Work Science Up Close
Girls' Day at IAW
Girls' Day has been held every year since 2001 to give schoolgirls the opportunity to find out whether an apprenticeship or a course of study in the subject fields of science, IT, crafts or technology might be of interest to them. After a digital day last year, this year we were finally able to meet again on site at our institute.
More than 270 schoolgirls took part in Girls' Day at the RWTH Aachen University this year and were thus able to learn about professions and fields of study where the proportion of women is less than 40 percent. The Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics also opened its doors for female students on this occasion. Under the motto “Arbeitswissenschaft hautnah”, meaning work science up close, the students dealt with the questions of how a healthy workplace can be designed, how technologies can support us at work and in education, and which concrete technologies are used in our everyday research. Among other things, the schoolgirls were able to test VR technologies in the field of assembly simulation from the FlexDeMo research project, mount a real and a virtual gearbox, try out a simulator for cooperative vehicle guidance, and learn what options are available for making virtual reality a tangible experience.
This year's Girls' Day was a complete success and we were very pleased to give the girls an understanding of our everyday working life and our profession. We would like to thank our participants for the great day and hope that we were able to inspire them for work science.