Workshops for pupils from the border triangle

Looking back on their school days, some of you may still remember math olympiads, reading aloud contests, or drawing contests. The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences has been organizing such a contest since 1995. The focus, however, is on current, voltage, coils, and capacitors. Participants calculate circuits involving resistors and physical phenomena related to magnetic fields. High school students in the upper grades register for the Olympiad through their physics teachers.

The Olympiad is organized on a cross-border basis. Each year, 20 students from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany are allowed to compete against one another. Girls also regularly participate. In Germany, participants are selected through an invigilated (written) examination. This examination is administered simultaneously at various high schools and technical high schools. This gives the students a taste of the final round, which takes place at the University in the large lecture hall of the Peter-Dierich-Building.

Without support, the University would find it difficult to organize such an event. The VDE Dresden Regional Association provides prizes worth 1,000 EUR for the students. In past years, for example, the winner received a laptop, tablet, or PC. The top ten finishers are thus rewarded with technical items. The Sparkasse Oberlausitz-Niederschlesien regularly supports the entire event to ensure it is organized appropriately. The collaboration with the Zittau Vocational Training Center is also of particular importance. The school organizes a buffet for the awards ceremony in the town hall’s civic hall and provides catering services for the participants during the ceremony. The Varnsdorf Music School (CZ) provides musical entertainment with its big band.

The Olympiad, which takes place on March 21, 2015, is prepared through three workshops. During these workshops, the students meet at the University and conduct measurements and experiments in laboratories where the college students also complete their practical sessions related to their lectures. These events also offer the opportunity to explore technical curiosity. In addition to laboratory setups, there are also facilities that are found in real-world applications, such as in substations or high-voltage power lines.
The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science wishes the Olympiad participants every success, both in their preparation and during the actual invigilated (written) examination.