NRW winners as guests at BEWITAL

The robotics club at the von Galen School in Oeding has done it: the pupils secured first place in the NRW final of this year's zdi robotics competition - a huge success for the young team. This was followed by another highlight: a visit to the BEWITAL Group, where the children were able to take a look behind the scenes of a modern production facility. After weeks of programming with LEGO robots, the visit provided the perfect opportunity to experience the leap from school club to real application - from educational robots to industrial automation.

A very special tour

The young technical talents were welcomed by Alexander Bergup, who now works as an electrician at BEWITAL - and was once a pupil at the von Galen School himself. "It was something very special for me to show the children how technology works here in our everyday life. And it's fun to see how enthusiastic everyone is about technology. I saw a lot of amazed faces here - and our young guests were definitely not bored," says Bergup.

Machines you can touch - and recognize

After a brief introduction by Yvonne Brüninghoff from BEWITAL, the children walked across the site and went straight to Plant 5, where they experienced live how large industrial machines and robots work: Devices that pick up packaging bags using suction cups, measure pallets using sensors or classify products using camera technology. Particularly impressive for the children:

“The sensors we see here are similar to many of the things we program in class with our LEGO robots - only on a very large scale,” explains Sebastian Terhart, teacher and head of the working group. “The children were able to draw direct parallels - that makes learning come alive.”

From the AG to the winner's podium

The working group had been preparing for the competition for months. Under the motto “Future Food”, the pupils programmed robots to solve tasks such as harvesting algae or recognizing vegetables on a LEGO scale. With creativity, teamwork and a lot of research spirit, they finally won the state competition.

Partnership with perspective

"It's particularly exciting for local children to see what's behind the ‘BEWITAL black box’ - after all, many of them drive past our buildings almost every day without knowing exactly what happens here. There is a lot of modern technology, clever automation and many dedicated people in the halls. Together with those responsible at AG, we created a real connection to practice during the visit and made technology tangible. And it was a great pleasure for us to welcome the students from our neighborhood in person," says Yvonne Brüninghoff from BEWITAL.