bBox Christmas Video :)

Hello, everyone!

This is how we imagined a nice day together with our project initiators and...it happened! :)





bBox project initiators and us :)
Mr. Jens Zimmermann (1st row, left corner)
Mrs. Leonie Bartz (2nd row, left corner)
Mr.Herbert Ziefle, Mr. Uwe Joas, Mrs. Simone Te-Strote (3d row, from left to right)




And this is our little surprise for them!











 We also received presents: new devices!






Aldo, the biggest Apple fan







The most fashionable purses :)









Thank you for sharing your time with us!


bBox :)

  

Berlin: a city that left us speechless...

 

Hello, from Claudia!

Here are a series of photos that describe better than words what the bBox team together with friends from AIESEC Karlsruhe did in only a two days time in Berlin...

From happy to sad, we experienced a wide range of states, due to the places we visited. Let the pictures raise your interest and, hopefully, make you admire Germany for the country that is today.



Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.



Mauer Museum (Wall Museum)

The national Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany
(Reichstag refers to the building, while Bundestag to the institution)

The current Reichstag dome is a glass dome constructed on top of the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin. It was designed by architect Norman Foster and built to symbolize the reunification of Germany.
 

What an imposing modern sort of a flag was waiting to be admired!



A large and very plump version of the eagle decorates the chamber of the Bundestag: it is sometimes called "Fette Henne" (Fat Hen), with a similar representation found on the Euro coin.

Reichstag – A place where history meets contemporary architecture



In recent years, the German Bundestag has developed into a major visitor attraction. More than 15 million people have visited it since the transfer from Bonn to Berlin.



 

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station), is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany and the largest crossing station in Europe.



It began full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is now Europe's largest two-level railway station.



The true historical center of the city is in the eastern half. Probably the most easily recognized monument is the Brandenburg Gate, which was the main gathering place for celebrations following the fall of the wall in 1989. 


The Branderburg Gate



                                       On its eastern side is Pariser Platz.

• 

The Berlin Wall, today...

Alexanderplatz, also known as Alex, is one of Berlin’s liveliest squares and public transportation hubs. Looming above it is a 1 200-ft-/365-m-high TV tower - the tallest structure in Berlin (you can go to the top for an excellent view of the city).

Berlin has got so much to reveal: history, culture, tradition, modern, art... and the people, who put so much effort into keeping it vivid and interesting.

 Maybe you set it as your next destination..I am surely doing so, since a weekend was not enough to dedicate to it!

Saint Nicholas :)



          Sankt Nikolaus, in Germany, as well as worldwide within christian communities, is celebrated on 6th December. Every year, on this date, we commemorate the one that dedicated his life to serve Christ and taught the good through the power of his own example.

Why does he look like Santa Claus, some would ask themselves? Including our chinese colleague, Xi Huang, or even the Latin Americans? :)) 

            Traditionally, Nikolaus is associated with an old man that would visit children and reward them with little sweet gifts if they behaved well the entire year and with a little wood stick if not :)



And why were they so many in our office?

           1. Because we are a good good team that is very hard working?

               Yes, true, true...

           2. Well, Fiducia IT AG has its own tradition: every year, people working in the company can make  chocolate little Saint Nicholases gifts and express their good thoughts and wishes to their colleagues on a  card. The money paid for the gifts would then be raised and donated.







Here you can observe how amazed and curious my colleagues were... :))







And here, the joy and happiness... :) Our colleagues from Fiducia thought of us :)





 Imagine 5000 Saint Nicholases being delivered inside the whole company...

 We actually 'caught' one of Saint Nicholas's Assistant...Christian Schuler, also an intern at Fiducia IT AG.

 Thank you, Christian!

    Thank you, Fiducia!

Moving on to the next stage

Last Tuesday, AIESEC Karlsruhe held a highly formal presentation to the board of AIESEC sponsors to get more supported. As members of such an important project raised by AIESEC Karlsruhe, we attended as well – in suites, ties, shirts, high-heels, and presented our bBox project. To our delight, the chiefs were satisfied with our work and showed the will to welcome us back to work in Karlsruhe.

well arranged meeting place

Besides, with presentations of our research work on user interfaces and the last brainstorming of favourite toys with Mr. Ziefle and Mr. Zimmerman, our first stage – ‘thinking’, came to an end successfully. It’s really nice to see that our ‘brainstorming wall’ is full of ideas on both sides! And we are eager to ‘cook’ them together! To achieve this, we worked in 2 groups -- one had to categorize ideas, and the other one had to decide evaluation criteria, to find an efficient way of evaluation and choose the most interesting but feasible ideas. With everyone’s effort, the bBox project is able to move on to the next stage from this week!

Full brainstorming wall

And guess which sport we like the best in winter? Snowball fight! And of course the Latin boys were the most excited ones.

For me, the most exciting thing is Christmas! I’ve never celebrated Christmas before – it’s not a traditional holiday in China. Therefore it will be my first real Christmas with beautiful Christmas market, Glühwein, and secret Santa!

Xi Huang
Cybernetic Specialist

Visit from Fiducia IT AG München

        

          It is always hard to know if you are going into the right direction with your innitiatives in life, in general. And this is true for our work, in particular, also. But how about that feeling of being guided, that we often might have?

          Well, we recently felt like that too. I believe I also speak for my colleagues when I state that the presence of Mr. Michael Buchberger, coming all his way from München, was like a breath of fresh, clean air.

Sure, the air here stands for the knowledge only a specialist can actually bring and share.





 

                    

         

 

Paulo and Nair



   



            

          Mr.Buchberger, prepared to hold an interactive presentation, offered us the possibility to experience an important exchange. On one hand, we did receive relevant explanations about Fiducia's integrated banking system agree, that is of interest for us and our project. On the other, as one of our initial tasks was to analyze it and identify its strenghts and weaknesses,we also had the chance to feedback the specialist that has been working and is continuously improving the agree with all the implication. 

Left corner: Mr. Buchberger, our guest



          But what we most value is the interest shown in our project and the approval of our work output and results achieved so far. Thank you for your encouraging attitude and help!

                                The bBox Team

       

bBox Working methods: Part 1

           It can be observed from our previous posts that we had a lot to work :) when it came to visit so much in only one month and a half: Karlsruhe, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Berlin.

           But what about the real work? What are we exactly doing?

Paulo and Aldo	Well, let me just reveal a little piece of our work puzzle. As Paulo has explained in his first message to you, we have been dealing for quite a great amount of time with generating ideas. New, creative, interesting and outrageous ones.
Stan and Clara	Felipe and Delyana

And how did we do that?

Brainstorming was one way...unique combinations that came up from our research about this method made us consider them useful. And they sure proved to be efficient and brought important outcomes. For instance, have you ever thought that letting yourself inspired from real life experiences or even childhood could help at developing ideas and concepts applicable to your issue or assignment?

We did that, and not just us alone, but involved a part of the initiators of the project to join and contribute.


Mr. Ziefle, Mr. Zimmerman and our team leader, Stan



Nair, a great and funny moderator :)



So, mates, do you really think it was worth? I sure do!