European Researchers Night – In a world turned upside down!

October 20, 2025

Project: iMERMAID

E-Mobility

On 26th of September 2025 the European Researchers Night in Graz, organized by life is science attracted more than 750 visitors. This event invites everyone, from curious kids to lifelong learners – to experience how fascinating and diverse the world of science truly is.

Visitors can explore dozens of interactive stations, join workshops and meet the researchers shaping our future. The aim is to bring science closer to the public and highlight the people behind the research.

Together with our project partners, we were hosting two different “hands on” stations for the projects iMERMAID and SmartCorners.

Water heroes

Marcela was hosting our stand “water heroes” where we encouraged the children to use their imagination to build their favourite landscapes. This included hills and rivers and she experienced with them what happens when rain comes to play. Together we learnt what the groundwater level is, how rain can quickly infiltrate and what happens if pesticides or other chemicals are used indiscrimitely. The younger children couldn’t get enough of taking water samples colored with food coloring. The older kids and parents ended up in discussions about the water pollution coming from the city and its possible limitation. We also presented the iMERMAID schooling book. Thanks a lot to our colleagues from H2O People in this context.

Marcela Permann-Doubková: “I enjoy taking part in research night, and as always, I was looking forward to seeing what the highlight of the experiment would be for the children. It’s pipettes — children love pipettes!” 🙂

Together with the kids, we were also collecting ideas on how to save our water. The kids were also taking home step-by-step instructions for an experiment on water filtration. Many thanks to Anna for the great preparation and Marcela for testing and conducting the experiment already in various settings!

Driving sideways

Florian Ratz and Walter Lukesch (AVL-DiTest) took care about the stand organized for the SmartCorners project, where the audience could explore and interact with demonstrators of smart corner systems (SCS). This included a 3D-printed demonstrator, to visually and tangibly show how SCS work, and small RC cars, used to illustrate how SCS can influence vehicle dynamics, especially the steering, in an engaging manner.

Through these means, visitors could directly see and test how the project’s innovations in in-wheel modules, predictive control, and integrated vehicle systems might translate into real effects in mobility.

Florian Ratz: “One key highlight was the moment when younger attendees could drive the RC cars equipped with simplified SCS functionalities and were eager to park them properly in the designated parking space”.

Many thanks to the entire team for their preparations and for ensuring everything ran smoothly on-site.

The SmartCorners project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101138110. The iMermaid project is Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101112824. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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