. My partner happened to be good at CAD and also had a great idea for the project. Since he scuba dives as a hobby, we redesigned and printed a more ergonomic handle for one of the lights he uses.

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The next week I took Material Selection and Manufacturability Aspects of Energy Technology Applications (say that three times fast!). This class was even more group work, perhaps three-quarters of the time. Unbeknownst to me, this was actually a mechanical engineering class. Our objective of this project was to choose optimal materials for a certain application. One group member developed the idea of creating steam (to power a turbine) using the sun. Since I’m not familiar with mechanical engineering concepts, I had to both learn on my own and also accept guidance from my teammates. This stretched me in a way that simply sitting in lectures could not have.

Though each class was intensive (squeezed a semester worth of material into one week), I still found time to have fun. The first weekend I met with some summer school and degree students to visit Lappeenranta’s sandcastles, one of which is the biggest in Finland. A few days later we had an impromptu barbecue with a family that just moved to the neighborhood. And finally, this past weekend I went in search of mushrooms with some friends. Though it was too dry for them to grow, we were still able to pick berries, grill sausages / roast marshmallows, and visit a nature reserve in the neighboring town of Imatra.

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It has been nice getting to know Lappeenranta better these past few weeks. Now I’m off to travel a bit before classes start!