FLS students get an insight into university life

From January 20 to January 24, students from the notebook classes at the Friedrich List School (FLS) in Kassel familiarized themselves with the concept of the "Internet of Things" at the University of Kassel. Together with research assistants and students at the university, they developed a programmed flower casting system with everything from hardware to software; from soldering the circuit board to programming the code for the app.

"Soldering didn't go so well for me, but programming comes easily to me and is fun," says Niklas (19), who took part in the project week because he can definitely imagine studying computer science after school. For Lilli (16), on the other hand, soldering worked out well. "Programming is more difficult. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," says the student. She could also imagine studying computer science in the future. She likes the project week very much because it is something completely different.

The students themselves have little or no previous technical knowledge. But that is not a bad thing, she says. "What's important is openness and curiosity about technology. The variety is also interesting for the students," says Stefan Ring (52), a teacher of business and computer science at FLS.

The school project week was in its third edition. Marc Selig, Christoph Eickhoff, Janos Föth, Marco Sälzer and Lisa Martmann participated in the workshop this time. Eickhoff (35), a research assistant at the Software Engineering department, has been involved since the beginning. "This is a great week with the students. They are very motivated and enthusiastic about what they are doing," he says. "Plus, this knowledge is fundamentally useful because the students later have an understanding of what a computer scientist or electrical engineer does." The school made contact through Dr. Norbert Hundeshagen from the Department of Theoretical Computer Science/Formal Methods, who organizes the project week.

"We are very happy about the university's support. The students in particular are still very much in the protective space of school. Here, they cross that boundary when they come into contact with the university," says a delighted Karin Fabian (61), department head for the introductory phase at FLS and a teacher of politics, economics and history. The FLS focuses on economics and administration. The project week enables the first points of contact between the basic course in economics and technology at the school and electrical engineering at the university.

Contact:

Nicole Ternes
University of Kassel
Department of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science
Office of the Dean's Office
Tel.: 0561 804 - 6328
E-mail: nicole.ternes[at]uni-kassel[dot]de