During the summer of 2019, I was visiting Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) in Rolla, Missouri. The purpose of this visit was the finalization of my master thesis, which implements cloud infrastructures for the purpose of better software product quality. My supervisor in Slovenia was prof. dr. Andrej Kos.

The research group that cooperated in this exchange specializes in Sensor Networks and Dependable Computing and was a suitable fit for the topic of my master thesis. Prof. dr. Sahra Sedigh Sarvestani was a supervisor of this thesis in the USA and provided considerable help and experience, which contributed a lot to my work.

MST campus is located in Rolla, Missouri. Rolla is a relatively small town in the middle of the State of Missouri. The main institution in this town is the university, which was traditionally strong in material engineering. The reason for this are historical mines in the vicinity of Rolla. Nowadays the university focuses more on renewable energy and the associated sciences.

MST university is a completely engineering-focused university with all the departments dealing with some kind of engineering, from chemical and business, to electrical and computer engineering. MST is also a part of a consortium of four different universities in Missouri. The board of curators for these four universities is located in the bigger city of Columbia, located approximately 150 km from Rolla. MST is one of the best engineering universities in Missouri and is quite well-respected among engineering universities in the USA as a whole.

Rolla is a classic Midwestern town with broad roads, small houses, a lot of fast-food restaurants and some wildlife. The nature surrounding Rolla is surprisingly pleasant with a lot of trees and green vegetation. Rabbits and squirrels are very common everywhere you go and are very friendly towards people.

As far as sports go, baseball and hockey are very popular in Missouri. We visited a baseball game in the city of St. Louis, which is the closest bigger city, located approximately 170 km from Rolla. The game was between St. Louis Cardinals and New Orleans Pelicans.

In conclusion, the experience proved to be very interesting and inspiring, as I was able to observe numerous different methods of working and living. Additionally, the connection between the two participating universities grows stronger and makes more room for further work and exchanges.

For more information on the process, please refer to the document below:

Writing a Masters Thesis in the USA (A Short Tutorial by Primož Kočevar)

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