Text by: Anna van Velsen
When it is time to choose the destination for your internship you will experience that there are so many choices. You can choose for a specific subject or maybe you want to visit another continent. When I had to choose for a destination I already knew that I wanted to visit a Scandinavian country. During the summer I went to the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) to do my internship on structural acoustics.
At the KTH I did my internship at the Marcus Wallenberg Laboratory for Sound and Vibration Research. Here they do research on, among others, the acoustical properties of porous materials and foams. These porous materials are used in everyday objects like cars and trains to isolate you, the passenger, from noise. My goal was to collect data using state-of-the-art equipment to determine the acoustical properties of a foam called melamine. The data can then be used in simulations to find the optimal use of these foams. During the internship I learned a lot about performing measurements and I even had the chance to improve the quality of the measurements.
Besides obtaining the experience to do a project on another university, an internship abroad is an opportunity to live in another city for a while and meet new people. Stockholm is a great place during the summer. In my spare time I spent a lot of time in beautiful Swedish lakes outside the city and walking around in the old city. Also I had to experience the Swedish Midsummer with the local people. All in all, I can look back to a great summer in the beautiful capital of Sweden!