Girls' Day 2024

Dream Job Product Engineer – Girls’ Day 2024 at the IPEK supported by the CRC Convide

With support from Convide, the IPEK – Institute of Product Engineering organized an interactive workshops with 20 schoolgirls on 25 April 2024.

In a clear and age-appropriate way, the doctoral researchers Annika Bastian, Monika Klippert, and Niklas Frank explained to 20 schoolgirls (age 11 to 16) how a product with high innovation potential is developed and what tasks a prospective engineer has to deal with. After an introduction into the basics of innovation and product engineering, the schoolgirls were introduced to a creativity method used to derive the needs of the medical technology sector using the example of an orthosis. It was amazing to observe how this methodical support helped them to come up with creative ideas, even if they were not yet familiar with the specific engineering problem at hand. In a surprising turn of events, the rather shy participants turned into curious young product engineers.

The next point on the agenda included the doctoral researchers Stefan Schwarz and Peter M. Tröster demonstrating the possibilities of the XR Lab at IPEK and the model library. The schoolgirls were allowed to examine the models to find out why, for example, the wheel of a vehicle turns. They also learned how to virtually visualize the models using VR-technology.

Overall, the event proved impressively why the Girls’ Day has become a cornerstone of our mission to promote women in the engineering sciences.