Annual Program 2023 Poster

The School for Talents was not only a platform for developing professional skills but also a space for personal growth. Discovering new approaches to education, acquiring important design thinking skills, and enhancing communicative abilities – all became part of my experience in this program.

Nestor Zasymenko, B.Sc. Information Systems, Participant, Annual Program 2023/2024

Annual Program 2023

Navigating Change – New Solutions

The annual theme of the School for Talents supplies the framework for our program, and provides inspiration and input for our participants. In 2023, we will address “Navigating Change – New Solutions”.  Together, we will search for answers to complex challenges, and look for orientation in a fast-changing world in which multiple large-scale crises are happening at once. There is a lot at stake for future generations, and it is crucial to work on solutions to pressing issues in all realms of our lives. To do that, we will talk to experts and change-makers from science and society, to industry representatives and to peers. We will be supported by professional coaches and learn new methods that will open up space to approach topics creatively. In small teams and with the help of idea tool kits, students learn to apply techniques like design thinking to real-live problems. Participants will leave the program empowered to address the transformative potential of our times. They will have learned to face challenges in their professional and private lives through communication and by allowing time for reflection and questions.

These are the Annual Program 2023 Student Teams

A garbage patch twice the size of Texas floats on the water just off the coast of California. 100,000 animals per year die from entanglement in plastic waste. By 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh the number of fish. The pollution of our oceans due to plastic and non-plastic waste is an enormous problem now and will remain one for years to come. 
But how does the plastic get into the ocean? How can we get it out? What can we do to reduce the amount of plastic waste produced every year? These are the questions we set out to answer. Interviewing experts in the field, we realized that the solution could be found right in front of us, in the Neckar that runs through Stuttgart, rather than in the ocean hundreds of kilometers away. It is the rivers that carry the plastic into the ocean and cause its pollution. To take on the problem, we developed ideas to mitigate the issue of plastic in the river by constructing a boat that intakes plastic without taking in fish. We’ve also come up with ideas to spread awareness for the problem, e.g. by illuminating the Stuttgart tv-tower in different colors depending on the level of the pollution in the Neckar, similar to a traffic-light that indicates when it is safe to cross the street.

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Anna, Bachelor English
Fabian, Bachelor Aerospace Engineering
Laurin, Bachelor Mathematics
Leo Pascal, Bachelor Mechanical Engineering
Moritz, Bachelor Aerospace Engineering and Bachelor Electrical Engineering

The four of us have strong ties to education. We attended school in different countries, and three of us worked at schools. We value education on a personal and societal level; it plays a major role in shaping one’s character, while being a pillar for a democratic society. 
That’s how we came across the idea to look into differences as well as similarities regarding students’ well-being within the Ukrainian and German school system. The goal was to get a better understanding of both systems.
We think of the students’ well-being as the foundation for the ability to get the best out of one's school years in terms of education, but also as being an important factor in itself. After all, school is a phase of about 10 years of your life. 
We decided to conduct an online survey for students in which they could explicitly put forward their own thoughts and ideas on the matter.

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We believe our project could be the starting point for further research into students' wellbeing at schools in any country. The results we have gotten can point towards what students believe to be the most important issues for their education systems and mental wellbeing while at school. This research could then be used to implement change within education systems.

Mariia, Master English Linguistics
Marta, Bachelor British and American Studies 
Nestor, Bachelor Information Systems
Fabian, Bachelor Mathematics & Political Sciences (teaching degree)


Globally, the Building Sector is responsible for about 38% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. To reach the goals set in Paris we need to massively improve the life cycle assessment in that sector. One opportunity to do so is by establishing a circular economy and by reusing materials as often and much as possible. 
This is where the project we collaborated with – IBA’27 circularity – sets in. In the first phase of the project, we located and contacted important stakeholders from the sector  - architects, construction companies and policy makers from the Stuttgart region. 
In the second phase, we worked on an AI based knowledge and material database to combine all knowledge.

What is needed for circularity to be enhanced?
Document your planning and construction process!
Communicate via platforms such as Madaster or Concular!
Plan and build for dismantling!
Low Tech is the new High Tech!

Christian, Master Architecture and Urban Planning
Yannick, Master Environmental Engineering
Jonathan, Bachelor Architecture and Urban Planning

We came across the IBA’27 project during an excursion in the explore phase of our School for Talents annual program.
As architecture students from Ukraine, we immediately had a vision to work on such a concept for an international building exhibition in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and many thousands of buildings have been destroyed. What drove our project is the idea for IBA Ukraine to not simply rebuild what has been destroyed, but to include material reuse, qualitative housing, creation of public spaces to unite people, adaptation of spaces, so that people with disabilities would feel comfortable, and last but not least nature preservation. 

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Geographically, we’ve decided to focus on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, a region that has immense potential within Europe. We reached out to representatives of the city of Lviv with our ideas and found out that the city is also already working toward an IBA Ukraine in Lviv, where already eight potential projects have been identified. 
We now aim to work on this project further and bring it to the next level. 

Update summer 2024: The IBA Lviv project was selected as one of the 11 Faculty Projects 2024/2025 of the School for Talents. Congratulations to Stanislava and Mariia for this success!

Mariia, Bachelor Architecture
Stanislava, Bachelor Architecture

Public discourse nowadays is overshadowed by subjectivity, populism, conspiracy theories and anger and is therefore far from ideal. We want to improve this situation through our project "Realtopia". 
Since changing the minds of all generations at the same time is difficult, we decided to focus on the next generations, trying to instill good debate values. Therefore, we developed a solution for pupils in humanities classes specifically ranging from class 7 to class 10.  The aim is to provide a safe space for debating, exploring negotiation strategies, learning about political mechanisms and fostering empathy for others. With clever game mechanisms and an exciting background story, pupils stay engaged and have fun while learning valuable skills for a healthy debate culture.

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The scenario of the game takes place in the near future, in which humanity started colonizing other planets in the solar system. One such colony is on Mars, where a hitherto undiscovered material has been found: Marsium, highy desired by different groups, which is why the matter of excavation and usage of Marsium leads to conflict. Knowing better than to fight, different interest groups decide to meet to debate how to move forward.
Pupils will be assigned to different interest groups and given time to gather information and formulate their collective goals and arguments, through self-driven research. This is to promote empathy with other groups. After this research phase, pupils are shuffled again into debate groups, in which they represent their interest group and simultaneously attempt to find a resolution on how to proceed with the new discovery.

Getting an insight into dilemmas and political mechanisms is crucial to become an informed member of political debate culture and a responsible part of society. We therefore want to make sure that pupils learn about different debating strategies (e.g. collaborative vs. contestory) and about their respective benefits and downsides, so that they have the abilities to proactively navigate and positively influence healthy debates.

Ultimately, we want everyone in class to get involved!

Update summer 2024:  Realtopia has been selected as one of the new projects for 2024/2025 by the Stuttgarter Change Labs. Congratulations to Nadia and Robin on this success!

Amel, Bachelor Informatics
Max, Master Environmental Engineering
Nadja, Bachelor English and Mathematics (teaching degree)
Robin, Bachelor History & Philosophy

The #TeachingToolbox is an e-learning-toolbox designed to revolutionize university teaching. It provides practical methodological and didactic knowledge as well as technical solutions, especially for the University of Stuttgart. 
The TeachingToolbox is intended for everyone involved in teaching at the university, ranging from student tutors to professors. The overall goal is to improve university teaching and lectures and achieve better preparation for the working environment.

The toolbox includes a variety of different materials for didactical improvements of lectures and exercises.

Claudia, Master Physics
Fabian, Bachelor Vocational/Technical Education, Business Administration
Hugo, Bachelor Computer Science
Kinza, Bachelor Engineering Cybernetics 
Simon, Bachelor Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

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Our idea for an interactive day focused on AI stemmed from the initial observation that, while artificial intelligence has yet to be fully integrated into the workforce, its’ development shows no signs of slowing down. So, we devised a solution: to organize a workshop aimed at instructing people on how to utilize AI tools effectively and to collectively explore the various ethical discussions surrounding this intricate topic. 
Our workshop was open to everyone eager to learn more about AI, whether they are students or working at the University of Stuttgart. The workshops and keynote sessions organized by us aimed to create an engaging day about AI for everyone. 
By the end of this day, participants had a better understanding and got the opportunity to devise their own solutions involving artificial intelligence.
Further information and the AI Day program can be found here: #KIdeasInMotion | School for Talents | Universität Stuttgart

Charlotte, Bachelor Social Sciences
Elias, Bachelor Mathematics
Julius, Bachelor Informatics
Lukas, Bachelor Aerospace Engineering
Tareq, Master Computer Science

See for yourself, how the day went! 

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The journey to find a topic for our group work has led us from reducing food waste at the university canteen, to waste reduction in dormitories, all the way to books, technology and other used items on campus in general.
Through many interviews conducted with and for students, we found out that many students throw away old university related books, laptops etc.. The main reasons for doing so: laziness and a lack of convenience in finding alternatives. We also found out, that not acting responsibly in this regard stems from a lack of education and awareness. Thus, the problem we were dealing with was multi-layered and needed more than one solution. 
Building upon the first idea of a food sharing platform, we came up with UniShare - our multilayered solution to the topic of waste reduction.

We have envisioned a university-wide platform, that helps contribute to waste reduction and serves three goals:

1) Educate students at the university of Stuttgart about sustainability and waste reduction
2) Connect students, who want to organize events and get-togethers, for example flea markets or sharing points (e.g., bookshelves for used books).
3) Offer a convenient way to exchange used items.

We think that UniShare is a good way of helping students reduce their unnecessary waste by making the process as easy and convenient as possible while also providing education and offering the possibility to connect with others.

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Andrea, Bachelor Information Systems
Erik, Bachelor Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Gabriel, Bachelor Physics and Technical Biology 
Lukas, Bachelor Sport Science: Sociology and Economics
Selin, Bachelor English and History (teaching degree)

School for Talents Symposium 2023/2024

Participants of the 2023/2024 Annual Program at the final Symposium
Participants of the 2023/2024 Annual Program at the final Symposium
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