A very warm welcome to the smartest night of the year!

Professor Patrick Becker will kick things off with a talk and workshop on the topic “Artificial Intelligence as a Vision of Salvation?”. Visitors to the ErfurtLab will learn how we make decisions and what role our gut instinct plays in this. Children are also invited to get hands-on at the ErfurtLab and in the Media Education Workshop. Using a green screen and VR, they can transport themselves to other worlds, direct a Lego animated film, build an electronic cutlery piano or programme small robots. Guests can also explore the underground sections of the University Library that evening. Or how about a taster course in Czech for your next holiday? Or perhaps you’d prefer a reading? No problem: alongside a reading by adjunct Professor Michael Haspel on “Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement in the GDR”, alumna Gilda Giebel will also be speaking about her new book that evening. The book deals with “The Evil in Man” and the question of how longing can turn into emotional dependence and real danger. The Gotha Research Library is also taking part in the “Long Night of Sciences” – offering insights into its collection of globes. In addition, PD Dr Benjamin Dreer-Göthe from the Erfurt School of Education will take guests from the cockpit to the classroom and explain what teacher training could learn from the training of pilots. 

An overview of the full programme is available on the “Long Night” website at: https://lange-naechte.erfurt.de/ln/de/wissenschaftsnacht/index.html. Admission to all events is free, so no ticket is required.

Carmen Voigt, spokesperson at the University of Erfurt: “The ‘Long Night of Sciences’ offers us a wonderful opportunity to show the wider public what happens on campus every day, what research is being carried out, and how all of this relates to the reality of our daily lives. Because even though there isn’t much ‘bang and fizz’ at a university of humanities like ours, what we do here is incredibly exciting. And that’s why we’re looking forward to welcoming our guests again this year.”