Internship abroad 2009 at GEA Denco in Hereford, England

Lukas Lauss (5AHMIE)

At the beginning of the second semester in the 4th grade Prof. Weissensteiner asked me, if I was interested in a placement at GEA Denco England, which is located in Hereford. Together we contacted GEA Austria Klimatechnik in Gaspoltshofen the first time. Miss Tina Humenberger was my contact person there and she arranged my stay in England. My english contacts were Mr. John McCloskey and Mr. John Tandy. On this way I want to thank these four persons who organized this trip for me.

On Sunday the 2nd August 2009, I flew away from Munich and landed about 4 pm at the Birmingham International Airport, where already a cab driver was waiting for me who was ordered by the company. Then we went to one hours continuous taxi ride and I was able to make my first major experience in conversation with the guy. The goal finally arrived, I met my host mother and learned that I will be during my 4-week stay in German society. Jenny Tipton, my 25-year-old host mother, who also worked at GEA DENCO, that there also housed a 21-year-old student from Bochum. She also completed an internship for the company.

On my first day in work I was introduced to some corporate members and got the necessary information about my activities, as well as a detailed guide through the entire premises. GEA Denco Air Conditioning Hereford is a company with about 100 employees, which has worked in the ventilation industry for sales, service and installation and has 5 more outlets across England. My first week was spent mostly in the office and in the specially designed test center in the nearly factory. In the office I occupied myself with the 3-D drawing program Autodesk Inventor to various components of an air conditioner to draw. In the test center with a colleague, my task was to adjust a ventilation device and implement the user-defined requirements and specifications.

The second and third week at work, allowed me an insight into the manufacture of ventilation equipment. Day after day I went through, so to speak, "just as the products manufactured by us" through the various work areas. Starting in the warehouse & logistics department, under production in the metal area on the electronics, heat exchangers and the fitting range up to the fan and compressor-Installation or the final completion of department. These two weeks have been very helpful and useful for me, since the theoretical knowledge already gained could now be put into practice.

The fourth and last week I spent on my own desk in the office again. I continued my 3D project and then added those constructed in the first week parts together. In addition, I got explained various interpretation programs, which I could also use in a row for the calculation of the individual components and I also did some various work for the R&D Department this week. On the penultimate working day, my boss of the Engineering Department, Colan Badham, took me out of the engineering department have even an appointment with a partner company where the topic was about the future, increased and improved environmental assessment of the ventilation equipment.

Leisure time

Since I had only 3 weekends available, they were completely planned out and I could make some great experiences. After the first week at work went to Jenny, Rebecca and myself in the center of Hereford. The town of 60,000 inhabitants has a variety of cultural facilities such as: the oldest map of the world "Mappa Mundi", or the remarkable cathedral. In addition, the city is famous for the Hereford-Cattle which is one of the world's most popular. The football club plays in the 4.th English league, where I also watched 2 matches. The night life with such an ample scale and variety of pubs and bars also leaves no needs or desires. Second and third weekend we spent in the city of Birmingham, which was removed with the train about an hour. There I saw myself among others, two football clubs Aston Villa and Birmingham City FC in England's highest league, the Premier League. The shopping opportunities, with the second largest shopping mall right in downtown, called the "Bull Ring" made the hearts of women beat faster. Some cultural sites we saw during the day such as the Victorian Sqaure or the biggest event hall in England, was held where in 1999 the Eurovision Song Contest.

Concluding I want to thank everyone again who helped me arranging this internship, especially I want to thank Prof. Weissensteiner and Mrs. Tina Humenberger, IFA in Vienna and GEA DENCO for giving me the opportunity to do this very interesting internship which will most likely help me in my further occupational and also private development. I hope that many other students in the following years get such an opportunity and that this report encourages a few of them to decide for similar projects.

Impressions