Prussian Institute of Technology and Kaiser Frederic III

Currently, I have an office in the Aachen Institute for Advanced Computational Engineering Sciences (AICES) which is located in downtown Aachen near the original 1865 Institute building. The AICES facility is equiped with virtual reality rooms and computational simulations capabilities. As a new institute, it was developed for attracting international graduate and research personnel which bring in more funding possibilities.

The Technical Institute was first conceived by the King of Prussia Frederic III in 1858 who wanted to establish a top notch educational facility in what was then, Prussia. The 1870's were a turbulent time for Prussia and the Institute took on the name of Royal Technical University the 1920s until it became the Technical Institute of Aachen (no longer royal!).
During the Third Reich, the institute suffered from lack of support and heavy structural damages. After WWII, the institute was again renamed to the Rhein Westfalian Technical Institute (RWTH).
Recently, RWTH was ranked in 2010 as Germany's no. 1 University and research institute.

As an American, observing Germany become more visionary in its politics, educational system and social development is certainly a privilege.

Brussels-Paris-Aachen within 2.5 hours: Thank you Thalys!

The high speed Thalys train is a wonderful way to travel through Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

Last week I had the pleasure of again traveling from Aachen to Brussels and Paris then back again to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French) and loved it. The convenience of taking the train is without question - adding the fact that the train only takes approx. 2.5 hours from Paris to Aachen is a big plus. Fortunately for me, Aachen is one of the two stops the train makes in Germany (Aachen and Cologne)

Granted there was a major accident outside of Brussels on February 16th of this year, the Thalys's history is almost untarnished--especially since the train typically departs and arrives on schedule. The high speed train service was first conceived in 1987 and operations began between Paris and Brussels on June 4, 1996. So exactly 14 years to the day of its first operation, I traveled from Paris to Brussels to Aachen.

Thalys International operates the trains and is mostly owned by the French rail company SNCF so it is divided between SNCF (the major capital owner), SNCB, and DB.

Check out the main site to learn more about the train and operations :

http://www.thalys.com/

Great Thinkers Silenced by The Nazi's

Here in Germany it is not uncommon to come across forgotten names of great mathematicians and scientists who 'faded away' during Germany's Nazi regime. Felix Hausdorff is one of these greats with an Institute for mathematics named after him in Bonn (former capitol of Germany after the war and near Aachen). I hope to visit the Institute for a workshop this summer.



See more about his life, work and times:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Hausdorff

April in Germany

Weather in April can go in one of two ways in Germany - either the winter still is not convinced that it's time to go away or the spring wants to take full bloom all at once. So it is the back and forth extremes that April brings sometimes within hours to Germany's weather.

Earlier this month, I experienced, hail storms starting out of nowhere and within 10 to 20 minutes, sunshine and blue skies. Luckily, having lived in the Mid-Atlantic region for several years, Im used to weather just not knowing which waý to go and so it is pretty clear when the downpours are about to begin. Boy, was I enjoying the constrasts in the bipolar nature of this German month.

In contrast, now in late April, the weather gets a bit humid for a few days and the bees (and these are some real serious bees unlike the ones I'm used to seeing in North America!) start to take over the flowering trees.

Above is a picture that is quite typical to see here this time of year of rapeseed fields from which canola oil is pressed.

Charlemagne's Hometown & Its Many Different Names

From Aix-La-Chapelle in French to Aquis Grana in Latin to Aachen in German (or officially, Bad-Aachen which means Spa-Aachen is not used in order for Aachen to be on the top of the alphabetic list of cities!) to Aken in Dutch....I think we can agree that there are just too many names for this small little German city which Charlemagne once called home. As the Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks, he made Aachen his capitol and the Cathedral in the city center crowned the Kings of Europe for more than 500 years after 800AD. Today, a Charlemagne prize is awarded each year in Aachen to an exceptional world leader who has promoted European unification.

Aachen is Germany's western-most city and lies right at border of Belgium, Netherlands and Germany which gives it a unique cultural and linguisitic history when compared with other German cities.

The Romans moved into the area centuries ago and stayed for the warm springs and their health benefits. The town became a spa town over time. The Germanic tribes moved in later and used their word for water or Acha (be sure to use your throat when pronouncing that one!)

Many of the ancient springs (or quellen, as they are called in German) turned to fountains (or brunnen) still remain. For example, Karlsbrunnen right in front of Charlemagne's (Karl der Groß) old residence at the City Hall Square and there is the Elisenbrunnen (very strong sulfur smell is at the center of downtown and you can't miss it unless you are really congested!) Of the spas, the famous Carolus Thermen is still around.

A Bicycle Flea Market in Aachen

A bicycle market in downtown Aachen is where I found my New Trekking Bike from Austria!

Today I found the coolest bike (even bargained down the price-fix in German!) and went for an amazing country bike ride to two nearby towns Laurensberg and Orsbach (near NL border) where I was greeted by many cows, horses, bees among other ourdoors people ( i only wish I could post the pictures from my ride..well, when I get the cable) ........


My very cool bike is from Austria (make Trento KTM) and is a nice shade of dark purple! Works great and comfy for trekking, road travel and long distance biking. Despite being from Austria, most parts for the bike can easily be found here in Germany according to the Dr. Bike guy at the flea market who is there every month and sells all kinds of bike parts and repairs them as well.

Here is a pic of the same make but different color:

The Trento bike website: http://www.trento.de/bikes/trekking.php

The Cologne-Aachen weekly bike flea market website: http://www.fahrradmarkt-koeln.de/

Mac vs PC - The debate continues!

Mac computers are elegant, smart and some may even go so far as to say, sexy.....This may all be true, but when it comes down to getting work done, the real question is: How much do I care about the 'sexiness' of my computer? Well, PC is not very elegant or sexy and it acts like a virus-catching child whenever it wanders into the unknown....Ok, so that gives a nice background on both operating systems. Oh, yeah. One more thing I forgot to mention about Mac, it takes its sweet time to 'think' about running programs.







Well, now everything is on the table....Almost. What does this have to do with being an American in Germany? As it turns out, a lot.....for me at least. You see, since I arrived, I have had the priviledge to have been assigned a beautiful iMac at my currently-main office. Now, the work that I do is quite data intensive and requires a system which is very flexible and stable. Up until now, the iMac has had a few questionable moments. It stopped all together a couple times requiring reboot, it didn't respond to the mouse a few times, and it takes too long to load data. This still hasn't convinced me that it is a bad system since my data is coming from a group which likes to use PCs!

So the question remains, is Mac or PC an inferior system? The answer completely depends on who you ask and what they use the computer for. My view so far (and this may change since I am just starting out with Mac) is: For graphics, Mac is no. 1, since it rules where PC is resourceless. For programming and data handling, PC is no. 1, since its resources outshine Mac in this area.