“Last year I started my internship at DAF Eindhoven,” explains Leonardo. “My assignment consists of two parts. We are trying to structure the design process for the tribological contacts, (tribology is the interaction of surfaces in relative motion). I need to optimize the design and the process itself. The second part of my assignment is to build a technical tool to simulate the behavior of different engine components.”

“After my first internship, there were still lots of things to do around this project and they liked the results, so they invited me to come back. I enjoyed DAF, but also the Netherlands, so I decided to come back.”

Work with experts
“Here, I got the chance to work with experts, each engineer has extensive knowledge. You can speak with the engineers as you are one of them. People are always helpful and they are always trying to include me in their daily routine and working processes. They accept your suggestions and results and always show interest in what I am doing. For example, we changed the surface finishing method of a specific part based on my and another colleagues research results.”

Don’t be afraid to try something new
“You don’t have to be afraid of not knowing how to do things at first. You will learn it by doing it. Which is the best way. And it’s teamwork, so your colleagues will teach you all the stuff you don’t know. If you are doubting about going abroad, just do it I prepared myself by improving my language skills and participating in extracurricular activities, so that I was ready when an opportunity came up. It is totally worth the experience and would definitely recommend it.”