Day 4 – Capstone, Labtour, Basketball
Today we started our day with a lecture by Captain David J. Giurintano. The topic was “How the Engineering Capstone Incorporates Entrepreneurship into the Projects”. Captain Giurintano told us about past projects and prepared us for the most common problem situations. His lecture was extremely motivating and showed that a team of interdisciplinary engineers can perform in a wide range of project ideas.
Afterwards we were guided through Patrick F. Taylor Hall (PFT). The new building for the engineering department was built only a few years ago and is the largest free-standing engineering building in the USA. We noticed that companies play a relevant role in everyday university life. Many laboratories are supported by regional industry. This has struck us as a major difference to German university policy.
After the lunch break, we had the opportunity to visit a laboratory from the Civil Engineering program. Dr. Mousa and her research team presented their current projects to us. We learned a lot about materials science. Currently, Dr. Mousa’s team is researching to improve the material properties of cement and asphalt for road construction.
In the evening we watched the women’s basketball game LSU vs Vanderbilt in the stadium. Here too we noticed a big difference to Germany. Apart from the fact that we do not have University sport in Germany at such a high level, the game was complemented by cheerleading, Mike as mascot, a marching band and a halftime show and thus concluded the day ideally.
