Instead of architecture, he now studied mechanical engineering, following the example of his father, a mechanic in the Burkinabe army. That's not what he had actually wanted, but he already had a connection to various faculty members from the mechanical engineering faculty, such as Prof. Dr. Rolf Schloms. And so he simply sees it as fate that he eventually completed his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in the standard time until 2009. After a subsequent master's degree in energy and process engineering at the University of Duisburg Essen, Mathias Balma returned to the Lower Rhine. Since 2013, the engineer has been working in Mönchengladbach at the SMS group in the Technology department for the development of software for extrusion presses and forging machines.
He has only fond memories of The Hochschule Niederrhein and says about his experience "I was able to really develop myself there". So although the studies were also hard work, he lived out his passion for mathematics in the process and passed it on to other students as a tutor. His commitment has also led to a partnership with the University of Bob-Dioulasso (UPB) in Burkina-Faso. Accompanied by Mathias Balma, a delegation of the faculty visited UPB in 2008, and return visits to Germany by the Burkinabe university also took place.
He describes the influence of his professors on him as formative, and he learned above all to work efficiently and effectively. He remembers with pleasure the many lecturers who inspired him, such as Professors Ellert, Schloms, Ritter, Kernchen and Mr. Mewissen. He has a special connection with Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Schüffler, in whose class he solved a differential calculus so confidently that his fellow students applauded spontaneously. He will never forget this situation and the positive feelings associated with it for the rest of his life. But Prof. Schüffler also remembers his ex-student with pleasure, who had a great influence on international students and whom he describes as an enormously important person. And if he were to study again, it would be mechanical engineering again, because for Mathias Balma the appeal lies in solving technical problems and always being open to new topics. He sums it up aptly: "That's just how engineers are.
