Last week, over 200 pupils in grades 7 - 9 from all over Thuringia visited the TU Ilmenau to attend specially designed lectures as part of the Kinder- und Jugenduni to follow specially designed lectures. Our department took part in the format with a lecture organized by our colleagueChristian Karcher on the topic of "Why is thermodynamics so exciting for engineers?" Together with the young people, questions such as "What is energy and what do engineers do with it?", "How do motors and heat pumps work?" and "Why are there no perpetual motion machines?" were discussed using small experiments and simple mind games as well as a presentation of the work of engineering role models Leonardo da Vinci and James Watt. Finally, the important future tasks that still need to be tackled in order to implement the targets for sustainable development and the current concepts that thermodynamics in particular is pursuing in terms of protecting nature and the climate and conserving resources were discussed. It remains to be hoped that some of the young people will be inspired to actively help shape the necessary transformations and study engineering under the motto "Your studies. As individual as you are" and take up an engineering degree at the TU Ilmenau.

TU Ilmenau/David Schreier