Tech tales and travels
The Bosch World experience 2014 took six young people on a whirlwind adventure of a lifetime.
IT sounds like a staggering figure, but 50,000 people from around the world applied for the chance to become a Bosch Explorer. However, only a select few received the golden (airline) ticket. Loh Hong Khai, 22, was one from that fortunate bunch.
“I went blank! I was like, ‘ Wait, is this real?’” said Loh with a laugh, recalling the moment he received news that he had won a place on the Bosch World Experience 2014, where six Bosch Explorers travel to six different countries in 16 days to experience Bosch technology firsthand.
“Of course, I really wanted to be part of the six,” he said. “But with 50,000 applicants, I thought the chances of me winning were slim,” explained the University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) student, who is majoring in electronics and communications engineering. “Given my background, this experience was very close to my heart.”
And indeed, it was technology galore. The six winners – Loh, Tolgay Azman, 24, from Germany, Amy Watkins, 22, from the United States, Luiz Junior Fernandes, 32, from Brazil, Roy van den Heuvel, 24, from the Netherlands, and Yanru Xia, 23, from China – were whisked off for a 16-day adventure beginning in London on July 20 and ending in Singapore on Aug 6.
Each stop featured a different technological marvel powered by Bosch: the Tower Bridge in London, the Panama Canal in Panama, driverless cars in San Francisco, the Shanghai Tower in China and electric cars in Singapore. The final stop was a surprise visit to Bosch’s headquarters in Berlin, where the Explorers were introduced to Bosch Stiftung, its non-profit foundation, and learnt about Robert Bosch, the – you guessed it – company’s founder.
During an interview with R.AGE, it was obvious that Loh is into everything techrelated – he was practically bouncing in his seat with glee while recounting the techy tales of his adventure.
“As an engineering major, I learn a lot about electrical engineering, so this was all very interesting,” he enthused. “At the Tower Bridge, learning about how the hydraulics systems work with the electrical components and everything, it was amazing to see the scale of the mechanism. Back home in labs, we only work with small circuits,” he said, adding “And even then, it takes so much to get one component to work correctly!”
As impressive as the Tower Bridge was, the Panama Canal was what took Loh’s breath away. The 77.1km ship canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is considered one of the world’s marvels of engineering. “It’s crazy to think how we as humans were able to overcome an obstructive landscape and prevail with the building of the canal.”
Man-made miracles aside, the highlight of his trip was whale-watching in Panama, where they sailed from the Panama City harbour to the small Pearl Island. “This whale, bigger than the boat we were in, leaped out of the water in front of us!” he said, adding “I’d never seen a whale in my life!”
While everyone around him whipped out their cameras and phones to snap away, “I just stood there, stunned,” he said, before musing “You know it’s a very special moment when even the tour guide takes out his camera.”
Of course, what made his trip extra-special were his fellow Explorers. “We bonded so well,” he said, adding that they could all “click” over a mutual love for technology, and, of course, social media. The Bosch Explorers regularly updated their followers and friends on their adventures.
On top of learning about engineering feats, Loh also learnt a lot about other cultures, courtesy of the trip as well as the company of his new friends. The cultural exchange was clearly two-way: “We were at dinner in Shanghai, and the rest, besides Yanru and I, had never had a full Chinese dinner before!” he said in disbelief. “We were eating Peking duck and they were like, ‘How do you eat this?’”
In the end, his experience not only made Loh more aware of the world and clued in to all things Bosch, it also made him prouder of his country. “The cultural differences between us were refreshing,” he said, adding “We are used to eastern culture, but we’re also used to the ways of the west. I can eat steak and use chopsticks, too. I feel proud to be Malaysian.”