#dervintian

Time feels like it’s going by so quickly, as it’s already the end of the second week in Berlin. This week introduced the technical lab course, which for me is my robotic programming lab course. I haven’t had a great deal of robotic programming, and as everyone was introducing themselves during the first class, it seemed that the consensus was that a lot of people were pretty new. So it could be said that I was more than a little shocked to be doing partial derivatives and working with differential equations on the first day. Anyways, it actually wasn’t too bad as it made everyone work collectively and made time go by much faster as we were so laser-focused on finishing our tasks.

On Tuesday, we went on a fun brewery tour of the brewery on the VLB campus. You see, all the beer that was being produced was for research and scientific purposes. The brewery was experimenting with different techniques and recipes for different kinds of beer. We got to see the station where the barley is first broken down into malt, then where the yeast is added, and finally where the beer is dispensed. As an added bonus, we even got to try some!

Prior to the weekend, around Monday or so, 7 of my friends and I planned a weekend trip over to Amsterdam. We were to leave right after class on Friday and get there at around 1:00 am on Saturday and return back to Berlin at around 8:30 on Sunday night. I packed my stuff at around 5:45 am Friday morning because I’m just an all-round excellent procrastinator. 

The entire Amsterdam journey was an absolutely crazy one, but quite a memorable one. For starters, we missed one of our trains and had to race the train via taxi. One of our trains was heavily delayed, which caused us to miss our ensuing transfer train. As I was the only person who somewhat knew how to speak German, I was forced to put my minuscule vocabulary to use when I had to communicate to the information help desk and taxi driver that our train had been delayed and now needed a taxi service. We eventually were able to get a taxi service to the next stop, and thanks to the driver, just barely made it before the train, and the trip continued to proceed as normal. I thought that it was crazy that we had just happened to have one German speaker with us on this trip and for it to be actually a pivotal moment in the trip.  

As soon as we arrived, we headed to the Airbnb and just chilled out until everyone went to bed. The following morning we decided to go sightseeing and check out any potential museums or other tourist attractions that we wanted to hit up. We eventually settled on splitting up between sightseeing and visiting an electronic music museum.

I went with the group to the museum and as we were walking there, we were met with absolute torrential downpour. Since we had to make our time slot, we trudged through the rain to the museum, arriving on-time looking like we had swam through the waterways to get there. In the electronic music museum, we got to learn about the history of House music and see priceless artifacts like Marshmello’s helmet and Avicii’s keyboard. To top it all off, we even got to experience their own little DJ-mashup of some of the most iconic songs. 

That night, we met up with some other University of Michigan students who were traveling through Europe, and we decided that since it was one of their birthdays, to go out that night in celebration, seeing as he was turning 21. We walked around Amsterdam at night, appreciating the beautiful views of the city at night and basking in the nighttime culture of the city. Even though it was late at night, there were still streets packed with people having a good night out in pubs and bars. We walked around for about an hour, then attended a music festival. Now, this is where the night really starts to get interesting. 

When we arrived, we were really excited and were in high spirits. Then someone from our group got kicked out. We didn’t really know why and after clearing up the confusion, they were let back in. We then spent the next couple hours dancing and chilling around, eventually leaving at around 3:00 am. As we were all pretty hungry at the time, we decided to hit up this one street full of fast food shops until around 4:00 am. However, as we were walking there, another person lost their wallet. We spent about 30-45 minutes looking for that wallet until somehow, by the grace of God, we found it next to a curb untouched. It was a pure stroke of luck that we had found it and even more lucky that it was left untouched. Seeing as how the universe was so unfairly lucky to us, it decided that it was time to reverse the tables. As we were walking to get food, I saw that we were running behind and needed to get moving if we were to get there before everything closed. I started sprinting and turned around to tell my friends behind me that we need to get going. As I turn back around however, I see a bike coming straight for me and BAM, it slams right into me. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt and I was able to walk away from it with minor bruises and swelling. However, this experience was extremely scary and I am extremely grateful that things did not end differently. At last, we were able to get food right around 4:00 am and eventually headed back and called it a night. 

Sunday was our final day in Amsterdam and seeing as how our train back to Berlin left at 2:15, we could only do some light shopping in some of the shopping streets before we ended up heading over to the train station and heading back to Berlin. Overall, it was an extremely fun trip and well worth it. Even though we had some scary moments, we cherished the short time that we spent and left extremely satisfied with the experience.

This will no doubt go down as one of the most fun trips that I’ve had in recent years and definitely the most crazy and unpredictable trip ever.

That’s all for this week, see you guys next week!

Dervin Tian

Data Science

Well, this is it. The last post that I will ever make. When I first arrived, I was anxious yet excited. I didn’t quite know what I had signed myself up for. I didn’t know if I would be able to get along with everyone else. I just didn’t know what I was in for. As I said in my first post:

“I’m gonna take that leap of faith and I'll take you guys along to see what's on the other side.”

First picture taken, just arriving in Berlin (left). Last picture taken, watching USA vs Bolivia in the Copa America (right).

Well, I think I’ve made it to the other side now. Along the journey, I’ve learned how fragile each moment is. During my time in my first semester in Ann Arbor, days would pass by like seconds and I wouldn’t take notice of it. However, being here in Berlin has changed my perspective because as we were only here for 6 weeks, each moment was extra precious and because I had gotten so close with everyone, I made sure to appreciate each moment that much more, and treasure each memory for what it was. Now coming to think of it, I only have 4 years in college and 1 year has already blown by. The remaining 3 years could be the same, but I’m determined to change that. I am determined to do everything as if it is my last chance because one of these days, it actually will be. 

To reflect on some things that I said in my first post, I can confidently say that my German has improved vastly, as I was even able to listen to German commentary for the Euros and understand a good chunk of it. I’ve been able to translate for my friends and even maneuver my way through tricky train delays speaking to native speakers who don’t speak a lick of English. Even though I was anxious in the beginning, I can say that I settled in quickly and had a blast with everyone that I met. Even though we had a very diverse group of people, we still had an absolute blast hanging out every day. 

However, after re-reading my first post, I noticed something magical. Taking the first letter of every paragraph, it spells out HOME. Home, sweet home. Although I am miles away from home, I realized that I also felt so at home, and that’s because home isn’t determined by where you reside, but where you live out your best life. I realized that even though Michigan is my true home, with this magnificent group of people, for 6 glorious weeks, my home was Berlin. 

As I wrap up this final post I must say that this was one of my favorite experiences that I’ve ever had. Everything from hanging out with friends after the lab, posting weekly blogs or celebrating a successful self-balancing robot, I just cannot say how much I’ve enjoyed myself here. There’s a quote that I live by Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” I look back on this experience and all the great memories and relationships that I have built up, and I can truly say that I will be smiling, even if it is through a stream of tears running down my face. 

Dervin Tian

Data Science

The beginning of the end is here and it’s not been easy to take. The majority of this final week was spent preparing for the final presentation, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t take some time out of my day to explore and have fun for myself. 

On Monday, we all had a day trip excursion to Peenemünde, which was really interesting and fun. For a little bit of background, Peendemunde was a testing site near the Baltic Sea where the first couple of ballistic missiles were developed during WWII. Due to the unique history of Peenemünde, we had to visit and take a tour of some of the old power plants. Inside the power plants were full of historical artifacts as well as documents that showed off the logistics and the reality of what life was like in Peenemünde during the second World War. 

After the museum, we headed straight over to the beach. Being right next to the Baltic Sea, we just couldn’t resist going to the beach and having ourselves a day out. We spent the majority of the rest of time swimming in the Baltic Sea, eating Seaside snacks such as these delicious fish sandwiches and playing ultimate frisbee on the beach. If it wasn’t for the storm that ended up rolling in, we would’ve stayed there for many more hours. Before we knew it, we boarded the bus back to Berlin and arrived around 8:00 pm, just in time to catch up on some Euro Cup matches. 

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all primarily spent preparing for the final presentation on Friday, which meant that little time was spent outside. The most I did was to go skateboarding by myself for a couple of hours, play soccer one last time with everyone, and meet up with everyone to either hang out for the night, or watch whatever soccer games were on. On Wednesday night, we made sure to also attend the Berlin watch party for the Germany game as they defeated Hungary 2-0 to ensure their spot in the next stage of the European Championships. 

On Friday, it was officially the day of the final presentations as well as the much-anticipated BBQ. Everyone’s final presentation went very well, as everyone had prepared a lot for them. After presenting, it was time to unwind by having fun at the final BBQ. For the BBQ, everyone had a great time eating food, chilling out, talking and enjoying the final moments that we had as a group together. 

For me, being someone who struggles to stay in touch with people, it was hard for me to recognize that these were the final moments that I would get to spend with everyone together and that after this, I would never see some of these people ever again. In spite of that, I just let myself live out the rest of the night as I was determined to make the final night one with no regrets. It was a night full of laughs, cheers and full of cheerful memories, memories that will never go away. It’s just like that scene in Interstellar, where they say only love can transcend dimensions. No matter what happens, even if our world got sucked away by a black hole, or if the technological singularity wipes out the rest of humankind, those memories will still be there, and that’s because of everyone. So I just have one last thing to say to everyone in this program: I love y’all. 

Signing off, 

Dervin Tian

Data Science

His week was the last working week for our technical Lab, as the next week will be dedicated towards the final presentation and gathering our findings into our final report. Throughout the Lab, some were successfully able to complete the task of getting the robot to self-balance. I was somewhat successful, as I was able to get the robot to auto-correct itself, but ran into the issue where I hadn’t perfectly tuned the parameters so the robot would often overcorrect and lose its balance. However, even though I wasn’t able to perfectly complete the task, I learned a lot about robotic programming and now have a much better understanding of the steps required to get an autonomous system to work, with steps running from running simulations to coding the actual steps into the robot. 

Speaking of processes, this week also included a tour of the BMW Motorcycle factory, where we got to see the process of a BMW bike getting put together. Now I must say that their process was slightly more complicated than ours and included a little more man-power and a couple more steps. Despite the fact that we couldn’t take pictures inside the factory, we were still allowed to take pictures of some of their finished products that they were displaying in the lobby, which I have included here.

In my time in Germany here, I have visited many bars and pubs, but for the first time, I visited a rooftop bar. It was a beautiful day, made even better by the fact that there was a triple rainbow looking down over us. My friends and I had an absolute blast, hanging around and chatting about their day as well as upcoming events, such as the European soccer championships (more on that later). It was a great time and one that I would definitely want to relive. 

About the Euros, the opening game of the tournament saw Germany pitted up against Scotland. Now, because of the occasion, there was a massive fan watch party in the heart of Berlin, which I attended. It was an extremely packed house, full of mostly German fans who watched on with delight as we saw goal after goal go into the Scottish net (sorry to all the Scottish fans). With a final score of 5-1, there was pure euphoria in the air as we left the event. With each goal that went in, fans went crazy singing German goal chants, jumping up and down and celebrating like crazy. The only hiccup in the stadium was when Germany scored an own goal. However, I think that because it was already 4-0 at that time with 5 minutes left to play, nobody was very upset and it was easily laughed off. Despite the fact that there are a couple more games being played here in Berlin, I will not be able to attend any games in the stadium as they conflict with my schedule.

Before I go, let me ask you one question. Who do you think will win the European championship?

Dervin Tian Data Science

Well, over the weekend, we went to Prague! We were traveling to celebrate one of my friends' birthdays. We had 14 people with us, which is the biggest group trip that we had ever done and everyone was very excited for a weekend in Prague. It was my first time in Prague, so I didn’t know quite what to expect, but was excited nonetheless. We took a 4 hour bus ride over to Prague and before I knew it, we had arrived. 

We arrived in Prague earlier than we expected, at around 10:00 or so local time, and headed over to our Airbnb. We discussed sleeping orientation, dropped off our stuff and got ready. You may be asking yourself, what are these mad bunch of Americans (plus one Canadian) headed off to do now? Well, we decided that sleep is for suckers, and that since we would only be in Prague for about 72 hours, we were gonna make the most out of it. So while the night was still young, at around 12:30 am, we headed out for a fun night. Seeing as how there was a world-famous DJ in town, we decided that it might be a good idea to attend her show. For the entire time, we were bopping our heads to the music, dancing the night away and just having the best time ever. We ended up finishing at around 4 am, and went to sleep. That concludes day 1.

On day 2, we got up bright and early, at least I did, at around 8:30. We then spent the next hour and a half getting ready for the day. At around 10:00, we finally headed out to explore the city during the day time. The first place that we hit up were the Jewish sectors of the city and their beautiful synagogues. We also made sure to take plenty of pictures of the traditional Czech architecture surrounding us. It basically looked like what I dream my Minecraft world could look like. From there, we made our way across the bridge across the Vltava river to the other side of Prague. There we could see the beautiful Prague Castle at the top of a hill as well as many other scenic views. However, the real breathtaking view was when we looked back across the river and could see the city in its entirety. For as far as our eyes could see, it was just purely red roofs and classical buildings. 

The majority of the rest of the day was spent in the Prague castle, where we got to tour Cathedrals that were hundreds of years old, as well as other historical landmarks regarding historical Czech clans. We got to walk around some of their historical streets, getting to see what life was really like in the Castle, and visit other parts of the castle, such as their prison yard. 

After the castle, our group decided just to walk around and hit up whatever we saw along the way. At around 5:30, our group decided to split off as many of us were tired due to a lack of sleep and wanted to go back and take a nap. I was among one of these people. However, due to two people who will remain nameless, I was evicted of my right to go take a nap. These two dragged me around for over an hour on their little shopping spree, dragging me along like two big sisters do to their younger brother at the shopping mall. We couldn’t walk 1 minute without one of them going “Ooooooo wooooow, that’s so cute”, or “Ooooh wow, let’s go in there”. Anyways, regardless of the circumstances, we still all had a great time and I even got myself a nice shirt, so I guess it worked out in the end. 

We had made reservations at around 8:45 for a nice birthday dinner. We had all agreed for everyone to dress nice and everyone definitely delivered. Everyone was dressed super nicely and we all had a great time and enjoyed the delicious birthday meal. And of course we remembered to sing for the birthday girl. With that being said, Happy Birthday Marley!

That night, we decided to hit up another show, this time in the heart of Prague. This place featured some of the best DJ’s, and my personal favorite music. They played a bunch of songs that I had long loved, but had hardly ever heard in public. For example, they played songs like “Dragostea Din Tei”, by O-zone (otherwise better known as the Numa Numa song), as well as other favorites such as Fifa 14’s classic theme song “Love Me Again” by John Newman and “Astronomia” by  Tony Igy and Vicetone (otherwise known as the Coffin Dance song). Even though I suffered some minor hearing loss, it was well worth it as I had some of the most fun that I have had that night. With that crazy night over, it is time to go on to the final day. 

Our bus back to Berlin left at around 6:00 pm. We checked out of our Airbnb at around 11:00, and we spent the rest of the day visiting the local parks, and walking around some more around the river bank as well as other parts in the city that we didn’t get a chance to explore yet. When the time came, we boarded the bus and departed for Berlin.

We had an absolute blast in Prague, and I would do anything just to experience those 3 days again. I am so thankful to have spent it with the people that I did and can say that it was objectively the most fun that I had ever had in Prague. 

Dervin Tian

Data Science

Hello everyone, this is going to be a bit of a shorter blog, but there is a reason for it. So basically, my friends and I have planned out this massive trip this upcoming weekend, I won’t say where, and I’ve decided the entirety of my next blog post just for that trip. It may be the biggest blog post that I will be writing, so get excited for that! I am planning on releasing that Monday evening.

So far this week, I have made a lot of progress in my robotics programming lab. At this point, we have built up the foundation as for how the robot will work and how it will autonomously balance itself. The last step right now that I am working on is to actually implement it into code and test it. While it has been difficult at times, especially since I am still somewhat inexperienced when it comes to robotics and linear algebra, I have learned a lot. For example, I just created my own Kalman Filter, which is a technique used in robotics that basically predicts what the robot will do in the future, given its current status. I have learned so much and can’t wait to show off the final result!

Outside of class, my friends and I have continued to explore Berlin more. On Monday, we paid a visit to the Bundestag Reichstag Building. This government building houses the Federal Convention, similar to the USA’s election, as well as lots of government offices and conference rooms. During my tour, I was able to walk through the iconic glass dome on the top and learned a lot about what made up the Berlin skyline as well as some history as for how the buildings became what they are today. It was a great time and offered some great views of downtown Berlin.

From the Reichstag Building, we could also see Teufelsberg (The Devil’s Mountain), which is where we went next. Teufelsberg, which was an old American listening station during the Berlin Wall era, has now been renovated by some of the most talented Graffiti artists in Germany into a graffiti art exhibit. At the top, stood the eye-catching white domes, which were very echoey and very cool to visit. That same day, we hit up Drachensberg, not without some sightseeing along the way, to view the sunset.  Drachensbery was this massive grass mesa which was so unique that my friends and I couldn’t help but go check it out. Today was a nature-filled fun exploration day to offer a different perspective of the hustle and bustle of downtown Berlin. Did I mention that today offered some of the best views of the city? Take a look for yourself.

Even with all of these excursions happening, we always found time for a pickup game of soccer. Due to the fact that it was raining and having to play on a grass field where the footing was virtually non-existent, you can imagine that it brought on a ton of slips, falls, eating a face full of dirt, but most importantly, a whole lot of fun. We completely lost track of time and before we knew it, we had been playing for around 2 hours! Even though everyone was drenched and tired, everyone left in a great mood as it was some of the most fun we had had hanging out as a group. 

This week has been so much fun already and I can’t wait for the weekend to roll by. With that being said, I hope everyone who’s reading this is having a wonderful day and I’ll see you all on Monday. Auf Wiedersehen!

Dervin Tian

Data Science

Who doesn’t love a nice homey and cozy week, especially after that roller coaster of a weekend previously. As you probably could’ve guessed, this week was spent all in Berlin. The theme for this week was exploration, whether it be exploring in and around our neighborhood or throughout the city of Berlin. 

We loved to go out for food or just to enjoy ourselves. This week, we went to what is known as a Bierhaus (Beer House), which was basically a massive restaurant whose main selling point was their signature beer. We also walked around shopping streets like Wilmersdorfer Street and explored large retail stores and malls, like the Mall of Berlin. It was fun to go shopping and socializing with the people that I was closest to, and it made me closer with them because we got to hang out almost every single day after lab and just talk and get to know each other better. We would have long chats about which hoodies to buy, or which shoes look the nicest and so on. 

Outside of the hustle and bustle of shopping malls, my friends and I also went out into nature and explored new areas and participated in extremely fun group outdoor activities. This week we started to play soccer as a group, and it has quickly become one of our favorite activities. Despite everyone having varying skill levels, we are all able to still have a blast because we can get everyone involved and not have anyone feel left out. Another one of my favorite activities that we did was going to the beach as a group. The beach offered some breathtaking views of the sunset, and once again, offered a nice open space where we would partake in group activities, like playing with frisbees, or rock skipping competitions (occasionally). It was a great way for everybody to destress and just live and enjoy the moment.

I love the beach, but you know what else I love? Museums. Seeing as how Berlin does this cool thing where on the first Sunday of each month, the museums have free admission, we decided that it would be wise of us to take up that offer. So on Sunday, June 2, we did just that. However, since everybody with a brain also decided that it would be worthwhile to see some of the coolest museums in the world for free, we were met with the bane of my existence: LONG LINES. Each museum had their own long lines, but it was worth it as the artifacts in the museums were so historic and had so much history behind them. Here were some of my favorites: 

Friday was a bit of a bittersweet day for everyone as it was the final German class of the program. After 3 weeks, everyone had gotten really close to their German teachers, but as we all know, all good things must come to an end. For me, I was also a little bummed because my teacher, Alexander, was a very chill teacher who regularly engaged in discussions about German politics, sports and even American politics. The others in my class loved him equally as much, so it was sad when we found out that we weren’t going to see him again. However, it seemed fitting that our final moments spent together would be spent roaming around the entire city of Berlin speaking only German and completing the IESS Berlin Scavenger Hunt. He gave us great insight into the history of some of the German buildings and architecture, and also was a great guide as he knew his way around Berlin. Because of his insight and help, my team was able to finish first, and I feel that it was the most fitting way for us to depart. Although I don’t know how we will fare without each other now, I’m sure that we’ll be well looked-after by the legend of the Gerichtsvollzieher (a legendary inside-joke in our German class). Farewell Alexander. 

Dervin Tian

Data Science

The first week consisted of only language courses so the workload throughout the week was pretty light and was very manageable. During my first week of German class, I had a great time having discussions with my classmates and my German professor regarding topics like politics, German landscape and differences between Germany and the USA. Along the way, I’ve learned many new fun vocab words like Bundesausbildungsfördergesetz and Gerichtsvollzieher. While it took me a while to get adjusted speaking German again, as I haven’t touched it since my Senior year of high school in June of 2023, I was actually pretty surprised by the fact that my 4 years of German in high school wasn’t completely wasted as I was able to casually communicate with others in German and didn’t make a complete fool of myself.

But as well all know, summer’s not only about class, it’s about fun as well! Some of my favorite things that I’ve done so far include the boat tour around Berlin on the Spree River. This was the first time where I got to meet some of the faculty who will be leading our projects as well as becoming closer with some of my fellow peers who I hadn’t had a chance to talk to yet. I can remember standing on this boat having conversations with others, sometimes in German, sometimes in English, sometimes in Chinese, and sometimes in all 3. Safe to say that everyone on the boat was vibing and we all had a great time.

Our group also went on a couple of tours around Berlin. One was a walking tour around the whole city. We saw many famous tourist attractions such as the Berlin Cathedral and the world famous Brandenburg Gate as well as historically significant spots like Checkpoint Charlie and the Holocaust Memorial. Along the tour, our tour guide also gave us a lot of insight on the history of the city from the time when it was founded right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Speaking of the Berlin Wall, we also visited the Berlin wall memorial and got to experience what sections of the Berlin Wall were really like in person. This included seeing actual parts of the original Berlin Wall, original watchtowers where soldiers would stand guard and original floodlights which were intended to illuminate the land to prevent people from escaping. These gave me a new perspective on how daring an escape must’ve actually been back then. 

However, I think my favorite moments so far are just the times that I have been with my friends, whether that involves going to the gym together, nerding out over our very rare passion for beatboxing or traveling through the famous Berlin Culture Carnival together, I’ve been glad to have been able to find a group of people who I feel so comfortable around and can bond with easily. 

That’s all for this week, see you guys next week! 

Dervin Tian Data Science