A green future? Child’s play!
When programming leads to international friendships
3:30 in the morning at Nuremberg Airport. Judith Wahl is standing at the arrivals hall where she has welcomed her two guests, Feride Berra Köseoglu and Kayra Orman, students at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The three of them are not particularly chatty at that moment, they just want to get to bed. Just a few hours later, at 7am, they meet Silvana Elias Damas, the final member of the organizational team, in d.hip in Erlangen, where the event is taking place.
Topic: Sustainable cities
When the EELISA Metaverse challenge “The Future is Green” starts punctually at 8 am, Judith, Silvana, Feride and Kayra’s tiredness gives way to excitement and anticipation. Over recent months they have worked together to organize a challenge in which students should program a game on the online gaming platform Roblox. The aim of the challenge, that lasts three days, is to design a game to explain the principles of sustainable urban planning to children.
Together, they designed the concept, organized catering and invited specialists to contribute their expertise. Funding for the event, travel and accommodation has been provided by EELISA, an alliance of ten European universities, of which FAU is a member. “We are so pleased to meet you all in person at last,” says Judith to the students sitting in front of her: six from FAU and five from ITU. “We have wanted to organize an in-person meeting ever since the EELISA Metaverse and Sustainability Community was founded.”
EELISA
EELISA, the European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance, is an alliance of ten universities from eight European countries, and FAU is a member. The European University Alliance was founded in 2020 with EU funding in order to strengthen collaboration between the universities in teaching, research, studying and innovation. The special feature of EELISA is its interdisciplinary, international and solution-oriented approach to collaboration. Members of FAU benefit from networking and collaborating with partner universities in Paris, Pisa, Madrid, Budapest, Bucharest, Zürich and Istanbul: Researchers from all subject areas, students, and stakeholders from business and politics come together in EELISA communities to tackle the challenges of a sustainable future together.
Learning from each other, also across national borders
The keynote speech is given by Benedikt Morschheuser, Professor of Information Systems (Gamification) at FAU. He poses the question of whether the future of education lies in serious games on metaverse platforms. While he explains that “serious games” are games aimed at teaching serious concepts, Judith, Silvana, Kayra and Feride sit at the console and control the presentation and the sound. They appear relaxed – the program is now in the hands of the experts. Roblox expert Corinna Wüllner introduces the game “Inflammania 3D” that she designed as a student in a seminar led by Benedikt Morschheuser. Later on in the afternoon, two professors from the partner university in Madrid who conduct research into sustainable urban planning will introduce tasks and scenarios that are suitable for being taught to children using games.
When the group work is scheduled to start, the participants stand up rather hesitantly to look for the partners they have been allocated. From now, the teams have two days’ time to develop their own game. On Sunday, a jury consisting of sustainability and Roblox experts from several partner universities will decide on the best result and present the winning team with a check for 200 euros.
“That is what is so special about EELISA for me, the fact that students learn with each other and from each other, across subject and country boundaries,” says Silvana. Participants come from a wide range of different subjects, and some have more experience in using Roblox than others. The challenge was open to students from all partner universities, but only students from ITU and FAU applied.
During lunch, everyone is deep in conversation, and you can hear a variety of different accents. Feride explains that EELISA is the only opportunity she has to speak English. “I would like to become more confident in the language, and this network is extremely beneficial to me,” she says. Those sitting at another table are discussing pizza toppings in Turkey: mayonnaise and ketchup. Everyone laughs. “Just as well there’s no-one here from Italy,” someone replies.
Time for friendships
Visiting cities in Europe, discovering different cultures and getting to know new friends – that is also the idea behind EELISA. Kayra and Feride will stay on a bit longer with Judith after the challenge. “I am looking forward to spending more time with Judith and Silvana,” says Kayra. “After all the online meetings, it’s really good to be able to actually see each other in person.” He then turns round to one of the groups and comments on the latest idea: “A CO2 monster that we have to fight before we can shift the lever from carbon to solar power? Yes, why not?”
by Johanna Hojer
This article is part of the FAU Magazin
A university thrives because of the people who research, study, teach and work there. A university is supported by people who are connected to it as alumni, friends and sponsors and who are committed to promoting its interests all over the world.
They all contribute their unique talents, skills and perspectives. It is this diversity that makes our FAU a place of innovation, a place where many talented individuals tackle the major challenges of our times together, and a place where they keep finding answers.
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