On July 7, 2019, a group of five undergraduates from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University majoring in polymer science and engineering went to Bayreuth University of Germany for a two-week summer course exchange program. The program included lectures, laboratory visits, enterprise tour, etc. They were deeply impressed by the wonderful lectures and enthusiastic students of Bayreuth University.

( Two members of the group )

 On the first morning, Prof. Lng.V.Altstadt introduced the general condition of the polymer engineering major of Bayreuth University and a topic about fiber reinforced plastic, which made them have a general understanding of the next two weeks' study.

For the next three days, Prof. Lng.R.W.Lang presented a lecture about sustainable development, which involved the core of sustainable development, global energy system transformation and renewable energy technologies. Prof. Lang’s lecture expounded a kind of science view and value, leading us to reflect on personal value and triggering perhaps a life - long interest and learning desire on issues of global economic and environmental significance!

( Prof. Lng.R.W.Lang is talking about the energy system)

For the next day and a half, Prof. Alessandro Pegorelti brought the new ideas of  Fatigue and creep fracture of unfilled and short-term fiber polymer ,  single polymer composites ,  structural composites for thermal energy storage ”, “ 3d - printing with polymer nanocomposites ”, and “ improving fiber / matrix interfacial strength through nanofillers ”. Members benefited a lot from Prof. Pegorelti's patient and detailed explanation, which consolidated their existing knowledge and learned new knowledge.

( The building where they had our lectures )

 On the last day of the first week, they visited the new material Bayreuth Gmbh ( NMB ), which has close cooperation with the Department of Polymer Engineering of Bayreuth University. In NMB, they saw the various products introduced in this week's lecture, and visited the production workshop and processing technology of these products. In NMB, they had a more intuitive feeling and experience of PS foam, fiber reinforced materials and 3D printing technology.

( A group photo with all three professors giving lectures )

 After two days of rest and adjustment, they ushered in the second week of study. There are some differences between the second week and the first week: after learning theoretical knowledge in class in the morning, they visited the laboratory of the professor's research group to have a more intuitive feeling of their scientific research results and research equipment.

 ( A laboratory researcher is instructing students to do the experiment )

 On July 15th, they studied interfacial analytics by AFM. After learning the working principle and types of AFM, they came into close contact with a variety of AFM in the laboratory that afternoon. Different AFM instruments have different resolutions and different application requirements, which enabled them to acquire another method of measuring material characterization. In addition, they learned the preparation of synthetic rubber, electrospinning technology and nano-intercalation technology in the following days.

（ A group photo with Professor Alessandro Pegorelti in farewell dinner ）

 After two weeks of study, they learned a lot of knowledge about polymer engineering, and had a certain understanding of polymer industrial production, which is of great benefit to their future study. Thanks to Bayreuth University professors for their tireless help and care, their journey came to a successful end.

                                                                                                                                   Written by Junjie Xia

                                                                                                                                  Photo by Shuohong Chen