It’s been a week since returning from Sweden and the conclusion of iSeed. Looking back on the experience it definitely had its ups and downs, but overall I learned so much. 

First, Engi355, the CAD class we took mostly towards the beginning of the program. A big reason I wanted to come to this program to start with was that I wanted to take 355, but I didn’t have time to fit it in my schedule. We worked in Fusion 360 and I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how to use the program even though it was just one class we took and in such a short amount of time. I really enjoyed all the CAD we did and feel like it was such good information to know that can and definitely will be applied in the future. In the beginning of class we struggled to make a simple box with an angled cut, but by the end of it we were making moving mechanisms. There was a decent amount of homework to do and a lot of time went into the class outside of scheduled class time, but this was understandable given the short amount of time we had in Sweden. I’m definitely glad I was able to take this class.

As for Engi200, although I didn’t have much expectations going into the class, what it turned out to be was nothing like I imagined. We were tasked with creating a design that had certain criteria, a timeline, clients, and budget, which is what I thought we would get. But, the people we were working with were masters students in structural engineering and architecture. I had some reservations at first, before I started working with them, because I thought they would be at such a higher level that it would be hard to get along or work together as equals. When we started however, we were able to hold our own, which was a great feeling and helped the learning process. We ended up collaborating well with our various backgrounds and agreeing on design solutions. It was also cool because while the students were from Chalmers, most of them were not actually Swedish. Having the mix of cultures made the experience even cooler. 

Outside of class we didn’t have that much time to explore a lot of Sweden, but we got to see some pretty cool stuff. We went to Copenhagen, we were in Sweden for some pretty big festivals, and we were able to hang out with our colleagues outside of the site as well. While there were parts of Sweden that almost made me forget I was abroad, like the fact that everyone spoke English and the extensive metro system, there were also aspects that were pretty interesting. This included the daylight until almost midnight, many stores closing super early, and the abundance of fikas, but we adjusted pretty quickly– especially to the fikas. 

Overall, the experience was one to remember and helped me grow in several ways.