LIST research features at the 2017 Science Festival

From 9 -12 November 2017, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) participated in the Science Festival at the Abbaye of Neumünster, in Luxembourg city. The Festival was organized by the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) with the objective of promoting science and technology to the general public and young people.

The first two days of the Festival were reserved for groups of students from primary and secondary schools in Luxembourg, who took part in interactive and educational workshops. During the weekend, the Festival was open to the general public of all ages and everyone, from young children to the young at heart, was invited to take part at the stands activities.

LIST’s scientists presented their latest research projects at three stands at the science festival, through educational workshops and pedagogic activities, with the objective of promoting science among the young children and teenagers as well as to the general public of all ages. 

Smart Materials for Everyday Life

In the activity entitled “Smart Materials for Everyday Life”, presented by the MRT department, the public was invited to realize the importance of smart materials in common machines and daily objects such as mobile phones, digital cameras or motion sensors. At the heart of those objects is the ability to couple properties and convert energy between different forms, using materials of the type that are studied at LIST. Dynamic experiments on piezoelectricity and thermoelectricity enabled the visitors to play with these phenomena. 

Have fun with the Internet of Things

The thematic of the second stand was “Have fun with the Internet of Things”, represented by LIST’s IT for Innovative Services (ITIS) department in collaboration with the Service National de la Jeunesse (SNJ), the Service of Coordination of the Research and Pedagogical Innovation (SCRIPT) as part of the project BeeCreative4Kids. The stand presented Kniwwelino, a development board created by LIST, with its visual programing tool that allowed 6 year old kids or older, to develop playful applications in the thematic of IoT (Internet of Things). The board  is equipped with a WiFi microcontroller, two buttons, a LED matrix of 5x5, and a RGB LED. 

Around 400 kids visited the booth to develop one of two proposed projects: a digital rock/scissors/paper game to play against the computer and a bracelet of best friends to send icons and messages between friends via WiFi. The more curious could even learn to light on and off a lamp thought the distance. More information www.kniwwelino.lu and bee-creative.lu.

From chewing gum to tire, there is only one step

The third and last stand entitled “From Chewing gum to tire, there is only one step” was designed from the perspective of LIST’s MRT department and the tire producer company Goodyear current collaboration. Following this recent partnership, it appeared of particular interest to show the general public how private companies and research institutes could potentially combine efforts for a better future. While Goodyear focused on showing the audience the process of creating a tire. LIST researchers focused on the fundamental aspects of material science.

Equipped with labcoats, safety glasses and gloves, visitors could experiment being a chemist at the stand. To ensure a suitable pedagogy, the activities were adapted to the audience age. On one activity, a basic understanding of colors/dyes composition was provided by conducting simple chromatography experiments that allowed the visitors to observe the actual separation of primary colours on filter paper, and the extraction of dyes from sweets, such as M&Ms. On a second activity, a first insight into the world of polymeric materials was provided through a fun chemistry synthesis, where colourful chewing gums were successfully created by the visitors all along the festival. Beyond the synthesis process, visitors could truly understand the basics of polymer behaviour, namely viscoelasticity.  Many were surprised to learn that polymers are considerably abundant in our daily lives, in both natural and as synthetic forms. These activities have definitely delighted adults and children in a friendly atmosphere.

Finally, microscopes were made available at the stand so the public could observe tire samples and interesting objects in a higher resolution, while showing how those same objects look at LIST's MRT lab with a very powerful microscope. 

The three stands attracted numerous visitors among them, LIST’s researchers had the honour to present their initiatives to the Ministry Secretary of the State and Higher Education, Marc Hansen and to The Executive Head of FNR Marc Schiltz.