Blogging
From Abroad

If you look at my posts you could easily assume that I spend all my time in this exchange semester travelling around like on vacation. This is NOT the case ;) I am pretty busy, indeed. So it’s maybe a good idea to dedicate a post to my efforts at the university.

1. My classes
I admit my courses are not too difficult, compared to Austrian lectures. Still they are quite an effort, due to mandatory attendance and regular homework. And my Advanced Wood Chemistry course forces me to spend a lot of time in the laboratory, my professor wants to see results soon.

2. Working
Every exchange student with a J-1 visa is allowed to work up to 20 hours per week on campus. But almost nobody really does that. The wages are pretty poor (compared to what an Austrian student worker would get) and getting a Social Security Number is a hassle. I found out the hard way, that American bureaucracy is as bad as Austrian bureaucracy :(

But I made the effort and now I’m working ten hours a week for Prof. Levente Denes. He originally comes from Rumania, but was working for the University of Western Hungary in Sopron, which is only 45 minutes away from Vienna, quasi neighbours. Now he does reasearch in wood science for the WVU. My duty at the job is to prepare specimens and carrying out testing. Sometimes this can be very boring (once I had to measure the length of more than a thousand poplar wooden sticks), but is most of the time really interesting (e.g. determining the compression strengths of heat treated hardwood specimens).

Yesterday I was busy with preparing specimens for the shear strengths test. Therefore I had to cut slots into the boards, using a hand router. Loud and dirty, the smell of freshly sawn wood and sawdust in my face. I loved it!

Here some more photos from my student job:

This is a test to determine the shear strenght of the board. It’s a pretty straightforward method: you pull at the top and at the bottom. By the means of the distance measurement device it’s possible to determine the shear-elasticity. Furthermore it is possible to determine the MOR – the modulus of rupture.

Here I’m attaching metal cramps on tension-specimens. These are made of an innovatice derived timber product, consisting of salvage veneer parts, glued with phenole-formaldehyde.

Now the specimen is mounted to the testing machine. Above the specimen is a silver cylinder; this is a load cell measuring the force that’s applied.

A glueline close-up: notice at the dove-tail shaped teeth. These improve the tension strength.

Some more specimens: heat treated hardwood pieces, ready for the bending-test.

This is the testing-layout for the bending test. It’s just like every other mechanical test – one applies load and measures the according deviation.

As you can see, I have a lot of interesting tasks in the course of my job. And I am learning by doing. I’d recommend this to every future exchange student, trying to get involved by getting a job. The bottom line is, that I am here NOT only on vacation. I am doing a lot as a student and as a student worker and I appreciate both, the experience and the earnings! :)