AMT Knowledge Transfer
Promotion of young talent, i.e. activities for children, schoolchildren and young people as well as communication with the broader society and the public represent an important pillar of the AMT's activities. These include, in particular, the annual Children's Universities as well as participation in the Pupils' University, the Engineering Science Taster University for Girls and the MINT EC Camp and, in 2022, the activities for the 150th anniversary of RWTH Aachen University.
At the Kids' University, professors and lecturers from RWTH Aachen University explain exciting questions from science and research in a way that is suitable for children. The aim of the Kids' University is to get children excited about science and research, to awaken subject-specific interests and to eliminate potential reservations about studying at University.
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Elisabeth Clausen actively designed and implemented the Kids' University in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the AMT created a virtual map and a video that enabled the participating children to understand the importance of the Aachen region for the extraction of raw materials. In 2021, the participating children made a video tracing some of the raw materials they encounter in their everyday lives.
So far, only a selection of destinations has been entered on the map. There are also many more landmarks, street names, buildings and places associated with past and present mining. We look forward to your support in expanding the map. If you discover other exciting destinations with mining connections, please send them by e-mail to kinderuni@amt.rwth-aachen.de.
As part of the Pupils' University, various disciplines from the STEM field each year offer one week of workshops, lectures, experiments, institute tours and much more for high school students during summer vacations to give them an insight into the respective study content and the current state of research.
Every year, the Raw Materials and Waste Disposal Technology Department at RWTH Aachen University, to which the AMT also belongs, together with the Materials Science and Materials Engineering Department, offer exciting program items relating to the area of sustainable extraction, processing and recycling of raw materials, and explore the following questions, for example, as part of the workshops:
- Where do the materials from which the things in our everyday lives are made actually come from?
- How are they extracted, processed and later recycled?
- How is a smartphone, a car, a high-speed train made - and what resource-conserving and environmentally compatible extraction and production processes are behind them?
- How soft is steel and how hard is iron? And how does electricity actually get into the socket?
Within this program, in 2021 the AMT offered an insight into core research topics and areas as part of the workshop on "use of smart technologies in primary raw material extraction". The focus was not only on the national and international relevance of raw material extraction, but also on a vision for the raw material extraction of the future.
In the last two years, the Schüler-Uni took place virtually due to the pandemic.
Further information and dates are available here!
The Department of Raw Materials and Waste Disposal Technology at RWTH Aachen University, to which the AMT also belongs, invites selected students from various MINT schools to a four-day workshop every year. MINT-EC is a national excellence network of upper secondary schools with a mathematics and science school profile.
On average, every person in Germany consumes a total of 1,200 tons of raw materials in their lifetime. Where these raw materials come from, how they are extracted and how the materials for products in our daily lives are made from them - and sustainably, too - was the focus of the 2021 MINT EC Camp "Sustainability in Resource Engineering".
Within the MINT-EC Camp Sustainability in Resource Engineering, the AMT provided insights into the current research work and topics at the institute. One focus was on the necessity and the implementation of Mining 4.0 as well as the technical innovative solutions of tomorrow. Interesting discussions arose about the technical possibilities of the future and the social responsibility of primary raw material extraction.
More information and dates are available here!
The joint anniversary exhibition of RWTH Aachen University and the City of Aachen at the Centre Charlemagne in downtown Aachen provides insights into the history and development of RWTH and offers the opportunity to discover research highlights and focal points of all relevant areas from 150 years.
The AMT contributes to the historical and current research in the field of raw materials with two exhibits specially designed for the exhibition. The first of the two exhibits uses 3D printing and video projection to demonstrate today's possibilities for mapping underground mines. The second exhibit uses a video to invite visitors on a journey back in time to the historical extraction of hard coal. In contrast to the historical scenes in the video, a model of our intelligent chain link is displayed to demonstrate miniaturization and digitization in the context of today's research approaches.
The AMT will also participate in the anniversary exhibition with a lecture on "Raw materials - indispensable for technology and society" (in cooperation with Professor Abel, IRT). The lecture will use regional examples to illustrate that the history of mankind is inextricably linked to raw materials and their extraction.
We would be very pleased about your visit to the exhibition and viewing of our exhibits. The exhibition starts on October 30, 2021 and runs until February 13, 2022.
