Girls‘Day 2019Girls'Day project at base.camp

29 March 2019, by Björn Schmidt

Photo: Janis-Marie Paul

Also in base.camp was on Thursday 28.03.2019 Girls'Day! In cooperation with the Hacker School, 11 schoolgirls tinkered and experimented with senseBoxes in our laboratory and thus got to know programming in a playful way.

After a welcome address and a short presentation by Prof. Federrath on the subject of data protection and a group photo, the students were divided into groups. From 10:00 am onwards, things came alive at base.camp. The three project managers Elina Eickstädt (Hacker School), Vanessa Döring (Hacker School) and Eugen Ruppert (base.camp) supported the participants in their work. The aim was to program a traffic light circuit with a senseBox in small groups.

Shortly before noon, Prof. Böhmann, the deputy head of the Department of Computer Science, came to base.camp with State Councillor Jan Pörksen to get an idea of the creative lab and to look over the shoulders of the students while they worked on their experiments. Mathias Fischer, the scientific director of base.camp, also reported on the orientation of the creative laboratory and current projects.

After a joint lunch break in the canteen, the group went to the WTM work area. There they were presented with a demo on the topic "How computer science makes robots smarter". Dr. Manfred Eppe demonstrated the assistance robot Pepper. This robot can remember faces with names and told jokes to the students. Dr. Eppe then answered questions about the robot.

Strengthened, they then went back to their workplaces for another hour to work on the final refinements. After the physical setup was completed in the first part, the students integrated a pedestrian circuit into the boxes. When a button is pressed, the traffic light changes from green to red for a few seconds and then back again.

The final presentation then took place in the Konrad-Zuse-lecture hall. The project managers presented the results of the day to the audience and explained what the task was for the pupils and how they implemented it. At around 16:00 hrs., an all-round successful Girls' Day 2019 came to an end at base.camp.

Many thanks to all participants and see you next Girls'Day!