Out of university, straight into practice: the 2023 Project Weeks

3/8/2023
Reading time 2 min.

Whether sustainability, digitization or healthcare: many of the most important topics of our time transcend disciplinary boundaries. With the Project Weeks, TUM has therefore created a new teaching format in which students and teachers across disciplines, curricula and locations dedicate themselves to topics for which they are personally passionate and which are of great social relevance. The pilot phase took place at the beginning of this year – a successful start, as the participants report.

In the 2023 Project Weeks, interdisciplinary courses were funded that focused on a high degree of reflexivity, working in heterogeneous teams, and students' proactive and self-directed learning. More than 30 projects were implemented, in which students were able to take on challenging tasks, get to know new fellow students and discover some very special locations.

Artificial intelligence at the service of society

The participants in the “Responsible Robotics” group, for example, spent four days together at the Geriatronics Research Center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Here, they explored the possibilities of using assistance robots like GARMI to develop solutions to pressing problems such as an ageing population and the shortage of nursing care.

Gaming and Social Science

The Game Jam was another opportunity to get out of the classroom: In the theater lab of the Münchner Kammerspiele, students approached social science topics in a playful and interactive way, specifically: the interconnections and dependencies of the illegal economic system around coca cultivation in South America.

Sustainability in popular sports

At MTV München von 1879 e.V., the participants in the Behavioral Economics project developed concrete proposals on how to make the club's day-to-day operations more sustainable. After all, as one of Munich's largest sports clubs, MTV wants to set an example and become climate-neutral by 2030. To achieve this goal, the students' creative ideas are most welcome.

You can find more impressions from these three projects in the video report on the 2023 Project Weeks:

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Funding for the 2024 Project Weeks

The next Project Weeks will be held at TUM in January 2024. Project-based teaching formats can be funded with up to 10,000 euros for a share of personnel costs, support staff and material costs. Applications can be submitted between March 8 and April 5, 2023. Departments and schools, professors, Integrative Research Institutes, and central service institutions at TUM are eligible to apply. All information on how to apply can be found at https://wiki.tum.de/x/QYPJUg (login for employees).

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