Lecturers from Ulm University of Technology will visit your school to deliver lessons on scientific topics tailored to pupils’ needs, or your class can come to the university to experience lessons in a university setting. We currently offer the workshops listed below – but we’re sure we can also find an expert on other topics that are of particular interest to you at the moment.
The Arduino is increasingly being used in schools and universities to provide students with a creative and exciting, but above all simple approach to the topic of "microcontrolling". In this workshop, students are given an introduction to programming the Arduino with the "ArduinoDroid" app. Electronic components such as LEDs, switches and sensors are connected to the Arduino and controlled via programs. We start by making an LED flash. Depending on the age and prior knowledge of the pupils, further projects will follow. The boxes with the Arduino microcontroller board and the electronic components and the tablets with the pre-installed app are provided by the THU, internet access is not required.
Possible at THU or at the school
Duration approx. 90 minutes
from 5th grade
max. one class (30 pupils)
Contact person: Institute for University Didactics
The global medical supply crisis during the coronavirus pandemic was largely due to an acute shortage of ventilators. Many public, industrial and private initiatives attempted to counteract this with "do-it-yourself" basic solutions that could be produced quickly and in large quantities, with the motto: better than nothing. But how do you test the safety and effectiveness of such devices without endangering the health of test subjects? In this lesson, we want to think about this together and finally ventilate a virtual corona patient using an Ambu bag on the THU lung simulator ("glass lung"). At the same time, the students will get an overview of what it takes to study medical technology.
The offer is aimed at classes and courses in the upper school and does not require any special knowledge beyond intermediate physics and mathematics.
Contact person: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Peuscher
here is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI). AI systems can think, or so they say. But do they also understand the meaning of what they say? What is the difference between syntax and semantics? Every student learns this distinction in German class. But robots have never been to German class. And more importantly, do robots have feelings? Is it possible for robots and AI computers to develop a consciousness, to feel fear and joy, and if so, what would they feel if they were to consciously confront humans one day? Do they love their creator? Ralf Otte explains the current status of artificial consciousness, the hottest topic that will immediately follow artificial intelligence, in a light-hearted way.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Ralf Otte
The "Scratch Jr" and "Pocket Code" apps enable pupils to program animations and small games without any previous knowledge. The programming is done with colored blocks that are put together like puzzle pieces. In the "Scratch Jr" app, the programming blocks are provided with symbols so that even primary school children can use them. The "Pocket Code" app offers more extensive functions and is suitable for pupils in year 5 and above. The apps teach basic programming concepts in a fun way. Pupils can also get artistically creative by inserting objects they have drawn themselves.
The tablets with the pre-installed apps are provided by THU, internet access is not required.
Possible at THU or at the school
Duration approx. 90 minutes
from 2nd grade (app "Scratch Jr") or from 5th grade (app "Pocket Code")
max. one class (30 pupils)
Contact person: Institute for University Didactics
The penetration of artificial intelligence into all areas of life is on everyone's lips these days. Robots, autonomous driving, voice control and algorithm-based financial instruments sometimes seem like magic. But behind it all are modern computer science processes from the field of machine learning. These in turn are based on mathematical methods that can be quite complicated, but do not have to be. We will look at methods that are based solely on fractions, but do this so skillfully that it is possible to automatically decide whether an online retailer should send a customer vouchers or whether a message received is spam or ham.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Reinhold von Schwerin
Does chocolate give you spots? Do boys or girls have a better reaction time? Does chewing gum protect our teeth? You can get to the bottom of these and many other questions with a clinical study. The aim of a study is to answer medical questions and thus improve the treatment of patients. In this project, we want to plan a small clinical study on a scientific question together, i.e. formulate the hypothesis and determine the study design. We will then collect and analyze the data ourselves. At the end of the project, we will be able to answer the question "Is the result significant and what does this mean for our study?".
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Kathrin Stucke-Straub
Radar sensors are key components in autonomous driving and intelligent mobility. They can be used to determine distances, speeds ("speed cameras") and the positions of objects. Among other things, research is currently being carried out into how pedestrians and other road users (including animals) can be automatically identified using radar. Radar sensors can also be used to look through walls (e.g. in burial chambers in Egyptian pyramids), locate people buried under masses of snow or determine the flow velocity of rivers. In these lessons, we will first discuss the structure of a radar sensor and also talk about the representation of signals in the so-called time and frequency domain. We will then carry out our own radar measurements on pedestrians and then discuss the characteristic signature that a pedestrian produces in the radar image.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Thomas Walter
Whether it's the temperature in the oven or the speed of our car: wherever we specify a target value and want to automate compliance with it, control engineering methods are used. Exponential functions, those strange signals that are described by their own derivative, occur very frequently. We want to understand the significance of exponential functions using everyday examples and use them for control engineering purposes. Numerical simulations and practical experiments will illustrate and verify our analytical considerations.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Heiko Peuscher
Dwindling resources, global warming, climate emergency, reduction of CO2 emissions. What is technically possible today to ensure a secure, economical and environmentally friendly energy supply? We will show you our laboratories in which we deal with renewable energies, electrical engineering, control engineering, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and simulations.
From grade 11
Duration: 1 h
Maximum number of participants: 24
Contact person: Institutsbetriebsleiter-IEE@THU.de
We make a lamp that produces light from solar energy, sustainably and emission-free.
From grade 7
Duration: 3 hours
Participants: max 10
Contact person: Institutsbetriebsleiter-IEE@THU.de
Electromobility is a major goal for the future. We start small and build a fully functional, sleek solar vehicle.
From grade 5
Duration: 3 hours
Participants max. 10
Contact person: Institutsbetriebsleiter-IEE@THU.de
Everyone is probably familiar with the game "truth or dare" - but is it possible to measure the "truth" quantitatively? Yes, you can - using the electrical resistance of the human skin, which depends on the activity of the sweat glands, among other things. In this project block, we are building a simple electronic circuit with a small microcontroller that can measure skin resistance directly. This makes it possible to measure in real time who reacts cooler to questions. As an application in industry, such a system can be used to analyze the user-friendliness of products.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Dr. Ronald Blechschmidt
