Approximately 180 children were divided into 16 teams. After a brief introduction with the animators and short presentation of the university, we chose captains and came up with team names: Kečupy /the Ketchups/, H2O, Korytnačky /the Turtles/, Veľké lososy /the Big Salmons/, Magenti /the Magentas/, Pikatchu, Technology Team, Ružoví Draci /the Pink Dragons/, Banány /the Bananas/, Adamovci /the Adams/, Mižuho potvory 3.0 /the Mižu Monsters 3.0/, Emoši /the Emotionals/, Tehličky /the Bricks/, 404 (Názov nebol nájdený) /404 (Name not found)/, Bezmenní /the Nameless/, Zhnité hrozienka /the Rotten Raisins/. We visited the Rail Transport Laboratory. Our day continued at the athletic stadium, where we competed in various sports disciplines. The Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling presented different materials to us, and we observed various preparations under the microscope. We tried working with machines which crush waste and we learned how its individual components are separated. Outside, we minted coins and we tried to stand bottles using a stick and a string. We also did chemical experiments - one of them reminding us of the Slovak fairytale “Hrnček, var” /Miraculous Mug/, and there was also a demonstration of creating an aluminium cast of the Košice city coat of arms, and also casting of scented soaps.

At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, we attended an engaging lecture on lightning accompanied by animated screenings. Then, we were overwhelmed by creative programming in Matlab. After half an hour of deliberate thinking, we relaxed by engaging in different sports disciplines on the baseball field. We were captured by the lecture on robots, as well as by the basics of electrical engineering, at the Volkswagen Auditorium. At the Faculty of Civil Engineering, we mixed our own coloured concrete, designed small houses and drew chalk ground plans, build tall towers out of skewers and glasses, and at the end, we tried an unconventional escape of the builder from the building site.

At the Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies we learned about the history of mining and the technologies used in it. After that, we competed in the Prisoner's Dilemma game at the Faculty of Economics. The best players won their loot in the form of a bag of money. The Faculty of Avionics introduced the history of aviation and its possible future direction to us. There was also a team competition in throwing paper planes we made.

At the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, we constructed cars from various materials and then competed with them. At the following checkpoint, we found out who had the strongest vocal cords. Everyone created a virtual model of their face using a 3D camera. We challenged ourselves at the two following checkpoints, where we assembled gear mechanism from plastic gears and we tried for ourselves what it is like to control a real bridge crane, with which we moved weights through an obstacle course. Finally, we listened to a lecture on sound resonance. At the Faculty of Arts, we made our own buildings, and assembled a polystyrene town out of them. We saw the exhibition titled “The Czech and Slovak Buildings of the Century” at the USP Technicom.

At the Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies, magical physics was prepared for us. We were shown the mysteries of magnetic force and how it can be used, how time was measured without the help of the sun, laws of physics on refraction and reflection of light, and much more. After the lecture on virtual reality, we had a chance to try different glasses for virtual as well as augmented reality. Using a mobile app, we created our own island. With our hands, we were able to shape the hills out of sand over which the rabbits were running, and lakes in the valleys or even seas in which sharks and other fish were swimming. We had a try at riding scooters and electric skateboards which were controlled by a bracelet, and we also got a chance to shout into a sound level meter. The graduation ceremony took place at the auditorium Aula Maxima, where we also found out who the winners of the “Výzva pre tvoju budúcnosť” /Challenge for your Future/ contest were, and full of experiences, we could start the next part of our holidays.

More photos are available on the project website detskauniverzita.tuke.sk

We are all already looking forward to the next event.

*ambiguous meaning of the Slovak phrase Sme TU pre deti 2019: We Are Technical University for Children 2019, and also We Are HERE for Children 2019