Pupils' University Mechanical Engineering 2023
The IoP gave future engineers a taste of university life
What does an engineer actually do, what does it mean when a human has to work together with a robot at a workplace, and what do digital solutions look like that help optimize supply chains so that production runs smoothly and without wasting time and thus money? These are just a few of the questions that 16 highly motivated high school students from all over Germany and from German schools in Belgium and Turkey tackled during this year's Mechanical Engineering Student University in the week from July 10 to 14, 2023. They devoted a week of their vacation to the chance to take a closer look at mechanical engineering studies even before graduation and to get up close and personal with the realities of studying and working there. Above all, however, the questions were: What might it look like to study in Aachen? How is studying mechanical engineering structured and, of course, basically: Is this something for me at all?
The school university was opened by managing director Christian Fimmers from the Cluster of Excellence, who gave an exciting overview of the current research activities and, above all, showed what possible fields of work as future engineers might look like and reported on his own experiences - starting as a student through to his current position and the path to his dissertation.
The day continued with a simulation game on the topic of digitized production with Martin Perau from the FIR, followed by a guided tour of the Aachen demonstration factory. In the meantime, a visit to the cafeteria on the Melaten campus and an exchange with students was a must for the university feeling on the first day. A week full of workshops, lectures and exercises, campus tours and discussions followed. In addition to robotics and production management, the program also included laser technology, automotive engineering, and plastics and textile technology, giving the students the opportunity to find out about the wide range of applications in mechanical engineering.
A week full of workshops, lectures and exercises, campus tours and discussions followed. In particular, the areas of robotics, production technology, laser technology as well as automotive technology and textile processing were on the program and enabled the students to learn more about the study and the numerous application areas of mechanical engineering and to get in touch with the practice in the workshops.