Dreaming the future

At 1 p.m. on this Sunday afternoon, the Museum Island is already buzzing with activity. Outside, visitors are attracted by a robot-themed bouncy castle, while a number of small exhibition and workshop stands are set up across the site. Inside, people are giving talks on biohacking, gaming, and AI on various stages – including the presentation of the MyMachine project. Uta Hauck-Thum, Professor of Primary Education and Didactics at LMU Munich, stands at the entrance to the Theater Stage. “Alright, everyone come to MyMachine!” she shouts, encouraging the crowd to enter the room.

The seats quickly fill up with an eager audience. After a brief introduction, a video clip explains the idea behind the project and its implementation. Prof. Michael Decker, Director General of the Deutsches Museum, explains that he had noticed how the museum mainly displays “old machines” and urgently needs some new ones. Could the children help with that?

Prototypes “in real life”

This is how the development of the dream machines began. Children from various primary schools across Munich spent a year working on their ideas, with support from LMU student teachers and museum educators. As a first step, ideas were gathered from all the pupils and then selected by a democratic vote. Students from TUM then translated the final concepts into digital models. Under the supervision of Alexander Schauer and Stefan Reindl, the prototypes were finally built “in real life”, some of them using 3D printing, at the vocational college in Altötting.

Cleanup robots and food dispenser for stray animals

Alexander Schauer and moderator Caro Matzko then present the finished products. One of them is RoTu, a robotic sea turtle that is capable of swimming at speeds of up to 80 km/h and detecting waste in the ocean using artificial intelligence. The children are very impressed to see a brightly colored purple cleanup robot that also dispenses sweets. Other inventions include an umbrella hat that automatically opens up when it comes into contact with water, a beverage dispenser that stops children drinking too many fizzy drinks, a football goal that automatically shoots balls back using air pressure, and a food dispenser for stray animals that uses an AI camera to enable it to distinguish between dogs and cats and dispense the right food for them. To the audience’s delight, this system was demonstrated live by Piaggio, a former stray dog from Italy.

The participants were just as enthusiastic as the audience. The close collaboration – including between students from LMU and TUM – was described as a lot of fun. When the moderator asked whether this project was a unique event, Uta Hauck-Thum said no: “Hopefully, this represents the school of the future.” She advocated for giving children more opportunities to express their ideas. She said this will require motivated students, more engaged vocational colleges, and sponsors of course. “We’re committed to this and it will continue.”

As the audience make their way outside to take another closer look at the machines, the impression you get is that this is an initiative that provides hope for a future full of creative technologies and a playful, childlike view of the world that makes it seem possible to solve almost any problem.