Experience the future of hydraulic engineering: AR sandbox on CampusXperience!

Experience the future of hydraulic engineering: AR sandbox on CampusXperience!

As part of the CampusXperience Festival at the Technical University of Braunschweig, an innovative “augmented reality sandbox” will be presented, which offers visitors the opportunity to understand how water flows through differently shaped landscapes. This exciting technology uses sensors to detect surface changes in real time. An elevation model is projected onto the sand, which spectacularly visualizes the user's interaction with the landscape. The sandbox is particularly relevant in the context of flood protection and urban planning by showing how water surfaces drain and which paths rainwater takes on variable terrain, reports the university's Leichtweiß Institute for Hydraulic Engineering.

The sandbox is not just a technical innovation, but also an interactive experience: visitors can build mountains, hollow out valleys and shape river courses themselves. By moving sand with hands or shovels, they can create virtual water that flows naturally and collects in lower areas. A color-coded topographic map is overlaid on the sand relief, clearly revealing contour lines and colors - red for high elevations and blue for low elevations.

Diverse experiences at the CampusXperience Festival

The CampusXperience Festival will take place from June 20th to 22nd under the motto "Explore. Celebrate. Play." and also offers a variety of other attractions. The highlights include the display wave channel, a 3D aircraft model and a Lego microscope. Scientists at the university will share their knowledge in hands-on experiments, workshops, lectures and readings and offer a variety of journeys of discovery through laboratories and facilities.

The festival opens on June 20th with a science slam in the Audimax, followed by a day dedicated to exploring new scientific findings. The Summervibes festival will take place on the north campus on the evening of June 21st, where all six faculties will present their exhibits. The festival concludes with a university sports festival on Sunday, June 22nd.

Augmented Reality in Education

The use of the Augmented Reality Sandbox is an example of how technologies such as Kinect and projectors can be used in education. This type of interactivity can be implemented particularly in museums to increase young visitors' awareness of topographical features and water flows. A planned installation of this sandbox is at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, Vermont. Partners in this project include Oliver Kreylos from UC Davis and several research institutes at universities in California.

The CampusXperience Festival not only offers a platform for technical innovations, but also promotes interdisciplinary learning and enthusiasm for science and technology. Further information about the festival is available on the website TU Braunschweig available.