Students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology (BUT) were replaced on Saturday, October 12, by participants of the BUT Junior children's university. Almost a hundred primary school pupils and lower grade students of multi-year grammar schools headed to the specialized facilities of two institutes and to the workshop of one of the student teams. New this year was also a program for parents accompanying their children to the event.

“The activities on the theme How to Get a Plane in the Air introduced children to the basic principles of flying and the operation of aircraft, primarily through simple tasks,” explained František Löffelmann about the program at the Institute of Aviation. During the program, they learned, for example, what is needed to generate lift on a wing, why we are not yet flying on vacation with electric or hydrogen-powered planes, and how air traffic is organized at airports and in the air.

Programming simple robots using LEGO Mindstorms has already become a popular experience prepared by a team of colleagues from the mechatronics lab MechLab. The juniors also tried reading sensor values (so-called robotic senses) and learned how to deliberately move the robot.

While the children were programming and controlling air traffic, almost fifty parents participated in this year's new accompanying program. “Today's machines are becoming increasingly complex. They work thanks to a suitable combination of mechanics, electronics, software, and algorithms. A mechanical engineer should have at least basic knowledge of all these disciplines in order to understand machines,” said Robert Grepl, head of the Mechatronics Department, at the beginning of his lecture. He came up with the idea of involving parents in discussions about the current state of technology and modern education. During the subsequent discussion, parents talked about the advantages and disadvantages of the field with an invited graduate and later toured the practical results of education in the laboratories.

A significant number of parents also took up the offer from Jan Kalina of the strojLab student team and went through both the theoretical and practical parts of the 3D printing workshop.

BUT Junior is a project of Brno University of Technology for pupils of the second stage of primary schools and students of lower years of multi-year grammar schools. Its goal is to introduce selected pupils and students to the university environment, modern technologies, and the latest findings from scientific research conducted at BUT facilities, thereby fostering a positive interest in studying primarily technical sciences. The project's activities are carried out at the faculties and departments of BUT.