This text is dedicated to the students of BIS who are unsure of what to do in the future and what to study. – From an alumnus

The drumroll of banging on the racetrack’s blisteringly hot corrugated steel sheets starts long before the car is even within earshot. At first, it’s just a hazy speck, blurred by the rising heat of the asphalt at Hidden Valley Racetrack in Darwin, northern Australia. As the car approaches at 90 km/h, around eighty students from teams around the world stop working on their own vehicles and begin hammering louder and louder, trying to will our solar powered racecar forward, welcoming the newcomers about to qualify for the first time at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The car whooshes past, drowned out by the deafening cheers and hands that follow it like a Mexican wave, and just like that, the team from the Technical University of Munich, after two relentless weeks in a small, hot race pit, qualifies to race across the Australian continent. For me, that moment marked the culmination of four years spent building cars, learning, failing, and trying again. The relief is immeasurable. We celebrate briefly as the car completes a high-speed slalom and emergency brake test to confirm its safety, but I slip away to call my parents, who are waiting 3,021 km further south at the finish line in Adelaide to share the news. Camped in the middle of the Australian outback, about 200km from the starting line at the end of day one, and about 100m from the Stuart Highway we had been driving on all day, I crawl into my tent. The crisp night air and high stakes action makes the sleeping bag a luxury. Looking up into the star filled sky I finally have a moment of time to reflect on the steps I took to get to this bizarre situation. I know that this path did not start in Australia, but back at BIS. And here is what I would have loved to have known 10 years ago. Had I followed the recommendation of the IBDP coordinator in Grade 10 at BIS not to take Mathematics HL because of my weaker grades (4/5), and had I not struggled through Mathematics HL, Physics HL, and Chemistry HL, I likely would not have been accepted to study mechanical engineering at one of the best universities in the world. I would not have failed some university exams, and I certainly would not have found my “tribe” of passionate and talented engineers that surrounded me in Australia—people who spend most of their studies applying their knowledge to our crazy ambitious project, simply for the joy of pushing themselves and learning how to create something new. Long before I had even heard of integrals I knew I wanted to invent things. When adults asked what I wanted to do I would answer that I wanted to be an inventor. This was usually accompanied with a raised eyebrow and a statement along the lines of “but what do you want to study?”, which little me found very confusing until I found out what an engineer does… and I think you’re all caught up now. If my message wasn’t clear enough so far: I wasn’t talented at math but I wanted to do something that requires a lot of it, and so I did not heed the warnings, followed my passion to invent and outworked my inaptitude by simply doing so many exercises that I learned patterns for solutions that can be applied to every mathematical problem which I might encounter as an engineer. Looking back, I appreciate how well the IB prepared me in subjects like Physics and Design and Technology, and the real advantage that attending BIS gave me. Those lessons were the first time that I saw how theory turns into something real, how forces act, how vital it is to be reflective and how ideas become reality. Even things like the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which at the time felt completely unrelated, taught me resilience, problem solving in uncomfortable situations and built my confidence to handle unfamiliar environments alone, something that turned out to be surprisingly relevant later on. Some of you might be wondering what a typical day at university looks like if you study mechanical engineering. My experience might not be representative of all courses and universities, but it should give you a realistic idea. University life has two very different phases: the lecture period during the semester and the exam preparation phase at the end. During the semester, most of your time is spent attending lectures and working on problems assigned by the professor. Classes can start as early as 8:00 in the morning and sometimes go into the evening, usually lasting two to four hours. The bachelor’s program focuses on building a strong technical foundation—mathematics, technical mechanics, materials science, thermodynamics, electrical engineering, programming. Lectures often take place in large lecture halls with hundreds of students, and it’s not unusual to suddenly realize your mind has wandered off while the professor derived an equation on the board. Besides lectures, almost every course has exercise sessions. Here you work on problems that help you understand the theory and prepare for exams. At first these exercises can be quite difficult, but you start to recognize the patterns, and the concepts begin to make sense. During the semester I usually studied Monday to Saturday from about 9:00 to 16:00. Outside of studying, there is still time to meet friends, do sports, work part-time, or pursue hobbies. The exam phase, however, is where things get serious. Engineering exams usually test whether you truly understand the material rather than memorizing facts. Many exams involve long calculations and complex problem solving under time pressure. About six weeks before exams, most students start revising much more intensely. During this period, I often studied every day in the library from morning until very late evening with friends until the last exam was finished. It really is mentally challenging, but it is also very rewarding when you finally solve a difficult problem or pass an exam you worked hard for. “Practice makes better. Not perfect.” This goes for any course of study, but only by practically applying new knowledge will you excel in a chosen field. Internships, part-time work or student groups are vital, not only to make yourself more appealing to future employers, but more importantly allow you to find out what you enjoy doing. Despite spending years building race cars, I’m actually not that interested in cars. I’m far more interested in sustainable engineering and the challenge of solving difficult problems. One of the most exciting parts of studying engineering at the Technical University of Munich is the number of student teams. These teams build real technology and compete internationally, from race cars to rockets or drones. It’s one of the best ways to apply what you learn in lectures to real-world engineering problems, with little risk and high potential to develop your skills. I joined the team because of their mission to improve personal mobility by developing efficient and sustainable vehicles. Thanks to Design and Technology and some extracurricular projects at BIS, I was already familiar with CAD and 3D printing, so I started out designing and manufacturing mounts for computers, cameras and sensors, as well as helping with parts of the steering system. I understood little outside my role at the time, but I saw what other sub teams were doing and wanted to learn more. For the next car I joined the suspension team, taught myself new software, and applied what I had learned in my courses to make the car even lighter and thus even more efficient. Eventually, I took on more responsibility and helped push the team to compete at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. I later led a group of around 20 students as the Head of Running gear, designing, validating and manufacturing the car’s core mechanical systems (steering, brakes, suspension and drivetrain), developing a design that could survive 3,000 km across the Australian continent. That the team and car even made it to Australia is something close to a miracle. In the final three weeks before shipping the car, the team went through an intense manufacturing sprint. Mechanical and electrical parts were machined, assembled, tested, redesigned and rebuilt in rapid succession, and team members travelled across Europe and later Australia to collect critical components from corporate sponsors who supported us at very short notice. Student teams like ours operate entirely on a non-profit basis and rely almost completely on sponsoring companies. The biggest hurdle was logistics. Transporting a prototype solar race car and battery to Australia and back requires specialized air freight and represents the largest portion of our budget, around €200,000. Thanks to the support of our sponsors and partners, we were able to overcome these challenges and stand on the starting grid in Darwin. Their support allows students to experience the full lifecycle of an engineering project, from design and manufacturing to testing, logistics and international competition—and many alumni go on to work in leading engineering and technology companies. Looking back at that night under the stars in the Australian outback, what stands out most is not the race itself, but the path that led there. There were subjects I struggled with at BIS and university, there were exams I failed, and many moments where it would have been easier to choose something else. But every time I chose the interesting path over the easy one, it always led somewhere better than I expected. So, if you are unsure what path to take after BIS, my advice is simple: choose something that genuinely fascinates you. Anyone who is highly motivated can study “difficult” subjects, because passion matters more than talent.