Universitarium 2012

Universitarium opens its doors for a summer experience at the Utzon Center. 

Universitarium is Aalborg University’s summer experimentarium located at the Utzon Center on the waterfront in Aalborg. Entrance is free for everyone and it’s open every day in July, August and September. Universitarium aims to increase interest in science and research in children and youth and focuses on science and technology but puts things in perspective with knowledge from the humanities and social sciences.

Discover all the things you cannot see

The human eye is amazing, but has its limitations. The human eye can’t, for example, see if there is a bomb in a suitcase at the airport without having to open each case and can’t see what’s wrong with your intestines without cutting open your stomach. But with technological assistance, the invisible becomes visible to the human eye. This is the theme of this year’s Universitarium.

The theme of this year’s Universitarium is "See the things you can NOT see" and it’s about all the technology that allows us to actually see a lot of things in our daily life that, without technology, like cameras for example, we otherwise wouldn’t be able to see.

- Cameras make our life much easier, and our guests are guaranteed to figure this out at Universitarium. Here they find rats in a sewer system. With a camera mind you, so you don’t have to dig up the entire driveway. They can also perform a timed keyhole surgery and hopefully save the patient's life, and they can use a cardboard box as a camera and even develop the image in a darkroom - just like we did before the digital camera.

At the airport, most of us have probably caught a look at the picture of our own suitcase when it is run through the scanner, and at Universitarium it’s possible to see if you are suited to be a security guard at an airport.

Since this year marks 100 years since photography was first used in a criminal case, this is also opportunity to test how good your detective skills are. We make a complete setting based on a murder 100 years ago. The audience is the mobile crime investigation team and with the new tool of that time, photography, takes pictures of three things at the crime scene. Each of the images provides three scenarios, and it's up to the investigation team to determine who the murderer is. If you take pictures of the right things, you find the murderer. If you take pictures of the wrong things, however, you can sentence an innocent person to death, so think twice before you aim the camera. This shows that images cannot simply be used, but in fact can also be misused.

University students are guides at Universitarium every day. They can also show you how to use the camera Obscura, which is a huge box, with a small hole. In here you can see the world outside of the hole upside down.

Univeristarium is creating its own satellite workshop where you can program your own measurement chips. You can send them up with Universitarium’s helium-filled weather balloon and measure pressure, temperature or altitude and see the entire thing from above with from a webcam hanging under the balloon.

Universitarium is an experience for you from Aalborg University. We have opened the toy box, and you can play!

Opening hours:

June 30 to August 12:  Open every day 10am to 5pm  

From August 13 to September 28: Open Saturdays and Sundays 10 to 17 and weekdays 15 to 17.

FREE ADMISSION

See more at www.universitarium.dk

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