On June 27, 2026, the University of Duisburg-Essen participated for the first time in “Extraschicht”—the Night of Industrial Culture—with its Duisburg campus. Together with the Fraunhofer inHaus Center, the School of Computer Science organized a diverse program that brought science and research to life for visitors. The program was complemented by various exhibitions at the Gerhard Mercator House.

A special highlight was the photo exhibition “Seeing Through Different Eyes,” which was developed by students in the Human-Centered Computing and Psychology program as part of a course taught by Ditmar Schädel.

At the Fraunhofer inHaus Center, guests were treated to hands-on research. Among the participants were:

• the Department of Business Informatics and Software Engineering with its robot dog Ben,
• the Department of Interactive Systems with its social robots Yuki and Reachy,
• the Chair of Networked Embedded Systems with an assistive robot for everyday life,
• the Chair of Social Psychology with various robot systems,
• the Chair of Computer Science Education with its student lab, which generated great interest, especially among younger visitors,
• Dr. Thorsten Kimmeskamp’s interactive firefly swarm activity,
• the Chair of Media Informatics | Entertainment Computing with various virtual reality applications,
• the structural change project ZaKI.D (Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence Duisburg),
• as well as the startup SOLANIUS, the IoT Garage, the regional broadcaster STUDIO 47, and the startup GENERIO.ai.

With its diverse program, the Faculty Computer Science demonstrated just how multifaceted computer science is today—ranging from artificial intelligence and robotics to digital applications that visitors could try out for themselves. The University of Duisburg-Essen’s debut at Extraschicht was a resounding success and offered numerous visitors exciting insights into current research.

A heartfelt thank you goes to everyone involved who made this event possible, as well as to all guests for their keen interest.