Inspiring future engineers
In this year’s innovation projects, ETH students had to develop an engineering kit that can be used to spark adolescents' interest in engineering.
Mechanical engineering students at ETH Zurich not only have to acquire a lot of theoretical knowledge but also put it into practice. In an engineering course in the second semester of their bachelor’s degree programme, they are required to simulate a product development process from the initial idea right through to the fully functional product. This is called an innovation project. This year, the students had the task of working in teams to develop an engineering kit for 12- to 15-year-old girls and boys. The kit was intended to inspire the younger generation to become engineers or to study engineering.
Specifically, the student teams had to make a kit in one of the following three categories: In the “Domino Robot” category, they had to build a robot that could set up dominoes itself. In the "Mechanical Animal" category, they had to develop a kit for an entire mechanical animal or a characteristic part of such an animal. Finally, in the “Wild Category”, they were allowed to choose whatever theme they wanted for their kit.
The ETH students had to produce individual components for each category and write instructions for the young people to follow that would enable them to assemble a kit themselves.