Excited: Pupils experience the world of electrical engineering

Bringing technology to life and inspiring pupils to study engineering – this requires long-term offers and lasting commitment. The project days for schoolgirls took place for the eighth time this year and were organized and carried out by the decentralized equal opportunities team, the dean's office and five departments of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

This year, the three-day workshops were supplemented by a further workshop for grades 7 to 8, meaning that five workshops are now offered.

The four workshops from the previous year were back and were able to inspire the students once again. “The dancing robot” at Professor Mario Kupnik's Lab of Measurement and Sensor Technology is called “Otto”, has ultrasonic eyes and is assembled and programmed in the workshop. “The Decoding of Light” at Professor Tran Quoc Khanh's Lab of Adaptive Lighting Systems and Visual Processing teaches how light can be broken down into spectra and reassembled.

In the workshop “Well saturated?” at Professor Klaus Hofmann's Lab of Integrated Electronic Systems, the basics of electronic systems were taught through experiments and a pulse oximeter was set up with the help of software and modern sensors. “Sending energy through the air” at Professor Sebastian Schöps' Lab of Computer Simulation of Electromagnetic Fields is dedicated to magnetic fields, the transfer of energy through the air and the computer simulation of these phenomena.

A new addition this year was Professor Myriam Koch's Lab of High-Voltage Equipment and Systems with the workshop “Taming lightning – In the footsteps of Nikola Tesla”.In this workshop, the participants built their own small Tesla coil. This not only allowed them to observe the corona discharges, but also to play music and carry out small experiments, such as making LEDs and fluorescent tubes light up without touching them. Finally, they went to the large coils in the high-voltage hall. There, the participants were able to boldly see for themselves how a Faraday cage works and let lightning make music.

At the joint closing event, everyone was able to discuss their workshops once again and review the three days over lunch together in the canteen.

The great and ongoing commitment of many people in the department makes this special event format possible. The support over several years through age-appropriate workshops opens up a unique view into the world of electrical engineering and awakens the participants' lasting interest in engineering.