An excursion into the future: a student’s experience report

“What do you want to do after school?” This question has probably been heard so often that it has become irritating. Be that as it may, one must not forget to at least think about it in good time. In order to gather further food for thought and inspiration, the 4AHBGM and 3BHBGM went on a field trip to the FH Technikum Wien in the 20th district.

There, after a warm welcome, we medical informatics students were given a brief overview of the relevant fields of study, which we were allowed to get to know better by checking out different stations:

– Biomedical Engineering

– Human Factors and Sports Engineering

– Health and Rehabilitation Engineering

– Medical and Hospital Engineering

– Medical Engineering & eHealth

I’ll tell it like it is: when we first heard these terms, none of us knew what they meant. We were simply outsmarted. But after the initial “lostness”, we were immediately at the ready when it came to the stations. It was like teaching, but in a way that made you want to pay attention. For example, at the Biomedical Engineering station, we had a competition to see who could tighten their muscle more. At the health engineering station, there were devices that simulated lungs. Our goal there was to make an artificial lung explode (by the way, we didn’t succeed). In the in-house intensive care unit, we were allowed to try out the ultrasound machine and found out that it is not that easy to get the desired object on the screen.

The station on prosthesis construction was also interesting, as we not only learned interesting facts about the materials used, but were also able to test the material properties in direct comparison. There was also a station about ELGA and much more. To list all the things we did there would go beyond the scope of this article. But we all agree that we can only draw one conclusion from the whole excursion: It is worth taking a closer look at studying at the Technikum.

Many thanks to the team of the FH Technikum Wien and especially to FH-Prof. Mathias Forjan, PhD, MSc for the informative morning and also for the goodie bags that all students were allowed to take home.