The TU Austria Prize & Congress 2021
The TU Austria Congress 2021 on November 18, 2021 offered a unique information and networking opportunity for all engineers and researchers of the future. The virtual event was aimed specifically at students in grades 9 - 13 and this year's program was also designed accordingly for this target group.
Rebecca Freitag, former UN Youth Ambassador for Sustainable Development and current ambassador for the rights of future generations, was connected live from Germany to discuss with the participants how everyone can become part of the solution to climate change. In addition to the award ceremony of the “TU Austria Women Engineers of the Future” competition 2021, the two workshop slots rounded off the virtual program of the TU Austria Congress 2021. Anyone who also wanted to find out more about the courses offered by the three TU Austria universities could take a look around the virtual exhibition stand without any obligation and find out about more than 50 different Bachelor's degree programs.
For those who were unable to attend live, we have summarized the highlights of the virtual TU Austria Congress 2021 in a short video review.
The program in detail
| 09:00 Opening of the TU Austria Congress 2021 |
| 09:15 “Become part of the solution to climate change” - Rebecca Freitag |
| 10:00 a.m. TU Austria Prize 2021: The nominations |
| 10:45 a.m. Workshops I |
| 12:00 noon Workshops II |
| 13:15 TU Austria Prize 2021: The award ceremony |
Our keynote speaker: Rebecca Freitag
As a former German UN Youth Delegate for Sustainable Development, Rebecca Freitag has given young people a voice at the United Nations and advocated for the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda (SDGs) in various institutions (from the Deutsche Bundesbank to innovation congresses and ministries). She co-founded the Global Impact Alliance, an association of purpose-driven companies, to promote solutions that have already been put into practice. In the academic world, she also asks herself how sustainability can best be communicated and motivated for implementation. She is therefore designing an interdisciplinary sustainability course at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. As an ambassador for the rights of future generations, she continues to promote and inspire a social transformation towards a sustainable future in political, social and economic organizations.
The workshops
As an extension of the offer and for the interactive design of the TU Austria Congress, a varied workshop program with 2 x 3 workshops on current, target group-oriented topics was offered for the first time this year, which could be attended in classes, groups or, of course, individually. All workshops were fully booked within a very short time. We would like to thank all participants for their active participation and great interest!
These workshops were offered:
Energy & Climate Protection (TU Vienna)
Programming on smartphones with pocket code (TU Graz)
BEE-O-Monitor: Bees in action for science (Montanuniversität Leoben)
How do Autonomous Intelligent Systems help achieve greater sustainability? (TU Vienna)
Science: Digital Escape Room (TU Graz)
How do robots learn? (Montanuniversität Leoben)
The TU Austria “Women Engineers of the Future” Prize 2021
Your idea against climate change
In the run-up to the TU Austria Congress, schoolgirls in grades 9-13 were invited to submit their ideas to combat climate change by means of a video contribution and thus take part in the TU Austria competition "Female engineers of the future". We would like to take this opportunity to thank all schoolgirls for their numerous submissions and ideas. Our panel of experts, which this year was once again made up of scientists from all 3 technical universities, selected this year's top 10 projects. These submissions were presented to the public by the students themselves at the TU Austria Congress. Following the presentation of the top 10 ideas, the jury consisting of the Vice Rectors of the Montanuniversität Leoben, TU Wien and TU Graz retired to make a final ranking. This was certainly no easy task in view of the students' exceptionally promising ideas.
The results
1st place endowed with € 1,000
“Landfill, but new” by Alina
2nd - 5th place endowed with € 500 each (alphabetically by project title)
“BIECO” app by Basma & Ina
“Futuregram” app by Katja & Mariella
“HotFrog” app from Viktoria
“Waste garbage can of the future” by Sophie & Denise
Rank 6 - 10 endowed with € 300,- each (alphabetically according to the project title)
“Enercheck” app by Lena & Antonia
“Klimamonkey” app by Kirstin & Lara
“Spider silk instead of plastic” by Fatima, Glory, Alisa & Rabia
“Transportation of EPS waste” by Elisa
“Zero-waste drinks machine” by Sofia & Judith
Curious?
Understandable! Here are a few of the submissions for you to look at: