Parcours de Przemysław Sowiński

Salut! I’m Przemysław Sowiński – but let’s make it easier…

I’m from Poland, and I know - my name probably already triggered a slight internal panic: “How on earth do I pronounce that?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone, many have tried, many have failed. It goes something like “Pché-miss-ouav”. That’s my official, serious name, the one used by government offices and, occasionally, my mum when she’s reaaaly mad at me.

But in Poland, we like to play around with names, so everyone just calls me Przemek (pronounced “Pché-mèke”). Much easier, right ?

My adventure with France and the French language started humbly back in high school, where I attended weekly French classes. At the time, it never crossed my mind that a few years later, grown-up Przemek, an Electrical Engineering student, would end up continuing his academic journey in the heart of Toulouse !

If I had known… well... I probably would’ve paid more attention in French class. But hey, as we say in Poland: “There is no use of crying over spilled milk.”

☀️ August, heat, and hidden cafés

I landed in Toulouse on the 1st of August, 2024. Coming from northern Poland, the sudden switch to a Mediterranean-ish climate was… literally a hot shock. I spent the whole month outside, exploring the city, meeting students through ESN (Erasmus Student Network), and jumping into spontaneous events.

I fell in love with the local culture: cozy little cafés hiding in unexpected places, and all the charming “differences” — like restaurant opening hours, for example. What do you mean I can’t have lunch at 4 PM ? Eventually, I got used to it… and honestly ? It’s kind of genius if you will think about it. It saves so much energy and money for the restaurants.

Toulouse may be a big city, but social life revolves mostly around the Garonne River and the Capitole area. You can just walk around, and there’s a solid chance you’ll randomly bump into someone you know. There’s no such thing as boredom here and I say that as someone who spent most of his life in Kartuzy, a small town in northern Poland with 15,000 (!) inhabitants (so, yeah... 66 times smaller than Toulouse !).

What struck me the most were the people - unique, expressive, with a healthy relationship with themselves. Back home, it’s hard to find a senior lady dancing with a sword in a park under a massive tree (true story, first month in France). But here ? People just do their thing. And no one stares. Or judges. And I love that.

⚡ Electrons, Gate Drivers & Double Degrees

I’m currently finishing my double-degree Master’s in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Advanced Power Electronics. It’s a joint program between my home university in Poland Gdańsk University of Technology and INP ENSEEIHT in Toulouse.

The courses at N7 were quite different from what I was used to in Gdańsk. There, we had a broad, general approach to electrical engineering. Here, I was finally able to fully dive into what I really care about, Power Electronics. I wanted to give it a real try, and AIN7 made it possible (merci beaucoup, AIN7 !!). N7 offers modern equipment, great labs, and passionate professors always willing to help. I gained knowledge, friends, and many memories.

French wasn’t easy for me, I’ll be honest. Understanding lectures and following the material in a language I’m not fluent in took effort. A lot of effort. But I never saw it as a wall, more like a hill I was determined to climb. And now, looking back, I feel proud. I made it ! Even if many would’ve said it was too hard, too risky or even crazy taking my situation into account, but I just went for it. And I made it work.

Oh, and just so you know. I couldn’t stop buying chocolatine from the little shop at N7. It became a daily ritual: 10 AM, after the first class -> time for warm chocolatine, coffee, and a chat with friends in the hallway. Precious moments… and also great practice for my French 😄

Actually, my very first chocolatine was in Albi, during summer French lessons organized at INSA. It was supposed to be a nice touristy trip… but since it rained like crazy, everyone scattered into random cafés. I ended up in a pâtisserie. Best detour ever.

🧑‍🔧 My NXP experience

Right now, I’m doing an internship at NXP Semiconductors, where I work closely with Power Electronics and Gate Drivers for transistors. I support Application Engineers, combining client work with lab testing and some design tasks - which makes every day different.

I also developed a program to automate data analysis from transistor tests. Before, it took about 1–2 hours to go through the results. Now ? Just one click. I love automating things, there’s something beautiful about it. Taking boring, repetitive, human-time-consuming tasks and letting machines handle them, so we humans can use our time and brains for something more meaningful. That’s a mission I can stand behind.

This internship has been an amazing experience and gave me even more confidence that I’m walking the right path.

💬 Final thoughts (and a little courage)

If you're someone who's hesitating… who wants to go, but fears it's too hard, too risky, too much... listen :
Being scared is a good sign. It means you care.
Fear never really disappears, it just changes shape. But if you give yourself a chance… you might discover incredible things you never even dreamed of. Don't deprive yourself of this through fear

🥐 Bonus advice:

Buy the chocolatine. Trust me.

—
Przemysław “Przemek” Sowiński
Toulouse, July 2025