Overall this class was really good and pushed me out of my comfort zone to further my learning. I think I gained experience and knowledge from this class that I would not have been able to get at Rice which I really wanted and was one of the many reasons I signed up for the ISEED program. Working with the University of Amsterdam Students allowed us to gain experience working with people with different backgrounds and different effort levels. Even though at times it was frustrating that only one of the four UvA students in my group actually showed up after the first day of class, it presented a unique opportunity to learn how to work with people who put in less effort than you because that is not something I have experienced at Rice. Thinking about design challenges outside the United States also provided a unique learning experience especially because my group’s topic was remote work and we looked at many government regulations so I learned a lot by centering another country in the design challenge. Even though it was not my group of UvA students, my classmates ‘ groups were a lot closer. We would hang out with them most nights, which also helped me learn about more Dutch culture and Lithuanian culture because many of them were Lithuanian. Those students showed us around the city and really helped me feel more connected to the culture and showed us more non touristy spots of the city. Besides just having regulatory differences between the countries, being in Amsterdam allowed us to interview Dutch people both with UvA and Avans students which gave us different responses than I would have expected from Americans which was very interesting to think about. It helped when we approached people with the Avans students because we had a Dutch person with us compared to when I was interviewing people for the UvA class. I think having a Dutch person helped make the people we were talking to more comfortable and another interesting thing I noticed was the Avans student in our group was able to tell who we should approach and who would probably not talk to us which really stood out to me. I think it stood out so much because it shows the differences in culture in the United States, I was better at telling who is a good person to approach and who will actually be interested in having a conversation. The solution space feels a lot more comfortable for me which I think is what I am more used to and what I have done more of as an engineer. Finding solutions and problem solving feels a lot more natural. Because the UvA students were less used to the type of work we were doing with them, it created some challenges which I did not feel happened with the Avans students. I learned a lot more about the problem space in the class including a lot more research of people and how people act compared to physical materials and designs. It was also my first time working on coming up with a problem statement which I learned a lot from. I think the highlight of this class was visiting the Gazelle factory and talking to the employees because it helped me gain a better understanding of what engineers do daily and what tools they use. I think my favorite part of being in Amsterdam was either my first day when I walked 12 miles around the city because I felt like it gave me a good understanding of the city, or the time I spent with the UvA students at night. I think both stood out to me because they opened my eyes to another culture. I got to physically see the culture on the first day and saw how different it is from the US but I got more of the emotional and personal differences from spending time with the UvA students outside of class. My advice for students who do the ISEED program next year is to make the most out of the students you meet and not only talk to them during class. Being able to have the UvA students show us around made me feel a lot more welcome and also more knowledgeable about the culture which I think is a big part of the ISEED program. The amazing part of the ISEED program is not only the classes because they are classes you could take at Rice, but being immersed in another country so I think you should always make the most of it.