Last Saturday, 5 October, ten student teams from the four Universities of Technology exhibited their vehicles, demos and workshops on a sunny Marineterrein Amsterdam during the Weekend van de Wetenschap. They showed children and adults how much fun engineering is and explained more about the sustainable and smart solutions they are contributing to with their innovations.
Rockets, racing cars and an agro robot
Rockets from Twente that rose 5 metres into the air through a chemical reaction of vinegar, hot water and baking soda, the agro-robot from Wageningen that zigzagged autonomously over a track of grass stalks and the racing cars from Delft, Eindhoven and Twente that were shining in the autumn sun. There was plenty to see and to experience in front of and inside the AMS Institute at the Marineterrein Amsterdam.
The innovations of the student teams covered almost all domains, from mobility (Solar Boat Twente, Team University Racing Eindhoven, Solarteam Twente , Delft Hyperloop and Brunel Solar Team), and healthcare (WDSense) to built environment ( Team VIRTUe), gaming (Totem Game Dev), robotics (Robatic Bullseye) and space (RISE).
Event designed for young and old
This joint initiative of the 4TU student teams proved to be fun for all ages. The children indulged in the workshops and asked how fast ‘’those cool racing cars‘’ could drive, while parents were also interested in elements such as team composition and the techniques behind the innovations.
The students turned out to be good in both areas; explaining and showing something to a child in simple words, and delving deeper into the subject with the parents. And not only the children enjoyed, the students did also. As one student expressed it: ‘’It's so wonderful to be able to pass on my own fascination for science and technology to children. If there is a next edition, I will definitely join in!‘’
4TU student teams and children - a golden match
Students can explain in an accessible way what the possibilities are of engineering, why it is interesting for both girls and boys to study engineering and what your profession will be when you have an engineering degree. Additional engineering students are urgently needed given the current decline of students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and the large labour shortage in the engineering domain.
On the Dutch page you can see which teams participated and the workshops that could be attended.
