NEWS: A great success for TUM!
Since February 2022, the EuroTeQ Collider at TUM has been taking place around the theme "Leave no waste behind".
We are very happy about three successful rounds with more than 70 students from different study programs in each semester. In the last three rounds, a total of 45 challenges were offered by industry, academia, or students themselves. Groups of 4-6 Collider participants worked on each challenge over several weeks. At the end of the Collider, the solutions were presented at TUM level. The three best teams were then invited to the EuroTeQaThon at the European level, where they competed in a European context with the winning teams from the six EuroTeQ universities from Paris, Eindhoven, Tallinn, Prague, Copenhagen, Munich. Our TUM teams were very successful at all levels!
Of the three rounds of the EuroTeQ Collider, TUM has been wholly successful with three winning teams on a European level. In the first round of the EuroTeQ Collider, Advan.ce, won the EuroTeQaThon in Summer 2022! In the third round, two of our TUM teams were able to convice the jury on the European Level. We are very happy to announce that from three winning teams on the European level, two TUM teams won the EuroTeQaThon in Summer 2023, The Himalayan Legos and SoftAware. This year, the winning teams received prize money of 750 Euros.
What's next?
The next EuroTeQ Collider is planned for Summer 2024! The new theme will be announced shortly and we are very much looking forward to more exciting challenges, motivated challenge collaborators and enthusiastic students!
EuroTeQ Collider
What is the EuroTeQ Collider?
The EuroTeQ Collider is a challenge-based learning format and was created by the EuroTeQ universities. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) joined forces with six leading universities (Paris, Eindhoven, Tallinn, Prague, Copenhagen, Munich) of science and technology to foster the European spirit in a EuroTeQ format, the EuroTeQ Collider. The goal is to promote an innovative engineering education across Europe. ’Collider’ is the chosen term to emphasize a core value that the most creative and innovative solutions often emerge from the collision of ideas from a diverse group.
At each of the six EuroTeQ universities, the EuroTeQ Collider project weeks take place at the same time, with local colliders working independently. During these project weeks, interdisciplinary and heterogeneous groups consisting of students, vocational trainees and employees from various companies work on different challenges.
The best projects are then selected by an independent jury and the teams are invited to the EuroTeQaThon. The EuroTeQaThon is a three-day event, where the winning teams from all EuroTeQ universities come together and have the opportunity to exchange ideas, boost creativity, and innovation and if possible find synergies between projects from partner universities. The final pitches are evaluated in front of a high-level jury consisting of representatives from industry, European public institutions, NGOs, and the EuroTeQ Advisory Board.
Theme of the EuroTeQ Collider 2022/23: Leave no waste behind
The way we live today generates massive amounts of waste. Many initiatives are aware of this fact and try to stop this trend by optimizing processes and reducing the amount of waste. But there is still a lot to do! Waste is everywhere, not only in the use of packaging, the overuse of natural resources, the non-use of surpluses or the non-management of certain types of waste (chemical and nuclear waste). It also results from the non-optimization of certain processes (energy losses in electricity generation, efficiency of extraction of certain materials), from our inability to find sustainable alternatives (fossil fuels) or to consume differently (buy instead of repair). The process of waste reduction has just begun. What contribution will you make to succeed in leaving no waste?
Project weeks description
The module "EuroTeQ Collider" is a seminar that gives students the opportunity to apply and deepen their knowledge on topics related to the theme “Leave no waste behind”. Within this overarching theme, we are offering real-world challenges provided by TUM faculties, student organizations, and industry partners.
For each challenge, interdisciplinary (and international) teams of students, trainees and professionals are formed to develop solutions for a desirable future, test and validate tools and prototype their solutions. The goal is to connect participants with different profiles and personalities to boost creativity, innovation and shared understanding, enabling participants to imagine new approaches and design disruptive solutions. All teams are prepared for the project weeks with various workshops (team building, design thinking, project management) at the beginning of the collider. Afterwards, the teams work on their challenges in groups and are supported by the Collider team and the challenge collaboarots as mentors with regular mentoring sessions. An intensive working weekend is the highlight of the local TUM Collider, with the goal to boost the productivity and motivation of the groups. During this weekend, teams receive coaching input on their presentation skills and feedback on their pitches.
The winners at the TUM level are selected based on their final presentation at the end of the Collider project weeks and are invited to the EuroTeQaThon in Prague.
Join the EuroTeQ Collider as a Challenge Collaborator and/or participant
1) Become a Challenge Collaborator and submit a challenge on the topic "Leave no waste behind". Challenges can be submitted by companies, TUM chairs/ professorships /program coordinators or students and trainees.
2) Become a participant: Interested students can register in TUMonline. The module can be found as "EuroTeQ Collider". Interested trainees/employees from companies can register as participants via email. Contact: veronica.becker@tum.de
FAQs
- We do not have a deadline for the next Collider yet, but it will be announced shortly. For challenge submission, please fill out this Template and send it to veronica.becker@tum.de
- Challenges can be submitted by companies, TUM chairs/ professorships/ program coordinators or students and trainees.
- Each challenge collaborator is also a mentor. Mentors should support the teams on a professional level and be available for question during the project weeks. This means a time commitment of max. 10 hours in the period from April 17 to June 2. For students submitting a challenge, we will help to find a suitable mentor
- Challenges can be submitted by companies, TUM chairs/ professorships/ program coordinators or students and trainees.
- Each challenge collaborator is also a mentor. Mentors should support the teams on a professional level and be available for question during the project weeks. This means a time commitment of max. 10 hours in the period from April 17 to June 2. For students submitting a challenge, we will help to find a suitable mentor
- You will receive an invitation to the launch event of the Collider. Here, all challenge collaborators are asked to present their challenges (approx. 5 min per challenge) and students have the opportunity to ask questions.
- The participants have one week to indicate their three preferences via a survey and will then be matched to the challenges accordingly.
- Each Challenge Collaborator will be informed shortly after the matching process if the challenge has been selected by a group.
- A Workshop for all challenge collaborators and mentors will be offered by the EuroTeQ Team. Participation is on a voluntary basis.
- Before the official start of the project weeks, students are prepared with several workshops for their projects.
- During the project weeks, each team works independently on their challenge and is supported by their challenge collaborator and the EuroTeQ Collider Team with weekly check-in sessions.
- An independant jury will select the winning teams on the TUM level, and the three best teams are invited to the EuroTeQaThon on the European Level.