The TU Austria Award & Congress 2021

18 November 2021, 09.00 AM - 01.30 PM, online

For all technicians and researchers of the future, the TU Austria Congress 2021 on November 18, 2021 offered a unique information and networking opportunity. The virtual event was aimed specifically at secondary school students from levels 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, joined the event live from Germany to discuss with the participants how everyone can take action and be part of the solution to climate change. In addition to the award ceremony of the "TU Austria Technicians of the Future" Competition 2021, the two workshop slots completed the virtual program of the TU Austria Congress 2021. Those who additionally wanted to know more about the study programs offered by the three TU Austria universities could have a look around the virtual exhibition without any obligation and inform themselves about more than 50 different study programs.

For those who could not be there live, we have summarized the highlights of the virtual TU Austria Congress 2021 for review in a short video. (German version only)

The program

09.00 AM Opening
09.15 AM "Be part of the solution against climate change" - Rebecca Freitag
10.00 AM TU Austria Award 2021: The top 10 ideas
10.45 AM Workshops I
12.00 AM Workshops II
01.15 PM TU Austria Award 2021: The award ceremony

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 a wide range of institutions (from the Deutsche Bundesbank, to innovation congresses and ministries). To advance solutions already in practice, she co-founded the Global Impact Alliance, a coalition of "purpose-driven" companies. In the academic world, she also questions how sustainability can best be communicated and motivated for implementation. She is therefore designing an interdisciplinary sustainability course at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. For a societal transformation towards a sustainable future, she continues to promote and inspire as an ambassador for rights for future generations in political, social or economic organizations.

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 by 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 their great interest!

These workshops were offered:

Energy & Climate Protection (TU Wien)

Programming on the Smartphone with Pocket Code (TU Graz)

BEE-O-Monitor: Bees in action for science (Montanuniversität Leoben)

How do Autonomous Intelligent Systems help to achieve more sustainability? (TU Wien)

Science: Digital Escape Room (TU Graz)

How do robots learn? (Montanuniversität Leoben)

TU Austria "Technichians of the future" Award 2021

Your idea against climate change


In the run-up to the TU Austria Congress, schoolgirls from the 9th - 13th level were called upon to submit their ideas against climate change by means of a video contribution and thus take part in the TU Austria competition "Technicians of the Future". We would like to thank all students for their numerous submissions and ideas. Our panel of experts, which again consisted 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. After the presentation of the top 10 ideas, the jury consisting of the vice rectors of the Montanuniversität Leoben, TU Wien and TU Graz withdrew to make a final ranking. Truly no easy task considering the extraordinarily promising ideas of the students.

The ranking

1st Place endowed with € 1.000,-

"Landfill, rethought" by Alina

Rank 2 - 5 endowed with € 500,- each (alphabetically by project title)

"BIECO"-App by Basma & Ina

"Futuregram"-App by Katja & Mariella

"HotFrog"-App by Viktoria

"Trash can of the future" by Sophie & Denise

Rank 6 - 10 endowed with € 300,- each (alphabetically by project title)

"Enercheck"-App by Lena & Antonia

"Klimamonkey"-App by Kirstin & Lara

"Spider silk replaces polymer" by Fatima, Glory, Alisa & Rabia

"Transport of EPS-waste" by Elisa

"Zero waste beverage dispenser" by Sofia & Judith

Curious about this?

Get the picture! Here are a few of the fabulous ideas for review (German versions only):

Winner: "Landfill, rethought" by Alina
"HotFrog"-App by Viktoria
"Futuregram"-App by Katja & Mariella
"Trash can of the future" by Sophie & Denise
"Spider silk replaces polymer" by Fatima, Glory, Alisa & Rabia
"Transport of EPS-waste" by Elisa