By summer student Sofia Muñoz Bonilla >
Dear summerstudents,
My name is Sofia Muñoz Bonilla, I’m a Colombian student of environmental engineering. Thanks to the HZB summer program for foreign students, I have had a wonderful experience in Berlin. But I’m not going to talk about how amazing Berlin is, because you will find out for yourselves. However, with the eyes of an environmental engineer, I see important avenues with trees, the parks with their own vibes thanks to the many different musicians, green areas, and moss that grows in the middle of the sidewalks.
The first days, I couldn’t believe how far my feet had come, a few weeks ago I was in the middle of the mountains of coffee in Colombia that you can see from the window of my house in Belalcázar-Caldas and then I was in another continent, walking along the Berlin Wall.
About my project:
In Wannsee, I was hosted by the CE-NOME group. I was working on AI-guided Bayesian photoelectrocatalysis optimization: I was trying to protect a film of a photocatalytic material in a photoanode to avoid corrosion and improve stability during the water splitting process. I also had to change parameters generated by AI and report the results to continue feeding the Bayesian model. Also, I worked between lab, reporting and data analysis.
The challenge
Working in the lab was a challenge for me, because in Colombia, I don’t have access to the sophisticated instruments that I had at HZB. During my first week in the lab, I broke a 500ml volumetric flask and I was very worried that I wasn’t agile enough to move around the lab. I had never spent so many hours in a lab before, and I didn’t even know the name of some instruments. But I learned to move better and to be careful with the beakers left on the corners of the tables, because I wasn’t the only one working in the lab, we were working 4 people and sometimes 5.
Recommendations for future summer students
The salary you receive from the program is enough, if you manage your expenses well. I recommend cooking by yourself, you can find good (and low cost) products in supermarkets like Lidl, Penny, Rewe. To move around in Berlin, the best is to buy a Deutschland-Ticket, which costs 49 euros per month: you can move within Berlin with U-Bahn, S-Bahn, buses, tram, and you can even visit other cities on weekends using regional trains. It should be noted that you must have a European bank account (or a friend with one) that allows you to make the purchase. It is normal to have an hour or more from your accommodation to Wannsee, since the center is located in the outskirts of Berlin. It is also normal to have to take 2 trains or 2 buses to get there. The transportation system is quite clean and efficient considering that it is a city with a huge extension.
Regarding the visa, it was a bit complex for me, since I don’t live in the capital of Colombia. Making the transfer twice to Bogota for my visa was complicated (12 hours in a bus), but the delivery time was short: My visa took about 2 weeks to be ready to claim in the embassy or in a German consulate in other cities of Colombia. It is important to have all the documents that the HZB sends you, besides carrying an identical package of copies of all the documents, for me it was not necessary to make any apostille.
There shouldn’t be worries about the language, Berlin is a city where you can survive without speaking German. English is widely spoken and you will even hear people speaking Spanish.
HZB is waiting for you, to teach you a little bit of everything, scientific knowledge, techniques, methods, and above all, you will learn to handle stressful situations by being lost in a huge city, you will have challenges for yourselves, that will make you grow as a person.
Good luck, in this adventure that awaits you.
Best regards,
Sofia Muñoz Bonilla.
On the author: Sofia Muñoz Bonilla pursues a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental engineering at the Catholic University of Manizales, Colombia.
You can connect with Sofia on Linkedin