Dayton Regional STEM School/INTERA Technology Park International Internship Exchange: More Training (and fun!) in Mostar

One of the great things about Mostar is their street art (and street art festival).

We left off yesterday's post mid-day with the CNC training students received from Mladen Kostić, Chief Technology Officer at INTERA. The students enjoyed learning how to use SolidWorks and the basics of how to use the program to create things that could be created using additive or subtractive manufacturing methods.

Mladen goes over the CNC machine that students would use to create the materials they were manipulating in SolidWorks.

Up next was visiting a local CNC machine company, Ćićak, where students were led on a tour of the company and saw the machines they use to create parts for export.

Dragan leads us on a tour of the factory he manages and explains what kind of work they do for different customers.

Pretty sure Bethany was the most excited, as she works at Gem City Manufacturing in Dayton and is going to school for CNC machining, so she loved seeing all of the equipment and learning about what's similar and what's different.

We had to get a picture before we left. Ana's dad, Marinko, works here too!

Next, it was time for some more fun. First up was a trip to Stolac, a beautiful village with the Vidoški Castle ruins at the top of the hill overlooking the town. We climbed up to the top for an amazing view of the city and surrounding region and heard a little history of the ruins from our friend and guide, Gorana!

The town of Stolac, a beautiful little village.

The walk up to the top was pretty brutal... we took lots of breaks.

But, the view was worth it!

The students and our guide, Gorana, at the top!

Happy to be walking down on the way back instead of up again :)

Up next was paintball, which was a ton of fun. We split up into pretty even teams. I can't remember how many times each team won and lost, but we all had fun! Thanks again to Gorana for helping us get there!

Ok so maybe the black team vs. the camo team had a numbers advantage, but only two of us on the black team had been before, and both of us were wearing glasses!

We grabbed a late snack (crepes) before turning in for the evening of another amazing day in Mostar. Thankfully we got to sleep in a bit the next day!

The next day began with training from Dino Joldić of AirRec, a local photography company that uses drones to capture aerial footage. The students started out with some demonstrations and working on a drone simulator to learn the skills necessary in order to fly a drone properly, then they actually got to fly one!

Bri works with Dino on mastering the controls.

Victoria's drone takes flight!

Before continuing the training for the day, we had lunch at a local restaurant that sits on the river… literally. We sat out on a small little islet that is surrounded by the river and had some amazing river food that Mateo recommended, including eel, frog legs, lobster (I’d call them crawdads), and other local delicacies. All of it was delicious, and kudos to the students for being adventurous eaters!

The bridge to lunch.

Beautiful river and amazing food, winning combination.

Surprised me how much I liked the grilled frog!

Up next was a tour of the first floor of INTERA, which is where ventilation system company Alfa Therm is housed. They took us on a tour of the company and showed us the various departments that are housed at INTERA, including the CNC machining and metal working in the basement. It was interesting to see a company that is completely vertically integrated and doing every step in the process needed to create ventilation systems for large buildings in BiH and Croatia.

Our tour of Alfa Therm included all of the departments.

They have some impressive technology that allows them to put sensors on every part of their systems in order to monitor whether everything is running smoothly or not.

They also had a complete CNC machining area and metal work space in the basement... I had no idea it had been there the whole time!

In the late afternoon students ended the day with Ivan Pavlovic of EZ Training provided students with an overview of 3D printing on the ground floor of INTERA.

Working on 3D printing with Ivan!

Afternoon activities included shopping at the mall, meeting up with Nikola and Dario to get coffee, and swimming at Mateo’s house.

Coffee time!

While they were busy doing that, I traveled to Neum with Vedran to greet his family, which was a lot of fun. The BiH coast may be small, but it makes up in beauty what it lacks in size!

Amazing spot... just visit!

Selfie in Neum w/Vedran!

I also met Jelena’s family, including her niece Lara, whose favorite subject is English. I can definitely tell, she speaks it better than I do already!

Lara is the one closest to me. Can't wait to take one of the tours she wants to lead one day!

Heading up to Jelena's family's home felt like a trip through Ireland at one point!

On Thursday the day began with robotics and Arduino programming, which allowed students the opportunity to program controllers which could complete tasks using switches, LEDs, and potentiometers. The training also gave them an understanding of how to use setups and loops in programming as well as how to populate a breadboard. Gloria explained to me that it will be helpful for the robotics course she’s taking next year, and it was a new experience for the students.

You can't read it but I believe this says "Mr. Grieve." They programmed me...

Learning Arduino coding.

Lunch was at INTERA, and it was great pizza… but with mayonnaise. I was wondering how long it would happen, but I’ve finally found a food in Bosnia and Herzegovina that I don’t like (or food combination, more accurately). The pizza was great too, so I don’t understand why they’d put mayonnaise on it! Still, Bri seemed to enjoy it!

Pizza is always better without mayonnaise...

After a bit more training at INTERA and programming, the students traveled to the Center for Technical Education, right across the street from the mall, where Ivan explained the programs they have for local students in robotics, Minecraft, computer design, and more. We also got to see their maker space, which all of us wanted to play in for a while longer!

Checking out some of the work that the local students have done recently in their maker space.

They also have a cool robotics lab for the students to use.

After that, it was off to the mall, where we got some shopping in before evening activities, which consisted of visiting the Koskin-Mehmet Paša Mosque, eating way too much food at Šadrvan, and shopping before playing soccer (sorry... football!). We lost, but it was a great way to end the evening (even though my poor goalie skills lost us the game). And, I finally got to see Dario and Nikola today!