S³ 2025

Rockets are the only machines powerful enough to reach orbit, carrying satellites, astronauts, and scientific instruments beyond our atmosphere. In 2024 alone, there were more than 180 rocket launches, highlighting the growing interest of both research and industry in reaching space. Placing spacecraft in orbit is essential not only for exploring the universe but also for studying our planet and learning how to protect it. I know rocket science might seem incredibly hard—and don’t get me wrong, it is—but are you curious about how rockets actually work? How do they generate enough thrust to defy gravity, and how can we control their flight so precisely?

In this project, we'll dive into the physics and engineering that make rocket launches possible. You will explore multiple branches of physics— dynamics, thermodynamics, and aerodynamics—while applying an engineer's mindset to solve real-world challenges. You will discover how rocket engines produce thrust, why stability is critical, and how each component influences performance. Through hands-on experiments, you will test how factors such as size, shape, and balance affect a rocket’s flight. Finally, we will evaluate how well engineering models describe reality by launching a small rocket and comparing the real-life results with mathematical predictions. By the end of this course, you'll gain not only a deeper understanding of rocket science but also insight into complex physics derivations and how engineers apply them to real-world problems.

Diabetes, known since ancient Egypt as the "sweet disease," was once treated with starvation — limiting patients to just 240 calories a day (roughly half the size of a Snickers bar). In 1921, insulin was discovered in dog pancreases, sparking a revolution in insulin production from pigs and cows. This continued until 1982, when the first recombinant human insulin was produced in E. coli, offering a purer, safer, and cheaper alternative.

In this project, we’ll follow the steps of insulin's journey. Just as insulin was produced in bacteria, we’ll introduce genes for fluorescent proteins into bacteria, make them produce the proteins, and purify them. Along the way, we’ll learn to use tools for visualizing DNA sequences and protein structures. This project will give you a hands-on understanding of how genetic engineering is used to create life-saving proteins like insulin, and how we can apply these techniques to other proteins. If you're ready to explore how biotechnology is changing the world, join me on this journey!

We live in a time where Machine Learning is getting more and more important, with AI models being used for an increasing number of tasks, such as sorting through job applications or identifying academic fraud. Therefore, it is important to make sure that computers make good decisions that do not unfairly discriminate anyone. For example, nobody wants their university application denied because of their race or their gender. But what exactly does it mean to make a fair decision? How can we teach that to an algorithm? And how do algorithms “decide” or “learn” something, anyway?

Those are the questions we will attempt to answer in this project! To that end, we will look at different definitions of fairness, how to express them so that a computer can understand them and evaluate both how accurate and how fair or unfair some machine learning models are. You will learn how to evaluate algorithms and we will discuss how different evaluation methods are in conflict with each other. We will also consider what kind of role datasets and potential data bias play for fairness in machine learning. And we will be working on how to make machine learning models more fair. You will learn the basic theory behind a few standard machine learning models and train and test models of your own. Our work will focus mainly on classification models – which sort data samples into pre-defined classes – and we will mainly use smaller models rather than deep neural networks. We will work with the programming language Python, but no previous experience in coding is required.

Phytoplankton are tiny organisms floating in lakes, rivers, and oceans, yet they are responsible for producing over half of the oxygen we breathe. While forests often get all the credit, these microscopic life forms are quietly shaping the planet. They form the base of aquatic food webs, help regulate the climate, and can even affect the quality of our drinking water. But when environmental conditions change, due to pollution or warming temperatures, phytoplankton can grow out of control. This overgrowth, known as eutrophication, can lead to dangerously low oxygen levels in the water, threatening fish and other wildlife. Understanding what makes these organisms thrive or collapse is key to protecting our ecosystems and preparing for the environmental challenges of the future.

In this project, we will explore the invisible life hidden in an urban lake. Participants will collect water and biofilm samples from different points around the lake and search for algae and other microscopic organisms living there. Using both microscopes and DNA techniques, they will identify which species are present and explore how their numbers differ between locations. Along the way, they will learn how to extract DNA, use a PCR and visualize results. Finally, they’ll use simple coding and data analysis to compare sites and draw conclusions. This hands-on journey from field to lab to data will show how molecules, ecology, and statistics come together to answer real-world environmental questions.

Ever wondered how we can measure something a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair? Interferometry is the answer—a brilliant technique that uses the interference of light to detect incredibly tiny distances. Its applications span a vast range of scales—from detecting gravitational waves caused by cataclysmic cosmic events to probing the behaviour of electrons in materials through optical spectroscopy. By exploiting the wave nature of light, interferometry allows us to explore both the grand structure of the universe and the subtle properties of microscopic systems. Whether you're into the cosmic or the quantum, interferometry connects it all.

In this hands-on project, we'll dive into the world of precision measurement by building our own Michelson interferometer. This device works by splitting a beam of light into two paths, reflecting them off of mirrors, and then recombining them to create an interference pattern that shifts with even the tiniest change in distance. We will experiment with real systems, learn the mathematical principles behind spectrum analysis, and, if time allows, even try building a basic spectrometer. Along the way, you'll see how light can reveal the hidden structure of matter and how different materials leave their own unique spectral fingerprints.

Understanding how our planet maintains its temperature is essential for facing the challenges of climate change. A key factor in this balance is albedo – the fraction of sunlight that Earth reflects back into space. This concept affects everything from melting polar ice to the design of white rooftops in urban planning. Albedo is closely tied to everyday life – like why we wear white in summer. Even small changes in surface reflectivity can lead to larger shifts in temperature, especially through positive feedbacks. For example, when ice melts, darker surfaces absorb more heat, causing even more melting… These feedback loops are a defining feature of Earth system science, helping us understand how local changes can influence global climate.

In this project you will explore the science of albedo through experiments, models, and systems thinking. Participants will start with hands-on experiments to measure how different surfaces heat up under light, exploring how surface properties affect temperature. We’ll connect our findings to simplified energy balance equations, and then move on to how positive feedbacks – like the ice-albedo loop – can amplify small changes. Participants will also experiment with simplified models to visualize these dynamics. By the end, you will understand not just how climate works, but how even small actions might matter.