As part of the Geoinformation Management course at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences – Technology and Economics, an internship of 95 attendance days is planned in the fifth semester. I decided to apply to the company terrestris or mundialis. After an interview with Managing Director Till Adams and a brief introduction to the employees, I was allowed to start the internship. My internship took place from September 19, 2016 to February 10, 2017 inclusive.

 

 

 

The internship opened my eyes to the possibilities and advantages of the open source world. My preference was for geoinformation systems, which was one of the main reasons for choosing this company. In this regard, the decision was a very good choice, as I was given a very intensive insight into the GRASS geoinformation system. Dealing with the Linux operating system and the command line, which were initially unknown to me, quickly became a habit and I learned how to use a wide variety of open source products. For example, I worked with QGIS, where I linked various OSM data and adapted the map style to my liking.

 

With the help of PGAdmin III, Libreoffice and GRASS, I worked with databases to generate various soil maps

Other software included R geostatistics and Github. I gained insights into the structures of Geoserver and the structure of OGC-compliant web services. I developed GRASS add-ons and modifications for existing GRASS scripts with the programming language Python, which was also unknown to me at first, and I was able to implement them successfully. One of these add-ons, for example, is responsible for the automated filling of data gaps in the AW3D (ALOS World 3D) elevation model.

Another add-on calculates the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) from a file in a specific format. With the help of the NDVI, healthy vegetation (dark green) or unhealthy vegetation (light brown to brown) is displayed.

 

 

 

It was important to me to get to know a young, up-and-coming company in which the relationships between the employees and with the management are close and cordial. The team welcomed me and integrated me into the daily work routine very easily, as an extremely harmonious atmosphere prevails there. If questions or difficulties arose, time was always taken to support me in solving the problem. I was able to use, review and further develop my previous, mostly theoretical knowledge from my studies. The internship at terrestris and mundialis made the diversity and innovation of this industry clear to me and I was able to strengthen my confidence in my abilities.

I would like to thank Markus Neteler, who accompanied, supported and encouraged me throughout the entire internship. I would also like to thank the other two managing directors, Till Adams and Hinrich Paulsen, and all the employees of terrestris and mundialis for their support during my internship.