Sparkasse/VGH-Cup: primary-school pupils from Godehard school develop computer programs for a race track
Beginning on Thursday slot cars will be racing on a Carrera race track at the Sparkasse/VGH-cup – an international U19 indoor football tournament – but not just for fun. Next to the football arena every hundredth of a second counts. Whomever is interested in racing can compete against a computer program, developed by primary-school pupils from the Godehard school in Göttingen in cooperation with Matrix. The fastest racer of the day wins.
“We want to provide a platform, to promote this project”, Lutz Renneberg from Fest-GmbH, the company that is hosting the cup, explains. At the Expo of Ideas in Hannover last September this project was already an attraction: both federal minister of research and education Annette Schavan and formula 1 car racer Timo Glock competed against the computer.
These, computer-controlled, Carrera cars are located at the “Robotix-AG” at Godehard school. Where pupils from second grade and above are introduced with computer sciences. This is primarily the result of the dedication of one of the parents, Dr. Marcel Thürk, who invests the majority of his free time in this project. “We want to generate basical motivation, so Mr Thürk is a real blessing”, says Principal Carla Koch. In addition to the local high school Hainberg-Gymnasium she is searching for further twin schools to expand this project. But without the initiative of IT-company Matrix this project could hardly be accomplished, co-principal Katharina Primer stresses out. “It is an innovative project which helps us to push the boundaries”, says Matrix-CEO Sion Balass, who could not win the race at Expo of Ideas – Glock was faster. However the most impressive performance was of Schavan, who after driving just a few laps made the fastest round with 2.41 seconds.
published in "Göttinger Tageblatt"
January 4, 2010
