#ipeaachen

1 - What I've learned

Throughout my time working as a research intern at Exaia Technologies and RWTH Aachen, I have learned many technical skills relevant to my subject and career. While conducting my research project, I developed skills in planning and executing research from start to finish.

Initially I learned about simple algorithms to extract properties from speech recordings, such as fraction of voiced speech, zero crossing rate, and short time energy. I practiced ways to visualise and observe speech characteristics using various graphs, including reading spectrograms. I also learned how to use the CYMO tool developed by Exaia Technologies for speech feature extraction, and different methods for feature selection like mRMR, the Mann Whitney U test, variance thresholding, and correlation pruning. I learned about using grid search with cross validation to find optimal hyperparameters for random forests, SVM, and gradient boosting classifiers, and also about training classifiers on combined features from different modalities, specifically text and audio together.

Besides technical skills, my German has improved quite a lot. The biggest change is that I am now much more confident just speaking German and hesitate less when searching for words, using replacements or pulling from whatever vocabulary I can find instead of freezing up. I am simply not scared to speak German anymore, because even if I can only manage a few sentences, locals will reply back to me in German, which is a huge win and a real confidence boost. In fact, now almost everyone replies to me in German when I speak German to them, whereas when I first got to Aachen everyone would switch to English the moment I tried. I know my German is far from fluent, but that is exactly what motivates me to keep learning even after leaving Germany.

2 - Challenges and goals

The first goal I set at the start was to improve my cooking, and I think I have achieved it. Looking back over the past 10 weeks and nearly 100 meals I cooked for myself, here are the dishes I am most proud of because they genuinely taste satisfying to me:

Chicken oyakodon

Honey BBQ chicken

Creamy mushroom chicken spaghetti

Grilled salmon with mushroom onion mashed potatoes

My cooking skills have improved enormously and I can now make a real variety of different meals. This goal is definitely reached.

The second goal was to master the public transport here, and I can now navigate to key locations around the city, including restaurants, supermarkets, bus stops, parks, and campus buildings, almost entirely from memory, rarely needing Google Maps to get to my lab or back to the WG. I am also taking trains around the Netherlands, Belgium, and other German cities the way locals do. I believe I have reached both goals during my time here.

3 - Takeaways

The biggest takeaway from this experience studying abroad is that I am now so much better at organising my schedule and managing my time. This came from taking full responsibility for three meals a day while also carrying out a research project on a completely self determined schedule. I think after going back to UMich I will be able to hold onto all these good habits and maintain a healthier and more capable way of living each day, with a schedule full enough to get everything done on time.

For a photo collection of the whole trip, please see the post on IPE Instagram or my account @realkevin_s here:

This is the last blog. Goodbye everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed reading about this program as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Key dates of this IPE abroad program:

May 18 — Aachener Dom May 22 — Kölner Dom May 23 — Düsseldorf Japantag May 27 — Dreiländereck, Vaals May 30 — Maastricht Caves June 3 — Bowling in Maastricht June 6 — Bonn, Haus der Geschichte, Botanische Gärten der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn June 13 — Dreilägerbachtalsperre, Roetgen, Kuhberg June 16 — Bonn, Haus der Geschichte, Japanischer Garten, Rheinauenpark June 17 — Forschungszentrum Jülich June 20 — Jugendherberge DJH Simmerath-Rurberg June 21 — Woffelsbach June 27 — Liège, Cathédrale Saint-Paul, Le Grand Curtius July 1 — Kletterwald Aachen July 8 — Monschau July 11 — Ordensburg Vogelsang July 15 — Limburg July 18 — Schloss Drachenburg July 23 — UROP Symposium

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science

1 - German final exam

On Monday I woke up at 7 AM and set out for my final exam. The test has three sections. First is a listening test with two audio tracks: one is a set of true or false questions and the other is multiple choice about what the conversation contains. Then there is the grammar section, where we are given two texts and a word bank to choose from, including adverbs, articles, prepositions, and other words to fill in the blanks. I think this was the most difficult part. Finally there is the reading section, which is the easiest: one long text with reading comprehension questions, and another where you are given several short texts to match to described scenarios. The test was not as scary as I had expected and all the revising I did definitely paid off.

2 - Lindt factory

Lindt is a Swiss brand but there is a large Lindt factory right here in Aachen, just a 20 minute walk from where I live. The Aachen factory is one of Lindt's major European production sites, churning out a significant portion of the brand's pralines and specialty chocolates, and it has been operating in the city for decades. As I approached, even the air started smelling like a combination of every chocolate imaginable. I could not find a factory tour available to book, but there is a store that is open all the time and it is massive. It is like a Walmart supermarket in the US, except filled entirely with chocolate. There are so many different types that I had never even seen some of them before. I ended up buying nearly 1.5 kg of chocolates because of all the exclusive and limited packaged products on offer: whiskey filling, orange wine filling, red wine filling, pistachio filling, and a double dark chocolate. There is even a stand where you can order custom chocolate plates with drawings and writing made by hand for you.

3 - UROP Symposium

On Thursday we had our UROP Symposium, with selected students and labs giving presentations about their projects to everyone. One piece of research I found particularly fascinating was someone investigating different types of welding machines by making metal cubes, cutting them open, and examining the cross section to evaluate the quality of the weld. It is essentially 3D printing with metal. Quite a few people stopped at my poster and asked many questions, which was really encouraging. At the end of the symposium I got my German exam results back and scored around 91%, which translates to a 1.7 in the German grading system of 1 to 5, where closer to 1 is better. I was genuinely surprised and very happy to see that result.

4 - Moving out

It is important to schedule an appointment with the Hausmeister (house master) before moving out. Since I had completely forgotten the move in protocol, I had to make extra effort to track him down, which turned out to be difficult since he happened to be away the entire week. After a series of emails and phone calls, one morning he just suddenly appeared at my door and we got the appointment sorted. One tip for anyone coming after me: do this early, so that if anything comes up you have enough time to arrange the move out inspection, and make sure the apartment is cleaned up and restored to its original condition.

5 - WG dinner

Since I am moving out, everyone in our flat came together to cook a dish from their home country. I decided to make Hong Kong style milk tea to represent Hong Kong. I went shopping for Ceylon black tea leaves, brown cane sugar, and plenty of milk. I made the milk tea by first roasting the tea leaves and slowly adding in the cane sugar bit by bit until it was slightly caramelised, then turning the heat to low and adding in the milk slowly until everything came back to a boil and was well mixed. I made a chocolate version as well, using couverture chocolate in place of the sugar.

My flatmate Anna made Käsespätzle and Efe made Çiğ köfte. The Käsespätzle is a German local specialty and I had mine topped with roasted crispy onions and caramelised onions. The Çiğ köfte is a Turkish specialty from the southeast of Turkey, particularly popular in the city of Urfa. We ate all the food, drank milk tea, and then my other flatmate Lan brought mangos, kiwi, and dried fruit chips, and in the end we went through a lot of Lindt chocolate too. I was absolutely stuffed. It was truly a fulfilling meal and I am so grateful that everyone took the time to put this farewell dinner together. We ended up listening to music and singing together until around 1 AM.

1 - Hochschulradio Aachen

As the UROP program nears its end, I was invited to give an interview about RWTH Aachen's buddy program. Each UROP student here is paired with a local student who volunteers to help out. My buddy has been really wonderful: when I first arrived in Aachen it was super cold and he lent me a blanket to survive the first many nights, showed me good restaurants around the city, told me where to buy essentials, and even pointed me to where I could print my poster for the symposium. For the interview, we walked to the Hochschulradio's recording studio, which is filled with cool equipment. I tried my best to answer in German, and though I managed to respond to two questions with some preparation, I had to revert to English for the rest of the interview, where I talked about my experience with the buddy program. It was a cool glimpse into how radio podcasts are recorded and produced.

2 - Limburg hike

We took a bus to Wahlwiller in the Netherlands and started hiking through the farm fields. Its about a 1 hour hike to Wingbergerhoeve IJs & Fruit, which is an ice cream shop we plan to go. The hike starts off through the bush and under the trees, its like a green tunnel with nature surrounding from all sides. Then after a couple minutes we clear the plantation and suddenly its all around us we see corn fields that extends all the way up to the highways in a distance, and the corns are all as tall as us and its my first time seeing so many corns up close, though some are already yellow and withering due to the extreme heat. The hike turns into a slightly hilly climb from here on until we reach the peak of the small hill. We then get into a path where there are traditional houses on both sides, its looks like the historical german houses of the Heimatstil style Fachwerkhaus, and its really somewhere i’d live in. the environment is extremely pleasant, like each house has its own secret garden surrounded by tall bush. There are also some modern glass houses but pales in comparison to the classical beauty. Then we walk down and from a distance we could already see tents where the ice cream stall is at. When we finally arrived I had a pistachio scoop (Pistache) and a passion fruit scoop (Passievrucht), but its too sweet for me. We then continued forward and passed by a dried up river with many stacked stones underneath, and took a bus back.

3 - Bar scene in Aachen

A fellow UROP student was celebrating his birthday and I was invited along with about a dozen of his other friends to Sowiso Ocean, two bars joined together in one courtyard. A good night out in Aachen, with Augustiner Helles, a good bier.

4 - Schloss Drachenburg

Getting there required a bit of effort: from Aachen to Düren, then to Troisdorf, then a replacement bus to Königswinter. The village near the castle sits in an area called Siebengebirge, meaning "seven mountains," though the region actually has over 40 hills and sits very close to Bonn. Climbing up to the castle, we could already see Bonn and even Cologne Cathedral from the hillside. The plains along the Rhine river are truly one of the most fascinating sights I have encountered here: miles and miles of villages with small white houses and clay rooftops, densely forested basins, and small hills with towers on top, a medieval kingdom perfectly blended with the modern world. The climb to the castle takes about 15 minutes, and as we approached I could only see it partially through the trees. The full view only revealed itself as we crossed the bridge and passed through the gates, and it was like a fairytale castle stepping straight out of a fantasy oil painting, sitting on top of the hill in all its absurd magnificence. It is often said that Schloss Drachenburg was one of the key inspirations for the Walt Disney castle silhouette, combining the towers of Neuschwanstein with its own highly theatrical profile.

Schloss Drachenburg has one of the more extraordinary ownership histories of any building I have visited. It was commissioned in 1882 by Stephan von Sarter, a Cologne banker and stock market financier who had recently been elevated to the rank of Baron, and who wanted a grand Rhine villa befitting his new status. Construction was completed remarkably quickly, in just two years, though Sarter himself barely lived in it. After his death the castle passed to his nephew, and then to a cavalry captain named Baron von Krieger, who later went off to fight in German South West Africa. It subsequently became a school run by the De La Salle Brothers, before being seized during the NS era and repurposed as an Adolf Hitler Schule, one of the regime's elite ideological academies. After the war it changed hands several more times, fell into neglect and near ruin, and its last private owner went bankrupt before the castle was finally transferred to a public foundation to be restored and maintained. The fact that it survived at all, and in such extraordinary condition, feels almost improbable given everything it went through.

Inside, the castle is so elaborately decorated it feels genuinely unreal, somewhere between a Game of Thrones palace and a Lord of the Rings set, a maximalist mashup of every fantasy interior you could imagine. The main hall features enormous stained glass windows, and I noticed that George Washington is among the figures depicted, even with an English language description beneath him, while Bismarck, Goethe, Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart all appear on the surrounding windows. Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, the Empress of Austria Hungary, and other notable figures of the era are represented as well. There is also a cylindrical tower rising through many floors, lined with private guest bedrooms all the way up to the top of the castle.

This place feels so magical that I genuinely struggle to describe how impressive it is. Even standing there in person, with your own eyes, it is hard to fully grasp its elegance.

5 - Research poster printing

Back in Aachen, if you ever need to print a research poster, it is really straightforward. Stores like Unicopy, Copy2000, and Audimax Copy Center are all within a five minute walk from the campus buildings. The printing service here is surprisingly fast and the prices are very reasonable for the quality. The cheapest option is only 11 euros for an A0 colour print, though I went with the 17 euro option that uses a denser paper stock. All you have to do is email the poster as a PDF to the shop, and that is it. Mine was ready in under 10 minutes.

My German final exam is tomorrow, and I also need to submit the poster and final report. Wishing myself luck.

1 - Monschau We took the bus to Monschau, a little over an hour's ride away. Monschau is a small historic town of around 12,000 people nestled deep in the Eifel hills near the Belgian border, one of the best preserved medieval towns in all of Germany. It sits in a narrow valley carved by the Rur river, which gives the whole town its distinctive compact and intimate character. The town is famous for its half timbered houses, its mustard production, and its glassmaking heritage, and it draws visitors from across Europe precisely because it looks like somewhere time forgot.

When we first got off the bus and walked towards the old town, I was completely amazed by the view. It is stunning, straight out of a fairytale, and photos simply cannot capture the beauty of this village. What I love most about the town is the river running right through it with all the bridges built over it. It is really compact but never feels crowded, and almost every building is genuinely historical. Nearly every house has a small "Denkmal" plate on the wall indicating it is a protected historic building. I also saw a house built in 1666 where people still live today, and another wooden house that has to be supported by huge wooden scaffolding on one side because it is visibly tilting.

There is also the famous Rotes Haus, a grand 18th century merchant's mansion that once belonged to the Scheibler family, one of the wealthiest cloth manufacturing dynasties in the region. It now operates as a museum preserving the original furnishings, textiles, and living quarters of the family across multiple floors, giving a remarkably intact picture of prosperous bourgeois life in the 1700s. Our group was not particularly interested so we did not go inside, but we did visit the Evangelische Stadtkirche Monschau, where there is a big red book for visitors to leave comments. I was really pleasantly surprised to find lots of Japanese entries, including one written just that same day, shortly before I arrived. I left a kind comment in both German and Cantonese. Notably, there are at least a dozen churches and altars scattered throughout Monschau and we came across many of them, most dedicated to Maria, mother of Jesus. One small chapel we found while climbing up towards the castle was Kapelle Ave Maria, built in 1911, with walls lined entirely with carved plates bearing thank you messages from worshippers. The earliest one I found dated to 1912, and the collection continued through both World Wars all the way to the most recent one from 2012.

Speaking of the wars, we also discovered a Denkmal on our way up to the castle, commemorating all the fallen soldiers from Monschau across both World Wars, with every victim's name inscribed on a plate. The castle itself is fairly small but retains an almost fully intact ring of walls and a decent sized tower, though they are not open to the public. Burg Monschau, as it is known, dates back to the 13th century and served for centuries as the seat of the Counts of Jülich, who controlled this strategically important valley crossing. It later passed through various hands and was partially dismantled over the centuries, leaving the atmospheric ruins that stand today. We explored the sections that are partially accessible. It is really cold and dark inside. There were another two chapels on the way up as well. Afterwards we hiked back down and crossed to the hill opposite the castle where there are smaller ruins of another fortification, with information panels telling the broader history of Monschau.

Before leaving we walked to the Historische Senfmühle Monschau, a historic mustard producing mill that is still operating today, using locally grown ingredients to produce a wide variety of mustard sauce flavours. My favourite was the classic honey mustard with poppy seed, and I bought a big jar to take back. Sadly the mill itself is only open by guided tour, so we just walked around the shop and browsed the hundreds of different flavours of wines, sauces, juices, and even mustard chocolates locally produced in Monschau and the surrounding area. I fell asleep on the bus home.

I immediately used the honey mustard poppy seed sauce to top off my dinner. Its recommended to eat with Salmon, which I just happen to cook that day.

2 - Ordensburg Vogelsang

Ordensburg Vogelsang was one of four elite ideological training schools established by the Nazi regime to groom the next generation of NS party leadership, and it is today the largest surviving architectural relic from the National Socialist era. Built from 1934 onwards on a dramatic hillside overlooking the Urftsee reservoir in the Eifel, the complex was designed to be monumental and imposing, a physical expression of Nazi ambitions rendered in stone. It functioned as a brainwashing school where selected teenagers would be sent to undergo rigorous physical and ideological training, with the goal of producing completely obedient, fanatical party loyalists ready to fill prominent NS positions after graduation. Admission was not based on academic merit or skill but purely on demonstrated loyalty to the party and the Führer. A number of its graduates were immediately drafted into the Second World War and deployed to oversee occupied territories in Eastern Europe, and several were subsequently convicted of war crimes after Germany's defeat.

This is probably one of the most in depth museums covering the political and educational dimensions of Nazi Germany that I have ever visited, with a strong focus on the pre war period that sets it apart from most other museums on the subject. There is an enormous amount of factual information and authentic artefacts on display that I have not seen elsewhere. I spent at least two hours inside and that was at a genuinely rushed pace. I also did not have time to explore the outside of the complex, which extends all the way down the hillside with many other structures still standing. It is also very quiet out there and honestly quite unsettling. It is a fairly eerie place and I did not particularly want to walk around alone. I would strongly recommend visiting if you want to understand how authoritarian regimes construct and propagate radical ideology, because I learned a great deal that I had not encountered before. One last thing worth noting: although the natural scenery surrounding the site is genuinely beautiful, the complex itself is deeply ugly, built entirely from brown and grey stone in relentlessly square and rectangular forms with almost no aesthetic grace to speak of. Which, in a strange way, feels fitting.

the museum also have a panoramic restaurant, which has great food for it's price, the portion is so big its enough to feed 2 people, for just 14.9 Euros its definitely worth it.

Next week will be even busier as I need to submit the final symposium poster and report.

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science

1 - Prelude to Halifax Olympiad

It was time for my dorm building, Halifax, to host the annual Halifax Olympiad. Unfortunately I could not participate due to a conflict with the planned trip to Liège, but I did make it to a pregame on Monday. It was a perfect immersive environment to experience German college life. I picked up German gossip, snacked on various things, learned to play a German card game about mosquitos (very fitting with the summer heat), and of course downed a whole bottle of beer without even noticing. Afterwards we grouped up by our residential houses, and as a proud member of House 3, we tried our best to beat the other houses in a racing game involving luck and finding our assigned poker cards. Though we ultimately finished second, we sat down together and watched Messi score twice live. Not sure how much my running improved after the warmup games, but my skills at opening beer caps with literally anything at hand definitely improved. A lot. I will catch the replay of our actual Olympiad after coming back from Liège!

2 - UROP quiz day

It was 36 degrees Celsius outside and no one wanted to leave their room. I still showed up to the UROP quiz event though, and fortunately there were enough people to form three highly competitive teams. Our team was called "Kaiju 06," named after two members' names (Kevin and Julian) and another member Lucas's birth year. It was quite an elaborate quiz composed of many sections: general knowledge, STEM and engineering, geography, biology and chemistry, and Aachen and Germany, with 10 questions per section. It felt like being on one of those TV game shows, but in real life. Our team managed to clutch first place by a tiny margin. Everyone got a little prize in the end: a piggy bank filled with chocolates. I genuinely almost thought there was real money on top of the pig. Alina from the UROP team also bought us all ice cream. The pistachio flavour was awesome. Would definitely eat again.

3 - Liège, Belgium

The train tickets to Liège are incredibly cheap. Taking the S41 directly from Aachen to Liège costs only 14.20 euros with a special weekend youth offer, which gives you full flexibility to take any specified train on that day. I bought the tickets through SNCB-NMBS International, which is half the price of DB. The weather was literally 38 degrees Celsius, the hottest conditions I had been in for a long time, which is unbelievable for this part of Europe. Make sure to bring plenty of water. I filled my thermos with ice water, which was a wise choice. Do the same. The ride is just over an hour, and once we arrived I immediately went looking for lunch. The walk to the city center is about 20 minutes and would actually be quite scenic if not for the sun burning down like a death laser. There is a street leading up to the Liège cathedral lined with various restaurants, and we settled at an Italian one and shared a few dishes. I also tried the local specialty Liègeois, which is orange soda mixed with Grenadine. It has a unique taste, somewhat like Diesel in Germany, which is not the fuel you put in cars but rather Coke mixed with beer.

4 - Cathedral and Grand Curtius museum

The Cathedral of Saint Paul in Liège has a history stretching back nearly 1,400 years, originally founded as a collegiate church in the 10th century and rebuilt in its current Gothic form between the 13th and 15th centuries. It became a cathedral only in 1802 after the original Saint Lambert Cathedral, once one of the grandest Gothic structures in all of Europe, was destroyed during the French Revolution. What makes Saint Paul particularly special is that it inherited the entire treasury of the destroyed cathedral, making its collection of religious artifacts, gold reliquaries, and medieval art one of the richest in Belgium. The building itself is striking, with soaring vaulted ceilings, intricate stained glass, and an atmosphere of accumulated centuries that is hard to put into words. It could not quite compare to the Kölner Dom or Vatican City, but it is still a magnificent church with a remarkable story behind it.

There was also a treasury collection on display, but instead of spending time there we headed to the Grand Curtius museum, the largest museum in Liège. Housed in a beautiful early 17th century Mosan Renaissance mansion that was once the home of arms dealer Jean Curtius, the museum brings together collections spanning archaeology, decorative arts, religious art, weaponry, and glassware, tracing the rich history of the Meuse region from prehistoric times through to the modern era. The building itself is as impressive as what is inside, with its distinctive red brick facade and elegant courtyard. The most astonishing item I came across was a pair of pistols fused together at the barrel, deliberately designed to bypass South American weapons laws so that the buyer could simply chop the barrel down to the legal length upon purchase. The ingenuity of circumventing the law, cast in metal. The museum absolutely deserves more than two hours, and I hope to return and go through everything properly. Truly a wondrous collection, 1000% would recommend!

(I'm also so pleasantly surprised that theres an interactive bow shooting game where the game indicated I'm a Manchu archer type, which actually accurately predicted my Manchu heritage!)

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science

1 - Back to Bonn, finishing the Haus der Geschichte (plot twist: I didn't)

Not that it is encouraged, but technically there is nothing stopping you, or in this case me, from taking a bus to Aachen Rothe Erde station and catching a train to Bonn. As I promised myself, I went back to Bonn to finish seeing the Haus der Geschichte museum. This time I jumped straight to the 1960s section and tried to move through everything a bit faster. The coolest part is that there is even an area where they let you try on authentic clothes preserved from the 70s. I found a whole jacket and jeans outfit that really vibed with me. Another cool item is a pair of Monopoly sets displayed side by side: one sold legally in West Germany, and one secretly hand printed and illegally produced in East Germany, since Monopoly was banned there for its "capitalist characteristics" and considered extremely "counterrevolutionary," yet people still loved playing it anyway. There was also a fan's handmade merch for the Rolling Stones, a band that was likewise banned in East Germany.

Then in the 80s and 90s there was another memorable comparison. West Germany was living in abundance, with TV networks, live broadcast game shows, and even hosting the Olympics (despite losing the football match against East Germany). In contrast, East Germany had the Stasi secret police and surveillance everywhere, genuinely like a real life 1984. Yet as a wave of liberalization swept across Europe in the late 80s, communist and authoritarian regimes began falling one after another, including Poland's Solidarity movement breaking the communist monopoly on power, Hungary opening its borders to the West, and the Velvet Revolution toppling the government in Czechoslovakia, all while Gorbachev was pushing reformist policies in Moscow. East Germany, however, as a satellite state, was ironically far more faithful to communist ideology than even its own patron, the USSR, and actually distanced itself from the rest of the Eastern Bloc as the other socialist states collapsed one by one. Eventually, though, the will of millions of people could not be suppressed, and as hundreds of thousands tore down the Berlin Wall, it was all over, and freedom once again reigned over a unified Germany. Not everyone was so fortunate, though. While Romanians also won their freedom in 1989, in China the CCP brutally crushed calls for democracy and carried out the Tiananmen Massacre, and refuse to listen to the will of the people even when condemned by the international community. Still, seeing this part of the exhibition gave me real hope, and I think it would give hope to anyone around the world still living under oppression without democracy, freedom, or basic human rights.

I did not manage to finish the museum since it closes at 6 PM, so next time I will go back to see Germany post unification, from the 1990s up to today.

2 - Japanischer Garten

Later we took a really nice train to Rheinauenpark, a big composite green space near Bonn. Bonn truly feels like a major city, given that it is the former capital of Germany, and it is genuinely magnificent, with infrastructure so advanced it still does not feel outdated even decades later.

The Japanese Garden inside Bonn's Rheinauenpark was opened on April 27, 1979, as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Show). The garden was beautiful, and I got to practice my German talking with two brothers testing out their vintage Japanese film camera there, as well as a girl from Bonn University who was painting the garden. We left to get some Japanese ramen near Bonn Hauptbahnhof. At the ramen shop, our waitress was a German girl studying at Bonn University, and when she asked whether we wanted to order in German or English, I jokingly said Japanese. It turned out she actually studies Japanese and is almost fluent, so I ended up ordering for all three of us in Japanese. A pleasant surprise to end a fantastic day in Bonn.

Btw the park also overlooks the UN building across the pond, and I also went to Beethoven square and memorial, and theres also a huge Beethoven bust in the lego store at Bonn.

3 - Forschungszentrum Jülich

We took a 40mins bus to Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of the largest interdisciplinary research centers in Europe, founded in 1956 and now home to thousands of scientists working across fields ranging from neuroscience and materials science to energy research and high performance computing. The campus is enormous, almost like its own small city, and it houses some of Europe's most cutting edge computing infrastructure, including Europe's most powerful supercomputer, a cluster of quantum computers, and Germany's own sovereign AI initiative. We went inside the room housing one of the supercomputers and also got to see the new JUPITER supercomputer, currently the 4th most powerful in the world.

4 - Rursee trip

We took a bus to Jugendherberge DJH Simmerath-Rurberg and spent the afternoon exploring a fenced off lake beach area. The sun was lovely and we swam around for a while. Later that afternoon there was an RWTH Olympics where we played a bunch of fun activities as a team, though sadly our team did not win anything. In the evening there was a DJ party since my roommate had brought along a DJ set, and we ended the night watching a movie together. The hostel environment was really nice, though my only complaint is how hot it gets without AC. The next day we woke up early, walked a short while, and took a bus to Woffelsbach, a town on another part of Rursee. There is a lot of RV camping there and the whole area felt like a holiday beach, full of German families enjoying the weather. In the morning we just sat in the sun and relaxed, then I walked with some friends to have lunch at Woffelsbacher Imbiss Rursee, a wonderful restaurant where we sat out on the terrace, though there is also an indoor section with angular glass windows. The women running the place were incredibly kind and friendly, and they even have an unofficial menu of special dishes based on what they like to cook for themselves. The Köchin's name is Anke. She recommended I try Bohnenstampf, a Rhineland local specialty and a true old Rhein classic, and I loved it. I also had Fassbrause, a drink made locally in the Rhein Ruhr area. (Don't ask why I was wearing a UMich School of Nursing shirt, lol.)

After lunch we went out on a small pedal boat onto the lake and had Aperol Spritz while floating around. We were all exhausted afterward, so I fell asleep on the bus ride home.

Next week is going to be tough. It is the internal deadline for producing the first model for my research project, and there is also a midterm exam for German class, which I have somehow forgotten to do every single homework assignment for. Until next time!!

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science

1 - Lousberg After my German lesson on Monday, my classmates planned to go jogging at Lousberg in the evening, so I naturally went along. Lousberg is a gentle wooded hill right on the edge of Aachen's city center, one of the city's most beloved green spaces and a popular spot for locals to walk, run, and unwind. The paths wind through a mix of open meadows and dense tree cover, with the city visible through the treeline in places, making it feel surprisingly removed from urban life despite being so close. The weather was actually really cold in the morning, but by the time I got there for the jog it was super sunny and perfect for some exercise. It is about a 15 minute walk from the Ponttor bus stop.

2 - Some cool stuff I saw

Walking to the Lousberg park entrance, I passed by the massive Lindt factory right here in Aachen. Apparently there is a store there too and tours can be booked, so I will definitely go check it out sometime. Halfway through the run I also came across a really interesting circular tower in the middle of the forest called the Drehturm Belvedere. It is a historic rotating observation tower built in the early 20th century, designed so that visitors could be turned to face different panoramic views of the surrounding landscape without having to move themselves. The architecture is quirky and charming and it looks genuinely cool, so next time I want to go inside and see it properly.

Near the end of the route there is also the Tranchot-Obelisk, a stone monument erected in honour of Jean Joseph Tranchot, the French cartographer who conducted one of the first systematic topographic surveys of the Rhineland in the early 1800s. The obelisk marks one of his key surveying points, and the view from the platform up there is amazing. There are also goats grazing on the slopes below, which was a pleasant surprise.

3 - Investigating a mysterious art piece

There is also an interesting installation nearby, something like a lever with a red knob and a massive brightly coloured nuclear warning sign. I tried reading the German text and gathered it had something to do with a Belgian nuclear power plant, but I could not quite figure out what it was saying. I looked it up online and could not find any specific information about the installation itself, except that the city of Aachen has been in a long-running dispute with Belgium over the Tihange nuclear power plant, which many Aachen residents consider a genuine safety risk given how close it sits to the city. I will investigate further what this interesting piece is actually about.

I also saw a statue about the devil lending money to build the Aachen cathedral and reap the soul of the first living being to enter it once its completed but the devil was tricked by the people. There's also pictures at the Lindt factory store, a tiny library out in the wild, and extremely beautiful streets.

4 - Dreilägerbachtalsperre, Roetgen

We went hiking again, this time starting at a dam called Dreilägerbachtalsperre after a 1.5 hour bus ride from Aachen. The trail runs through a forest area called Hasselbachgraben, which sits within the Eifel nature park. The landscape here is quintessentially northern European forest: tall stands of beech and oak lining narrow paths, the ground carpeted in ferns, and small streams threading quietly through the undergrowth. The canopy is dense enough that the light filters through in long soft shafts, and the whole area has the kind of deep quiet that makes you want to slow down.

I really loved it because the forest floor was thick with moss, with tiny water ponds scattered in between since it had just rained, and everything smelled incredibly fresh. The ground was squishy underfoot, the whole place so serene and beautiful that it genuinely felt like a frame from a Ghibli film. It reminded me of Princess Mononoke.

5 - Kuhberg

At the end of the hike there is a small town called Kuhberg, which literally means "cow mountain," and it earns the name. There are small hills dotted with cows, and the houses are super modern and well kept, like some kind of utopian countryside community. Families put cow decorations outside their homes and every single house seems to have at least one, with cow statues and models appearing on rooftops and in gardens as well. There were also lots of RVs and camper trailers parked around, including tiny ones. Theres also a part of the Westwall from ww2 remaining, filled with concrete "Dragon's teeth" intended to stop the allied tanks advancing into rhein-ruhr region. It didn't work, and Eisenhower ordered them to be dismantled after the war, though there are still tens of kilometers of the westwall remaining. I fell asleep on the bus back to Aachen.

This was a peaceful week and not much happened besides lots of hiking. An easy 15k steps daily. Will update next week as we approach the halfway point of the research program!

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science

1 - German lessons

The German course I am enrolled in actually started on April 20th, so I had already missed 4 classes by the time I showed up, because I physically was not in Aachen until mid May. Although the class is not mandatory, the final exam is worth 100% of the grade, so I figured I had better attend and not fail, or else I would not get my transfer credits. So on Monday I finally showed up, and it was quite different from what I expected. The professor is super friendly and the class is really small, around a dozen people, so everyone already knows each other. They were all very welcoming to me as a newcomer. The class format has everyone sitting in a semicircle and the content is highly conversational, basically nonstop talking from 8:30 until the class is dismissed at 12:00 on the dot. By the end I am nearly falling asleep from how long it is, but I sat through the whole thing. If you are coming to Aachen next year, be prepared to wake up at 7:00 on Monday morning and speak German for 3.5 hours straight.

2 - Mensa (dining hall)

The dining halls here are really different from Michigan too. They are called Mensa and there are a couple around campus. The best one is at campus central near the Audimax bus station, and there is also one in the Informatikzentrum right across from where I live on Halifaxstraße 85. If you have a student blue card it is very cheap, only 3.30 euros for a lunch dish with either salad or boiled vegetables. Currently my favourites are the Swedish meatballs with potatoes and the cordon bleu with french fries, and both come with a small bowl of salad included. The lines are really long though. Another thing I do not love is that the food is not an unlimited buffet like back in Michigan, but the food quality is genuinely much better and the taste is always incredibly pleasant. It is also really inconvenient that the Mensa only opens for one meal per day, which is lunch, and closes at 2 PM, and does not open on weekends. So plan accordingly if you want to enjoy the cheap and delicious lunch.

3 - Cooking in the WG

I set a goal to master cooking one dish at a time while I am here. This week I have been focused on practicing spaghetti. Although it might seem like madness to make the same dish every single day for a whole week straight, I am quite certain the taste is improving noticeably each time. My current recipe uses cherry tomatoes and brown mushrooms combined with either Hackfleisch or Wiener to make the meat sauce, then shredded mozzarella combined with Gouda or Edammer and egg yolk to make the cheese sauce, and I have also been alternating between spaghetti and fusilli to see which one mixes better. In the end it comes out as a delicious baked pasta. I will try a completely different dish next week.

4 - Maastricht again

Because the Netherlands is so close, our UROP group went bowling there and I won. Barely, though, considering I had not played in nearly 8 years.

5 - Bonn, Haus der Geschichte

The Haus der Geschichte, or House of History, in Bonn is one of Germany's foremost museums of contemporary German history. It traces the story of Germany from the rubble of 1945 all the way to reunification and beyond, spanning the parallel lives of West and East Germany through an extraordinary collection of everyday objects, political artifacts, propaganda posters, original vehicles, and reconstructed interiors. The museum does not just present facts but immerses you in the texture of what life actually felt like across different decades, from postwar reconstruction and the Economic Miracle of the 1950s through the social upheavals of the 1960s and the political tensions that defined the Cold War era.

I barely made it through to the 1970s, with a special section dedicated to the Beatles along the way, before I realized 2 hours had already passed without me noticing. As I rushed out, I saw the exhibition continued all the way up to right now! It was recently renovated to include the current Bundeskanzler Merz, which is cool. The museum's slogan is literally "You are part of history!!" so I will definitely come back for more next Sunday to finish seeing everything. It is my favourite museum I have visited so far in Germany.

6 - Botanical garden

Afterwards we walked over to the University of Bonn's botanical garden for a Spaziergang, but the rain started falling heavily so we left early, and the train back to Aachen was also delayed by over an hour. Next time I will come back to Bonn on a day with better weather.

Bonn is also the birthplace of Beethoven, and Germany's UN city and seat of western europe along with 18 UN organisations. I'll be back next time to visit them all!!

Yuqi SUN

Department of Robotics, Robotics

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Science