/* Das ist der Code, damit das Akkordeon geschlossen angezeigt wird. */ /* Das ist der Code, um offene Akkordeons wieder schließen zu können */

I arrived in Chicago on 3rd July and was picked up by my aunt for a two-hour drive to Milwaukee. The Medical College of Wisconsin is located in Milwaukee and this was the location where I would be doing my international internship as a part of the TUMKolleg. My aunt has been working in the Bioengineering Department of the college for several years and gave me the great opportunity to work with this Department for three weeks. I got the chance to be part of the Team in the NRF (Neurosciences Research Facilities) that is responsible for conducting crash tests with dummies and PMHS (short for postmortem human specimens, essentially bodies that have been donated to science for experiments like crash tests). During my three weeks, I was part of three different research projects.

The first project I was involved in used a sled that could be accelerated to 50 km/h within 0.2 seconds to simulate a car crash into a wall with up to 30G. This project has been issued with the background of autonomous driving, where passengers are believed to be positioned more horizontally for added comfort. That position raised the question if current seat belt standards could still meet the required safety level, or if an effect called “submarining” would occur. Submarining essentially means the passenger sliding under the seat belt during the event of a frontal crash, thus resulting in a more dangerous position. For this test, a PMHS had to be fitted with tilt sensors which were directly mounted onto the spine and other bones of the body. I had the chance to watch the body being prepared with the sensors and to assist the team with setting up the sled. After learning about the functionalities of the motion-capturing system they were using, I got the chance to apply this knowledge while preparing the system together with the team. The acquired data, together with the tilt sensors, could be used to calculate the movement and rotation of the spine and other body parts during the crash. High-speed cameras also allowed a slow-motion replay. Additionally, a CMM (coordinates-measurement machine) was used to perform a 3D scan of the body before the test.

The second and longest project of my stay at the Medical College also involved the crash sled, but this time a dummy was used instead of a PMHS. Since we performed multiple test runs in this project, it was easier to use a dummy throughout all the tests than to set up a new body all over again. This meant that we had to dismount the previous test setup and put the dummy set up together. This took a few days of dismantling, cleaning and assembling until we could start with setting up and calibrating everything for a series of tests. This project was issued by a company producing test dummies. Last year, they handed our team their THOR dummy to test how changing the setup of a dummy with different sensors or body parts would alter the response of the dummy during crash tests. This year, a modification of the previously used dummy was given to the Bioengineering Department, which had all cables from the acceleration sensors routed internally. This led to the question of whether the internal routing would affect the response of the dummy compared to the old one. During this project, I got to realize how much effort it takes to run these bigger research projects. Calibrating, documenting and making sure that everything is working correctly and safely, while also meeting required scientific standards took a lot of time and effort. A case in point was the positioning of the body on the test sled. The dummy had built-in tilt sensors, which could tell us at what angle different body parts like the pelvis are positioned. Since the results had to be comparable with other similarly performed tests, we could not just put the dummy on the sled but had to meet the exact required angles. This part alone took us a long time. Apart from setting up slow motion cameras, pressure sensors for the seatbelts and the VICON motion capturing system my part was also to document the test with pre- and post-pictures and create a 3D scan of the dummy.

But I didn’t spend all my time helping the team of the Medical College, and since I had already arrived on 3rd July, I got the chance to celebrate the American Independence Day on the 4th July. After a nice afternoon at a nearby lake, my relatives and I celebrated this day together with some friends, while having a great dinner and watching the fireworks.

Another highlight was the kayak tour through the canals in downtown Milwaukee followed by a boat ride on Lake Michigan, which is the fifth-biggest lake in the world and roughly a thousand times larger than Lake Starnberg. There we also witnessed preparations for an air show performed by the US Air Force. Sadly, we were not able to watch the complete Air Show that was set to take place a few days after my flight back to Munich. It was still interesting to see the difference between the US and Germany, since in Germany you rarely see any military planes or air shows, while in the United States they are pretty common. The close distance to Chicago also allowed us to do some sightseeing there. We visited the popular landmark “The Bean” and Navy Pier while also walking along the beautiful Lakefront with the Skyline of Chicago behind us. I also experienced my first ever Korean Barbecue, where we grilled Korean-style meat on a barbecue built into the table.

The popular motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson was founded in Milwaukee and created a Museum displaying the history of the company. We had a great time visiting this museum and walking through all the different generations of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as well as learning a lot about their racing history.

On the last Friday before my flight back to Munich, the whole Bioengineering Department went to the Milwaukee baseball stadium for a barbecue in the parking lot. Afterwards, we had a fantastic time watching the Milwaukee Brewers team play against the Colorado Rockies.

Thanks to the Medical College of Wisconsin, the great team I worked with as well as my relatives for these interesting and amazing three weeks!

Appendix: Plan your trip early enough so if you encounter any inconveniences or problems you have time to solve them without any pressure. When staying in Milwaukee a boat tour on Lake Michigan and a visit to Chicago are worth it. Watching a game of the popular Milwaukee Baseball and Basketball teams (Brewers and Bucks) is also pretty exciting.