Minerva Students on Their Exchange Experiences at Landshut University

Minervans embrace change with ease. Even more, Minervans love change. So much so that most Minerva students are comfortable with concepts that would likely intimidate most people – constantly moving, living out of a suitcase, adapting to a growing number of countries, all while studying at university, Felipe, Grigory, Mashiko, and Tra My (who goes by Chiffon) are among those Minervans who felt that their already adventurous lifestyle was not quite enough and participated in Minerva University’s first-ever exchange program.

This student-centered collaboration between Minerva and Landshut University of Applied Sciences was created to elevate students’ experiences, academic development, and perspectives. This way, four Minerva students had the chance to utilize Landshut University’s AI-focused, in-person Mixed Reality and Artificial Intelligence laboratories, advanced equipment, and technical advising to enhance their practical technical expertise.

Are you curious about the exchange adventures of these students? Read more about Grigory, Mashiko, Chiffon, and Felipe’s experiences as exchange students below.

Grigory’s Experience

Grigory, from Armenia, is a Class of 2025 student studying Computational Sciences. He has a passion for aviation and mathematics and likes spending his free time learning about computer vision and autonomous driving.

At Landshut University, he works in the institution’s Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality Lab. Specifically, he has contributed to building applications for a large four-wheel robot called the Clearpath Husky and conducted additional experiments with it. Grigory has also been collaborating with the BMW Group to create a simulation environment for the virtual commissioning of Clearpath Husky. He used simulation tools such as the NVIDIA Isaac Sim to build a virtual model of the robot that can map its surroundings. Grigory aims to empower the robot to autonomously navigate from point A to point B using Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) and Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL) algorithms, a step necessary for virtual commissioning.

Grigory emphasized how his Minerva journey has played a big part in his success at Landshut University: “The self-awareness, communication skills, and professionalism I developed at Minerva have been invaluable in excelling in a diverse work environment and navigating life after working hours.” He also found that by already having experience making friends around the world, he was able to seamlessly interact with many students from countries like Australia, India, Lebanon, Tunisia, and China. “Adapting to a new environment with an open mindset is something I carry with me after three years of my Minerva journey,” he says.

Grigory also reflected on his favorite memory from the exchange year. Walking down the corridor of Landshut University, a name tag on one of the doors randomly caught his eye. He suspected the name could be Armenian, so he followed up with a curious email. His intuition turned out to be correct – after the incident, Grigory and the other Armenian student met up and chatted for hours in their mother tongue! Grigory also got to see his new friend’s work and shared details of his work himself: “What a small world! Even in the small town of Landshut, two Armenian students can meet and talk about technology,” he said.

Looking forward, Grigory wants to explore more of what the automobile industry has to offer while staying open to the fields of aviation and automobiles. For now, though, he is still exploring his opportunities and loves talking to people who broaden his perspective: “I learn at least one or two new professions weekly that I would have never thought existed. I could not believe there were so many variations of mechanical and electrical engineering. It feels rewarding to be part of a program that bridges the gap between academia and industry, offering a glimpse into both worlds,” Grigory said.

Mashiko’s Experience

Mashiko is a Class of 2025 student from Georgia concentrating in Mathematics and Economics at Minerva. She describes herself as someone who likes to collaborate with others while using technology to impact human lives. She has been involved in the field of robotics, engineering, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) since high school, and has already worked in sustainability laboratories in Taiwan and Buenos Aires. As one of the co-founders of Minerva student organization AI Consensus, she previously hosted an online hackathon and organized several events in Hyderabad, San Francisco, and London focused on AI in education.

Mashiko explored autonomous navigation with the Clearpath Husky Robot in both simulated and real environments. In the collaboration, Landshut University provided a Husky robot, while BMW wanted to test it in their simulated warehouse using NVIDIA software. Mashiko’s work was to upload the robot into a simulation environment using Isaac Sim and move it using ROS 2. 

“Minerva taught me that, when it comes to large projects, it is crucial to break down tasks into manageable steps, set milestones, and map out the path to the goal. The structured problem-solving approach that Minerva taught us made tackling complex projects more straightforward,” Mashiko said when looking back at her experience working on the Clearpath Husky navigation project.

At the university, she worked in the Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality Lab with Landshut Professors Sandra Eisenreich and Eduard Kromer. She researched autonomous navigation and 3D concept graphs to build a map of the environment that the robot can interact with.

When asked about a memorable moment during the exchange program, Mashiko highlighted the following experience: “At BMW, the work culture is very open, and they encourage coworkers to meet and have coffee across different departments. I remember having lunch with three other ladies from Georgia, talking about our experiences living abroad, our values, life goals, future plans, and the differences in work culture between Georgia and Germany.”

Chiffon’s Experience

Chiffon, born and raised in Vietnam, is also a member of Minerva’s Class of 2025. She is majoring in Computational Sciences, focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics. At Landshut University’s AI lab, she was involved in robotic research, specifically object detection.

Chiffon reflected on how her Minerva experience came in handy when coding and researching at Landshut University. Apart from the academic rigor experienced in Minerva’s software engineering classes, she highlighted one of the most important skills learned at Minerva. “At Minerva, we do a lot of self-study to prepare for classes. I had to come all the way to Germany to realize how useful it is to have honed that skill as a Minervan. For example, while conducting research at Landshut, I was given a topic and had to start my research with minimal guidance and supervision. Having had a strong background in self-study from Minerva, I was able to determine which direction to take.”

Chiffon may have had countless wonderful experiences as an exchange student, but one of her biggest takeaways from the program is her increasing interest in robotics. “First, I was interested in generative AI and did not really like robotics and computer vision. However, this program gave me the gift of discovering the fascinating interconnection between the two fields. To my pleasant surprise, I slowly got interested in fields I did not have any interest in before: robotics and computer vision. I am constantly learning to approach interesting problems as a researcher while thinking about how I could integrate my new knowledge into natural language processing.”

Felipe’s Experience

Felipe is from Brazil and describes himself as someone who has never been interested in just one thing. His broad interest in diverse fields is reflected in his professional background as well – over the years, his work has spanned project management, finance, software engineering, and machine learning. “What truly drives me is understanding how society works while solving problems in a systematic way. I get genuinely excited about learning new things and tackling exciting challenges,” Felipe told me.

His motivation to participate in the Minerva-Landshut exchange program stems from his passion for machine learning. By joining this program, he aimed to complement his software knowledge from Minerva by focusing on hardware at Landshut. Having gained access to a lot of computing power at Landshut University, he believes he has been exposed to invigorating challenges and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Felipe spent one short but quite intense month at Landshut. He worked on optimizing the costs of training computer models, a task typically executed by large providers with a lot of computing power, such as Google and Amazon. He was responsible for testing Landshut’s system, carefully documenting the work, and ultimately addressing the question, “Can Landshut University use their own computers to train large computer models?”

Felipe admits that adapting to the new environment was almost seamless, as Minerva had equipped him with the ability to settle into new places quickly. He also emphasized the importance of having received a solid educational foundation at Minerva: “At Minerva, I literally learned how to learn, a skill crucial to my success at Landshut. Even though I had never worked in this field prior to the exchange program, I was able to navigate its intricacies as I had previously received an incredibly broad education in the field of computer science. Connecting new concepts to my previous knowledge was not a challenge – there is a difference between learning something brand new and simply acquiring an extension of previous knowledge.”

Felipe is grateful to have had the chance to participate in the exchange program at Landshut University. Without going to Landshut, acquiring the same amount of knowledge would have taken him years. “Being a Minerva student already gives you an advantage in the professional world. Having participated in this exchange increased my edge to a great extent. I not only have this great pool of knowledge from Minerva, but I also obtained very specific, high-end, truly meaningful hard skills during my exchange.”

As our first four Minervans finish their journeys as exchange students, they urge future generations to take advantage of Minerva’s extensive opportunities. As Felipe puts it, "At this moment, you might not be fully aware of how meaningful a similar experience will be for you. Trust me, your future self is going to be grateful for having done this.”

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If you, too, are seeking a college experience that will teach you valuable pragmatic skills that will enable you to change the world, apply to Minerva University today.