Equestrian vaulting is "gymnastics on horseback". That is one way of describing the sport to an outsider in simple terms. But Maria would not really be satisfied with this brief explanation. The 30-year-old trainer at the Neuburg Equestrian Club prefers a more precise explanation. "Vaulting is about endurance, strength, balance, elegance, expression, flexibility, courage, team spirit, tension, creativity and much more. And all of that always in close connection with a horse," she says. This can be felt almost physically when Maria leads the galloping horse around the riding arena on the lunge line, and young sportswomen perform their acrobatics with enormous elegance.
Maria likes to take a holistic view of everything she does. Vaulting for instance. "One-sided specialisation is not really my thing," admits the electrical and information technology and requirements engineer. At EDAG Electronics in Ingolstadt, she and her 16-strong team take care of requirements management and the development of the EDAG E/E products which are used, for example, in the pre-series development of instrument clusters. "I like the direct exchange with the customers. My range of tasks extends from the preparation of quotations, production support through various support topics to marketing. I enjoy all of it."
It was not always clear that Maria was to find her calling as a generalist in automotive development. "With cars, all I used to care about was that they would go and could pull a horse box," she admits. Nor did she have a technical profession on her radar after she left school. "I was keen on language, am a passionate reader and like it when things are well expressed. At first, becoming a teacher at a school for speech therapy was an obvious choice for me," she says. To begin with, she found the medical part of her speech therapy training fascinating. "After that, it was less of a challenge. After a year and a half, I'd had enough." A degree in electrical engineering was then much more in line with her high expectations.
While she was still a student, Maria joined BFFT, which has since been merged into EDAG Electronics. "My tasks were always very different, there was a lot of variety." As a working student, for example, she dealt with high-voltage batteries and wrote her final thesis on micro-controllers - an "FPGA" to be precise - in the IT, Concepts & Tooling Development department. As she passed through various stations in hardware and software development, it became clear to her that organisation is what she enjoys most.
Maria has been a full-time development engineer since 2013, passing on her own enthusiasm for the various prototypes from the pre-series development of instruments to her colleagues and customers. "Experiencing products and innovations before they're even on the market fascinates me." If, for example, a concept car had to be designed and built for a trade fair, this would be a real highlight for the whole team. "There's no clock watching when we are working on making the car functional and all its technological features presentable," she says. She adds that later, seeing the concept car on display at the show and surrounded by visitors, and knowing that she has been part of the project herself fills her with joy and pride every time.
If Maria does something, then she does it properly. She would probably have made a good researcher, too. This is reflected in her second great passion in addition to vaulting: living history. Hobby historians are interested in exploring everyday life in the ancient world and the Middle Ages and to some extent bringing it back to life. For example, in order to produce true copies of glass jewellery, Maria can spend days on end poring over books and exhibition catalogues from museums. Holding a piece of the past that has come alive in your hand has a magic all of its own. "Interestingly, there is a link between experimental archaeology and engineering for the mobility of the future brought about by wanting to know more about structures and interconnections," finds Maria.
The connection between the past and the future has recently gained additional importance for the development engineer: the reason is Lea, who is now two years old. Maria shares the upbringing and care of Lea with her husband. "Fortunately, we were both able to work very flexibly during the Corona lockdown, and so have so far come through the crisis well as a family."
Considering her daughter, the question of sustainability becomes even more important to Maria than it already was. "We have to make the mobility of tomorrow and beyond more resource-saving, safer and cleaner. We owe this to future generations." And this makes it all the more important to understand all aspects of developments and their impact, and to take an active part in shaping them. In any case, Maria would not be satisfied with less.
