Pupils' University Mechanical Engineering 2022
Motivated students finally explore the campus again
"RWTH is cool, mechanical engineering is cool, that's why we're here" - this was the unanimous tenor that could not have been better or more succinctly expressed in essence the motivation of the students to participate in this year's Pupils' University Mechanical Engineering. The 20 participants came to Aachen from all over Germany as well as from German schools in China, Turkey and France, to get a first-hand impression of studying at RWTH Aachen University. After the previous years' digital versions of the Pupils' University due to the pandemic, all laboratories and machine halls could finally be visited and explored live again. For this purpose, the various institutes opened their doors for a whole week - of course, only a very small insight into the variety of topics in mechanical engineering could be gained. Whether robotics, textile, process technology or laser technology - the variety is enormous. A good introduction to this diversity was provided by the Internet of Production (IoP) Cluster of Excellence, which dedicates itself interdisciplinarily to all of these domains as part of the large-scale research project and researches important questions for the future.
The school university kicked off with a presentation by Melanie Buchsbaum, Managing Director of the Cluster of Excellence, who gave an exciting overview of the current research activities and, above all, showed what possible fields of work might look like for future engineers. And also what exciting possible perspectives also open up for prospective students, should they decide to study mechanical engineering at RWTH or another university, for example. Melanie Buchsbaum, herself a former participant in the mechanical engineering student university during her school years, described the ways in which students can find entry into a research project such as the Cluster of Excellence - and reported on her own experiences.
After the welcoming address, the students were immediately introduced to university life, with a lecture and exercise on industrial robotics with doctoral student Lukas Bergs from the WZL, followed by a tour of the new machine hall, where they could practice controlling robots themselves. The program continued with the 'Beer Game', a supply chain simulation game supervised by Maria Linnartz and Martin Perau from the FIR, and a final tour of the demonstration factory. In the meantime, a visit to the cafeteria on the Melaten campus and an opportunity to exchange experiences with students were also part of the university atmosphere.
The participants spent the rest of the week in a varied sequence of lectures and exercises on interesting future topics. Informative insights were provided, for example, into the world of plastics and textile technology as changeable fields of application of production technology that noticeably shape our everyday lives. Automotive and process engineering also had their say on Wednesday and Thursday in order to give the students as many different insights as possible. The future engineers had the chance to get hands-on with Eva-Lena Preuschoff-Letzian from IMA&IfU at the RoboScope student laboratory and Martin Walochnik's demonstrations of laser technology using the laser harp, which is always popular with groups of students. A final insight into the world of optics by Jörg Hoffmann from Fraunhofer ILT, followed by the awarding of certificates, marked the end of a week packed to the brim with innovations and information that will hopefully help one or the other to find their way in their career.
We are looking forward to seeing some of the participants as students on campus again in the future.