(Darmstadt) The slogan of the 55th round of competition is “You can do it!”. This notion is meant to encourage young researchers to face up to challenges, come up with a research project on their own and take responsibility. Every single STEM talent counts!

For the last 13 years, the Fraunhofer institutes in Darmstadt -- the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD, the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT -- have been sponsoring the youth competition and, as in previous years, this year’s event will be held at Fraunhofer IGD and hosted by Dr. Paul Schlöder, a biology and chemistry teacher at the Dreieichschule high school in Langen as well as Stefan Daun, head of quality assurance at Fraunhofer IGD. An address at the opening ceremony will be given by the mayor of Darmstadt, Jochen Partsch, followed by the keynote speech by Dr. Jens Stadlmann from the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research.

Participants in the South Hessen District Competition will compete in two divisions, “Youth Researching” (ages 15 to 21) and “Students Experimenting” (4th grade to age 14). This year, 59 students will present a total of 31 different projects. The young scientists will vie for recognition of their projects in the areas of work environments, biology, chemistry, earth science, geography, mathematics/computer science, physics and engineering.

The competition is held nationwide and consists of three rounds. The first round is the district competitions, where the victors qualify for their local state competition.

Whoever is interested in the young scientists’ creative ideas is cordially invited to a public presentation at Fraunhofer IGD on February 20, 2020 starting at 2:00 PM. The best from each state will then go toe-to-toe in the final round, the national competition.