Professor Markus Buehler, graduate student Sinan Keten and sophomore Britni Ihle, along with nine other MIT students and faculty members, spent spring break in Aachen, Germany, at a week-long course: “The 2009 Aachen-MIT Spring School on Methods and Tools for Computational Engineering.” The goal of the course, which was supported financially by MIT MISTI and the MIT Germany Program, was to bring together researchers and students from RWTH Aachen University and MIT to advance the role of computation and foster new collaborative activities. As computations play an increasing role in science and engineering, a range of computational technologies needs to be mastered and used concurrently in order to fully exploit the unique potential of those technologies for automating model development and selection, identifying scale interaction mechanisms, or optimally controlling or designing engineered systems. “The participation of undergraduate and graduate students in this effort is a crucial element and we hope to facilitate future student exchange during the Spring School,” said Buehler.