Last week, for the first few days – Monday through Thursday – I worked from home. Well, actually, I worked from hotel. The majority of my colleagues were at the Intersolar conference in Munich, so I kept busy with my assignments and worked remotely. This was a nice experience for me, as I was able to customize my schedule a bit more outside of the usual 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (or later) that I have been working. I got to finally sit down and do some work in a cafe, like a true European. Well, maybe they don’t usually work in the cafes. I’m not too sure – but at least I didn’t take my coffee to-go for a few days last week! I also got the chance to explore some historical locations in Berlin, like the Freie Universitat that was founded in 1948 during the early cold war. This was the location where nuclear fission was discovered, and also located where Albert Einstein used to live and work. 

Back to what I did professionally during these days – I did a lot of work and research for my report that spans physical AI, autonomous robotics, and automation and optimization of industrial processes. All through an energy-tech angle, of course, because the company I’m working at is an energy-tech venture capital firm. My research has been really interesting and definitely made me more confident in my capabilities as the process has gone on. At first, I was really nervous about being the leader of the research into an area for the company to potentially invest in. I didn’t know anything about these niche areas or the technologies that startups were developing. But, throughout the process and from getting feedback that my report was quite useful, I became a more confident leader. This definitely challenged some previous notions that I held, particularly that to be a good leader of a project, I had to know everything about something before going in. Now I’m certain that by being curious, working hard, and diving in head first, I can be a good leader and produce a good work product regardless of whether or not I have prior experience in an area.

Friday was when the real work started for me. I got up at around 4:00 am and by 4:30 am, I began heading to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, one of the main train stations in the city. My train was set to leave at 5:30 am, and I wanted to be there about 20 to 30 minutes early because I wasn’t sure if I could easily find the platform. I found the platform with time to spare, but then they delayed my train by about 40 minutes. I was quite sad because I could’ve slept another hour instead of getting there so early! I ended up making friends with another person at the platform who was from Tunisia. It’s been really interesting for me to meet so many people from all over the world, not only the Germans that live here in Berlin (though that has been great as well, of course). Eventually, I got on the train and set off to Munich. It was about a 4 hour train ride, so thankfully not too long. I got to Munich at about 10:00 am, and headed straight to what I was there for – the Europe Embodied Summit. This was a day-long conference with student robotics clubs from a top university in Germany, along with prominent robotics companies in many different niches, and keynote speakers ranging from company executives to prominent and successful investors. My company had me go to this event along with one of my colleagues as a part of my research, and it was a really great experience. I even got to use controllers to move robotic arms in tandem with my own, and stack blocks and perform simple tasks, which was crazy to me seeing and doing that first-hand.

That night after the conference, I went to a Bavarian biergarten and enjoyed some local cuisine. I stayed the night in a hotel in Munich, then set off for an 8 hour car ride back to Berlin (including some stops for food). Altogether, it was a busy end to my week, but a great one.