Celebration of science
Friday 14 to Sunday 16 June 2019
Innsbruck city centre - around the Universitätsstraße
Discoveringscience, being amazed by it and understandingconnections- that was the aim of the Science Festival as part of the anniversary celebrations. Having the opportunity to get involved in experiments and workshops without any reservations or prior knowledge is exciting and can lead to many "aha" experiences.
The Science Festival was a place of learning and experience and was able to inspire people across generations for research and science. Young and old were invited to experience the university at first hand and engage in personal dialogue with scientists.
The Austrian finals of the Science Slam kicked off the Science Festival, where Austria's best slammers competed for a place in the European finals. On the big stage, they were able to convey the content of their research projects to the audience in a short time, with simple means and usually in a very entertaining way.
And because the university is part of Innsbruck, many neighbours associated with the university took part in the science festival: Among others, the Medical University, the Folk Art Museum, the Hofburg, the Jesuits or the new House of Music offer a varied programme.
Free admission!
Open-air stage SOWI
19:30 Science Show - Chemistry lab in the city centre (30 minutes)
20:30 Science Slam - the Austrian final in the centre of the city!
To kick off the Festival of Science, Austria's best slammers came to Innsbruck for the first time to compete for a place in the European finals! On the large Sowi stage, they were able to convey the content of their research projects to the audience in a short time, with simple means and usually in a very entertaining way.
The event was translated into sign language.
Admission free!
First insight into the main research areas
Along Universitätsstraße, researchers provided initial insights into a wide variety of projects. These were presented in containers and were open from Friday to Sunday.
What do protein molecules really look like?
Container Mensch und Gesundheit (Medical University of Innsbruck), Karl-Rahner-Platz 3
Friday 17:00-19:00
Workshop on the laptop. Those interested can rotate, flip and zoom a protein on a laptop to recognise a mutated amino acid and understand how a genetic disease can come about.
Climate change and glacier retreat today - is everything normal?
Alpine Space and Environment Container, Karl-Rahner-Platz 1
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
Mountain glaciers are known as sensitive climate indicators and glacier research has a long tradition at the University of Innsbruck. The current glacier retreat allows the reconstruction of retreat and advance phases during the last 10,000 years through finds, especially tree remains, on the receding ice edges. The results of glacier modelling can also be used to estimate future developments.
How do I make everyday economic decisions?
Science and Society Container, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
The basic motto of our container is: "get to know yourself and your fellow human beings better in economic situations". All stations are about the story of how each individual makes "rational" decisions and when (and especially how) this is not the case. These irrational decisions (i.e. gut decisions, heuristics) are not random decisions, but are predictably sub-optimal decisions that recur again and again.
Cultural encounters
Container for People and Culture, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
In the course of migration, people bring ideas, things, lifestyles and networks with them to other places. This creates new cultural forms and diversity in society. We will give you surprising insights into the past and present of migration in Tyrol and show you that there is a lot of world in Tyrol and Tyrol in the world.
Quantum Physics
Physics Container, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
Experience the superconducting magnetic levitation train
Stem cell research, fear and age
Biosciences and Chemistry Container, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
How does our brain deal with anxiety? For example, anxiety that prevents you from continuing your normal life. We will explain how such states of anxiety and fearful forgetting are "learnt", "stored" and later "remembered" in the brain. You can also learn how modern stem cell research contributes to the elucidation of brain diseases.
Causes for the ageing of certain human organs are explained and corresponding active substances are presented that can delay or even reverse the ageing process. Visitors can also experience the effects of ageing first-hand in an age simulator. Finally, future therapies for age-related diseases using reprogrammed stem cells will be explained in a demonstration.
How can high-performance computing help us to better understand our world?
Scientific Modelling and Big Data Container, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
High-performance computing has become an integral part of research in many areas of our lives, from the automotive industry to drug development and astrophysics. We will show you a functional, demonstrative miniature version of a high-performance computer that calculates a physics simulation with which you can interact live via a webcam.
Centre for Digital Science
Container Scientific Modelling and Big Data, Universitätsstraße
Friday 17:00-19:00
Saturday 10:00-19:00
Sunday 10:00-14:00
Digitalisation is also changing science. The Centre for Digital Sciencestands for the integration and promotion of the digitalisation of scientific research, for the advancement of new research directions and for the support of high-quality science. Using the example of weather data, digitalisation in scientific research is explained simply and clearly.
Neonatal intensive care 2019: Where is the journey heading?
Clinic tour neonatology Tickets available at the MUI container from 16:00, max. 10 participants per tour, from 14 years, infection-free!
17:00 and 18:00
For 3 small groups of 10 people each, a one-hour bed-side tour of the neonatal intensive care unit and the neonatal aftercare ward is offered.
Open-air stage SOWI
13:00 Freerunning - Higher, further, science! (30 minutes)
15:00 Freerunning - Higher, further, science! (30 minutes)
We started with a Show act by the freerunners centred around Lukas Steiner. At the same time, Lukas' "moves" were projected onto the big screen as an animated figure using a motion capture system. The scientists Emmerich Kneringer and Kurt Schindelwig then attempted to answer questions such as: "What are stable and unstable axes of rotation?" "How can screw movements be generated in the flight phase?" Measurements were carried out on the freerunners to illustrate this. There was a world record attempt at the end of each show act. At 13:00, world record holder and Big Bounce TV show winner Lorenz Wetscher attempted to beat the "standing distance world record of 3.30 metres". At 15:00 Lorenz Wetscher attempted to beat the world standing height record of 1.60 metres.
17:00 Science Show - Chemistry laboratory in the city centre (60 minutes)
Meadow SOWI
11:00 Circus Sea - Leonardo Bridge: ingenious wooden construction without nails and dowels (20 minutes)
14:00 Circus Sea - Arco: a fragile bridge of the moment (20 minutes)
Forecourt House of Music
20:00 Sound Trees Innsbruck
The old trees on the forecourt of the new Haus der Musik Innsbruck present the institutions united in the house in a visual-musical symbiosis and tell stories from the past.
From 22:15
Performed live from the concert hall, completely new sound colours were created through electro-acoustic manipulation, which the audience helped to shape. Using glowing smartphones, the audience was able to influence the live musical performance through their movements. Displayed as changing fragments of graphic notation, musicians transformed these light impulses into sound.
Additional programme for the deaf
10:00 Guided tour for deaf people to the main projects
10:00 to 18:00 Two interpreters are available. Outside the show programme, the interpreters can be picked up at the Infopoint for personal enquiries.
10.00 to 18.00 On Saturday, places can be reserved at the Infopoint for the guided tours on Sunday.
Many hands-on stations, workshops, lectures and guided tours are offered around Universitätsstraße. Young and old alike are cordially invited to experience the university up close and personal and to engage in dialogue with researchers
10:00-14:00 Jazz Brunch
The Uni Big Band and the Jazz Combo of the University of New Orleans hosted a jazz matinee.
Everyone was welcome to bring a picnic blanket, food and drinks and make themselves comfortable on the SoWi meadow. Thanks to the long-standing partnership agreement between the University of Innsbruck and the University of New Orleans, the Innsbruck University Big Band and the Jazz Combo from New Orleans collaborated on the last day of the festival.
Live on Stage:
The Masakowski Family
Stephen Masakowski - guitar
Alexandra Sascha Masakowski - vocals
Martin Masakowski Jr. - bass
Jeff Boudreaux - drums
Big Band of the University of Innsbruck
Conductor: Martin Ohrwalder
How is our brain structured and how does it work? (Demonstration)
Container Karl-Rahner-Platz 3
10:00-14:00
Using various high-quality plastic models of the human brain, the structure and function of the main central nervous structures will be explained and various neuropsychiatric diseases presented. Questions can be asked at any time during the lecture.
Teddy bear hospital: Will the teddy bear be healthy again? (join in)
Karl-Rahner-Platz 3, ground floor
Children can have their stuffed animals examined and "treated" here.
Guided tour and excursion programme
>> Tickets for the guided tour and excursion programme are availableat the Festival of Science Infopoint <<
A walk through the history of Innsbruck University
Meeting point: Infopoint Festival of Science
10:00 am, duration approx. 1.5 h
Participants: 25
The tour guide Christian Kayed takes you on a special guided tour of the University of Innsbruck, which was founded in 1669. The focus is on the founding of the university and its changes over the course of time. The Kaiser Leopold Hall and the Madonna Hall in the Faculty of Theologyare also visited.
The tour is largely barrier-free, although there are four times around five steps along the way.
Guided tour of the Foucault pendulum
Meeting point: Jesuit Church
10:00 a.m.
Participants: 20
Guided tour of the special exhibition "Maximilian I - Departure into the Modern Era"
Meeting point: Hofburg Palace
10:00 a.m.
Participants: 25
Attic tour on the architectural history of the Hofburg Innsbruck
Meeting point: Hofburg Palace
10:00 a.m.
Participants: 25
At every turn - green roommates
Meeting point: Infopoint Festival of Science
10.30 a.m., duration approx. 1.5 h
Participants: 20
Away from planted trees, shrubs and summer flowers, we set off on the trail of wild plants in Innsbruck. Sometimes hidden inconspicuously as "weeds" in borders and lawns, sometimes "annoyingly" filling pavement edges and pavement cracks, numerous species accompany us at every turn. Whether native wild plants that have moved to the city or foreign cultivated plants that have emigrated from urban gardens, together they characterise the wild flora of cities today.
Church service in the Jesuit/University Church
Meeting point: Jesuit Church
11:00 a.m.
Service in the Jesuit/University Church. Dialogue sermon on science and theology with Prof. Bruno Niederbacher SJ and Prof. Josef Quitterer.
The turbulent founding of the University of Innsbruck
Meeting point: Infopoint Festival of Science
11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., duration approx. 45 min.
Participants: 25
On this short and thoroughly entertaining walk, we go back to the beginnings of the 350-year history of the University of Innsbruck, but the present is not neglected either: from Herrengasse we go to Universitätsstraße to Theology and finish at the Sowi.
Inside Out - Insights
Meeting point: Infopoint Festival of Science
11:30 a.m.
Participants: 15
We scrutinise... For 350 years, the University of Innsbruck has been researching, developing, observing, analysing and questioning the seemingly factual - mostly behind closed laboratory, library or office doors. To mark the anniversary, students selected 17 of countless current research projects to be presented to the public in micro-exhibitions: Inside - out! Project manager Lisa Noggler presents 5 of these projects, which are located in the city centre.
Special places in the Jesuit Church
Meeting point: Jesuit Church
12:15 pm
Participants: 20
A look at Innsbruck: A city, its streets and spaces through the ages
Meeting point: Infopoint Festival of Science
12:15 pm, duration approx. 1.5 h
Participants: 15
Innsbruck, the city 'in the heart of the Alps', has been the destination of numerous tourists, in winter and summer, at least since the Olympic Games of 1964 and 1976. But it wasn't always like this. For centuries, the city derived its importance largely from transport. Innsbruck lies on an important European north-south axis. The Counts of Andechs were well aware of this when they had the city built in the 12th century. In the meantime, however, traffic has had the opposite effect, placing an increasing burden on the urban space.
As the city grew and changed over time, streets and squares were given names. These were often changed again - depending on political requirements - or their course and design were structurally altered. Public spaces with multi-layered inscriptions were created, often made visible by monuments.
The two-hour tour through the city centre (from Domplatz to Landhausplatz) attempts to look at both aspects, that of historical urban development and that of the significance of squares and streets, in their transformation and to provide examples that are intended to stimulate reflection.
Man and nature - a botanical journey through the sciences
Meeting point: Botanical Garden, Sternwartestraße 15
14:00, duration approx. 1.5 h
Participants: 30
What is the lotus effect? Can plants travel? And how does the foxglove get its name? Do you want to know? Then come with us on a journey through the sciences! Find out where nature plays a role in science and experience how humans and nature influence each other.