At the beginning of this year, attending a summer school in Germany seemed like an unlikely event. Thus I was quite surprised when my application to attend the 7th International Summer School on Radar/SAR was successful.
The summer school, hosted by Frauenhofer FHR, took place from 10 – 17 July in a small village called Rolandseck in Northern Germany. I was given about two months to organise everything including VISA, plane tickets and not to mention funding, fortunately the summer school provided accommodation. Two months might seem like a lot of time, but when dealing with VISA applications I always feel like more time is better.
The first thing I did when I received my acceptance e-mail was make a VISA appointment. A list of requirements were emailed to me and I immediately made a checklist, divided into sections of things that could be done within a day and things that would require more time. The photos, bank statements and proof of registration at the University could all be easily obtained. The plane ticket took a little bit longer because I wanted the most cost effective option. I would definitely recommend using a travel agent, since they also arrange the travel insurance. At the end of the day if you just follow the checklist, the VISA application should not be a problem. It can take up to 15 working days to obtain a Schengen VISA for Germany, I was very happy to receive mine in 10.
I arrived at the summer school accommodation (Haus Humboldstein) on a beautiful summer’s day. Haus Humboldstein is a hostel/hotel situated on an incline and surrounded by forest. Its front terrace gave a wonderful view of the river Rhine and was the perfect place to view the sunset every day.
Frauenhofer had a full program planned for us that week; it started off with an ice breaker event on the terrace of Haus Humboldstein. Of the 40 participants, there were representatives from 18 different countries; this allowed for some interesting conversation. The next morning, we went on a sightseeing tour of Cologne that ended in a 533 step climb to the top of the Cologne Cathedral. On Sunday morning we went for a bike ride along the river Rhine, this was made a little bit more exciting by the untimely rain. After a weekend of socialising and sightseeing, we were all well acquainted and ready for the challenges that the rest of the week offered.
From Monday up until Wednesday morning we had lectures on different types of radar and SAR systems. On Tuesday afternoon we were taken to the Frauenhofer Institute for a tour of the facilities, this was followed by a visit to a traditional German “Biergarten”. On Wednesday afternoon we started with the workshops. We could choose between seven different topical workshops which divided the participants into groups of six. I chose the workshop on Bistatic radar since this was a topic that I was not familiar with. Each group had a group leader from Frauenhofer, our group leader started the workshop with a lecture on Bistatic radar.
This was followed by practical calculations in MATLAB which led to some interesting conclusions. I really enjoyed this workshop since the people I worked with were amazing and the subject matter was very captivating. I think the experience of working with other motivated PhD candidates was the best part of the entire experience and I look forward to staying in contact with all of them. Thursday evening we were taken on a quick ferry ride that took us to another “Biergarten” where we all shared a last beer in the rain.
The summer school concluded on Friday where each participant was presented with a certificate of attendance. It was an emotional goodbye with promises of keeping in touch. It is difficult for me to compare my experience at the summer school to that of my time at Stellenbosch University.
The holiday atmosphere completely took over at the summer school and everybody enjoyed themselves completely. Even though we learned a lot from the experienced lecturers, the social aspect of the event dominated. This experience has convinced me that a longer stay abroad is necessary. There are so many universities that offer excellent learning opportunities in my field and I feel compelled to explore them further. However, Stellenbosch’s academic program compares very well to that of other world class institutions. I was very proud to be able to say that I went to Stellenbosch University and I hope that I have managed to convey our University’s excellence to the other attendees. We truly live in a beautiful country and when I arrived back I was very thankful to be able to return.