Hi, I am Yannik,
I am a computer scientist from RWTH Aachen, Germany. I have started my
studies in 2019 and even before that have always been intrigued by power of programming and logic and have done several earlier projects. I am currently doing an internship as a Data Engineer at Infineon in Singapore.
What attracted you to apply to the UNITECH programme?
As I was in my master’s and wanted to do a semester abroad, I looked through the different opportunities. UNITECH did stand out in that it had a very good selection of host universities and
that it gave you a good and structured way of doing an internship. My degree programme does not
include any internships and I did want to do one.
What did you enjoy most about your experience in the UNITECH programme, and how has the programme helped prepare you for the next steps in your career?
Surprisingly I really liked the two modules so far, the start up and mid-term week were great
experiences as you could meet and get to know so many interesting people; that are all in a similar
position in life as you. I didn’t even apply for these modules but aÈ…er taking them I can say that it’s
a main selling point. Its hard to pinpoint exactly how the programme has helped me with my
career, specifically as I don’t yet know where I am headed career wise. I think mainly the exchange
with different cultures and upbringings was an important one, without which I wouldn’t have done
my internship in Singapore, which again has given me so many culturally and humanly enriching
experiences.
Tell us more about your Academic Exchange? Where was your academic exchange? What did you enjoy the most? Which subjects were the most challenging or interesting?
I did my Academic Exchange at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. I really enjoyed the people the most.
Many of the exchange’s students were assigned housing by the school and this led to us occupying
an entire mansion with about 60 exchange students from many different places. I think living there
and cooking together was the highlight of the exchange. Zürich as a city is also extremely quiet and
scenic which I really enjoyed. As for the school, I took the opportunity to deep dive into AI-topics
and fundamentals, which my school (RWTH-Aachen) did not offer at that time, to that extent. I
enjoyed most the project-oriented work, which especially as an exchange student, led to me
paring up not just with close friends, but a lot of different and interesting people. My most
challenging and at the same time interesting subject was Deep-Learning. Challenging as it required
heavy abstractions and math, interesting as it filled in a lot of the missing pieces about data
science and machine learning for me. This focus at ETH directly led me to the internship as a Data
Engineer in Singapore.
Where was your internship? Were there any challenges that you faced? How did you overcome them?
My internship was in Singapore. While I was confident in my technical skills, there were a lot of
challenges that had to do with the location. There is a language barrier, and many simple things
are different. Before even getting a contract, I had to put up a lot of upfront costs and it did feel
risky in a way, but apparently that’s the way it is done in Singapore. While my internship isn’t over
yet and I may face some more challenges, I feel that most of them can be overcome by just asking
for clarification on the process and most people are willing to help someone especially if they are
struggling to adapt to a new environment they are very used to.