Joining a Club

An Exciting Language Opportunity

The Swiss Solar Boat (SSB) team is an organization at EPFL that designs, builds, and races a battery-powered, solar-charged hydrofoil boat. I went to the team’s Fall semester welcome meeting in September and was happy to encounter a completely Francophone community of passionate engineers. Initially I struggled to find my role within the organization, but I knew that I wanted to work on boat electronics and lucky enough I found a spot assisting a Master’s student with their thesis project designing the requirements and abstract layout of a new, larger hydrogen and solar hybrid boat. At first I actively attended meetings and tried my best to contribute in my freelance position, but I was having too much fun hiking and enjoying time with my exchange friends to really put in the work that was required to advance the designs. On the electrical team I met a really awesome Swiss girl in my same year, and after a few months of work I ended up learning far more about French conversation skills than engineering.

Taking the boat for a spin