From programming Otto robots to building their own electric motors – this year's project days for pupils once again offered participants a broad and exciting programme. A total of five workshops were offered for different age groups.

The youngest students (5th + 6th grade) were guests of Professor Mario Kupnik's Measurement and Sensor Technology Lab. Here, the focus was on the ‘dancing robot’ called ‘Otto’: Otto has ultrasonic eyes and was assembled and programmed in the workshop.

There were two programmes for years 7 + 8: In the ‘Decoding Light’ workshop at the Adaptive Lighting Systems and Visual Processing Lab run by Professor Tran Quoc Khanh, light was broken down into its spectrum and learnt how it can be put back together again.

In the ‘Taming lightning – in the footsteps of Nikola Tesla’ workshop, participants built their own small Tesla coil. This not only allowed them to observe corona discharges, but also to play music and carry out various experiments in which, for example, LEDs and fluorescent tubes were made to light up without direct contact. Finally, the group visited the high-voltage hall in Griesheim, where they were able to bravely see for themselves the effect of a Faraday cage and experience how lightning turns into music. This workshop was organised by Professor Myriam Koch's High Voltage Laboratories Lab.

The ‘Pulse oximetry’ workshop for grades 8 + 9 at Professor Klaus Hofmann's Integrated Electronic Systems Lab taught the basics of electronic systems using practical experiments. With the help of software and modern sensors, the students built their own pulse oximeter.

The ‘Sending energy through the air’ workshop at Professor Sebastian Schöps' Computational Electromagnetics Lab focussed on magnetic fields, wireless energy transmission and their computer simulation. It was aimed at year 10, 11 and 12 students.

At the joint closing event, the participants discussed their experiences in the workshops and reviewed the past three days over lunch in the canteen.