PowerUp GoIT at DSA – Bringing Computer Science to Life

At this year's POWERUP GoIT student competition, DSA once again hosted secondary school students in grades 10 to 13 from the Aachen region who are enthusiastic about computer science. Over several days, they worked on practical IT tasks that reflected various aspects of computer science. The competition is organized annually by ANTalive e.V. and REGINA e.V. and aims to inspire young talent to take an interest in computer science and give them a realistic insight into the world of IT.

The participating companies set their student teams various tasks. At DSA, the challenge was to create a program for image edge detection that converts photos into black-and-white graphics and allows them to be drawn by a self-constructed 2D drawing plotter. The control software for this also had to be developed, combining software development, electronics, and mechanics into a tangible overall system.

The competition concluded with a joint presentation session for all teams, during which the student groups presented their projects and answered questions from the expert jury. The jury included representatives from REGINA e.V. and the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. With a convincing concept, the team supervised by DSA prevailed and achieved the first place. Formats such as POWERUP GoIT show how important early practical cooperation between schools and companies is in order to spark young people's interest in IT careers.