Bauma 2013

A good 530,000 visitors from over 200 countries attended this year's Bauma 2013, the world's largest trade fair for construction machinery. And 80 KIT students were there too! It has almost become a tradition for the TMB Institute and the university group IACES, Local Committee Karlsruhe, to organize a trip to Bauma. And so a colorful mixture of IACES members, master's students of construction management, interested civil engineering students of all semesters and a TMB employee set off on an adventure together in a rented bus early in the morning of April 16th.

Despite a delay due to dust, we arrived at the exhibition center around noon in time for the first of almost 20 guided tours through the stands of well-known companies such as Herrenknecht, Bauer, Liebherr, Zeppelin/Caterpillar, Terex, Wirtgen Group, Wolffkran and Putzmeister.

The participants spent two days in glorious sunshine with a pleasant mixture of guided tours in groups of around 20 people and independent tours of the huge exhibition grounds.

On the following Wednesday evening, an exhausted but visibly enthusiastic student body made the journey home to Karlsruhe. They will remember two days that not only provided a wealth of practical and visual impressions to complement the more theoretical lectures, but also offered a wonderful opportunity, especially for the younger students, to think outside the box and make a lot of new contacts on a social and professional level.

The joint organization of IACES, the International Association of Civil Engineering Students, Local Committee Karlsruhe, and the TMB, the Institute for Technology and Management in Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), should also be mentioned at this point, which not only guaranteed a smooth process but also made it possible for 80 people to stay overnight, travel by bus and visit the trade fair for two days at reasonable prices.

Text: Moritz Hille