Porsche

The company's official name? Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG.

Courses

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6)
Management (Course 15)
Materials Science and Engineering (Course 3)
Mechanical Engineering (Course 2)

Location

Stuttgart

Host Type

Industry

Tags

automotive

Porsche, founded in 1931, is one of Germany's best-known car manufacturers.  The company produces Porsche's company headquarters are in located in Stuttgart, with a development center (which also hosts Porsche Motorsports) in nearby Weissach. Today, with more than 28,000 victories, Porsche is recognized as the world's most successful brand in sports car racing.  Recent MISTI students have greatly enjoyed working for the Porsche Motorsport team.

 

Student Story|Henry Merrow, MechE '17

Henry Merrow, MechE '17

I interned in the electrical powertrain systems group within Porsche Motorsports. My main project was developing thermal and electrical battery cell models to aid in cell development and improve cell performance. In addition, I developed a thermal model of the motor-generator unit to increase understanding of the thermal behavior of the motor and its components. The theory and concepts which I learned through my coursework at MIT were invaluable for my project. Having a solid foundation allowed me to start working effectively immediately upon arrival.

My internship at Porsche was an excellent practical learning experience and helped advance my education beyond the classroom. In addition, being in a German work environment was very interesting and in some ways eye-opening. In particular, I was quite surprised by how much the work-life balance is emphasized in contrast with the US. At Porsche there are even strict rules outlining how much employees are allowed to work – for example, employees can only work a maximum of 10 hours per day and are not allowed to stay at the facilities past 7:00pm. For interns, things are even more strict and regulated. Coming from the work environment at MIT, rules like this were especially striking to me and took some getting used to.

I lived in a 17-person WG (apartment living community), which was excellent for getting to know many other students and interns. With my roommates and other friends I met, I was able to explore the community and surrounding area. While Weissach itself is quite small and quiet, there is always something to do in Stuttgart, not too far away with the bus and S-Bahn. One of the highlights for me outside of work was playing sports – I played soccer and basketball weekly with teams from Porsche and played volleyball occasionally as well.

 

 

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Student Story|Emily Genvriere, MechE '22

Emily Genvriere, MechE '22

This summer, I ported and repaired full-car simulations to investigate the effects of differences between OpenRoad/STAR-CCM+ versions 11 and 12 using different ride heights/geometries. I also created templates to make running future simulations in v12 easier, prepared thorough documentation, and reviewed post-processing data created by the simulations. Although these were all new programs/skills that I had not been acquainted with before this internship, I did have to problem-solve and troubleshoot a lot which MIT had prepared me for.

Although I was working in Germany, my department was very diverse: we had people from several other countries including France, South Africa, Ireland, England, Spain, and Cyprus. Therefore, German was not the primary language spoken at the office. What I loved about my department was that the coworkers actually spent time with one another outside the office, which I had not experienced prior to this. I participated in weekly RC-boat races and went out to dinner several times with co-workers and always had fun.

I had an amazing time interning at Porsche AG. It was very educational not only in regards to the work I was doing, but it also gave me an inside look into the workings of a large company. I met many friendly and talented co-workers who I will keep in touch with even though I am no longer in Germany.

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