Category: Blog

EVS Biking Tour to Drei Gleichen

Nodir YusupovComment
EVS Biking Tour to Drei Gleichen

On one of the last weekends of August CGE crew (Ondra Holan & Mikaela Petrakieva – the , Marina Bykova) together with friend EVSer from the EJBW, Sonya Pyshneva, and couple of other nice fellows, Haytham Atef & Tornike KaTchiuri, made a biking trip to one of the most fantastic places around Erfurt – Drei Gleichen 🏰.

The name for the area “Drei Gleichen” is said to come from an old tale: in the middle of a May night of the year 1231 a lightning ⚡️ kindled all three castles at once and they were seen like blazing torches from far away in the whole country. However, some historians have another, quite dull explanation: they believe that one of the three castles, the “Burg Gleichen”, gave the area its name.

The biking tour 🚲 started from the Erfurt Main Railway Station (Hbf), went through Steigerwald forest 🌳, several towns 🏠 (Bischleben, Ingersleben, Neudietendorf, Apfelstädt) and then directly to Drei Gleichen area. We hiked with our bikes to the top of the hill to enter an almost thousand years old fortress Burg Gleichen. Ramshackle walls welcomed us inside and let enjoy a snack over the bird-view of Schloßleite. Overall we estimated to cover 45 km distance.

We came home that day, tired but happy, with more than five hundred pictures 📸 made on the way. It’s possible to can check them here by clinking on the link (bit.ly/EVSbikingtour).

If you are interested in joining us on such lovely bizarre trip or you have your own idea of how to spend time with international folks in Erfurt, write us an e-mail ✉️ on: evs@cge-erfurt.org. We look forward to your responses! 😉

Photos: Marina Bykova, Tornike KaTchiuri

 

Stadt im Dialog 2

Nodir YusupovComment
Stadt im Dialog 2

Stadt im Dialog 2

After the successful study visits in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany last July, Stadt im Dialog 2 is now on its final phase.

Participants and experts from Russia and Germany flew in to Russia’s second biggest city and cultural center, St. Petersburg, to present their own projects, which will be realised in Russia.

On day 1, Oleg Pachenkov, one of the project coordinators from the Center for Independent Social Research , gave an overview of what to expect and what to accomplish in this 5-day event. Furthermore, the participants have shared their reflections on the study visit in Germany particularly on P2P learning. Aside from their reflections, they have also presented their initial project ideas that they want to work on. After the presentations, the group was divided into two and visited two different sites in St. Petersburg separately. The two places aforementioned were pre-selected to be the site where their projects will be materialised.

Stadt im Dialog 2 is a project organised by Culture Goes Europe Erfurt e.V. and CISR. And it’s funded by the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Quo Vadis, Europe? German-Ukrainian-Russian Youth Exchange

Nodir YusupovComment
Quo Vadis, Europe? German-Ukrainian-Russian Youth Exchange

In the globalised world we live in now getting back to national states and choosing populist leaders are mistakes we can not afford. That is why we need to ask the question: «Quo vadis, Europe?». This project addresses the need to prepare youth leaders of tomorrow by providing platform for getting comprehensive understanding of European and world affairs, learning tools and acquiring competences that could be used to deal with local challenges.

The second part of «Quo vadis, Europe?» will take place in Dnipro, Ukraine. This time the topics will include:
🙌🏼 Leadership in Civil Society & Youth Initiatives
💼 Social Entrepreneurship
📊 Business Planning & Public Performance

🗓 Dates: 19th-26th October, 2017
🌍 Place: Dnipro, Ukraine
🤝 Partners: Youth NGO MIKS Ukraine (Ukraine), Academy of innovation (Russia)
💰 Funding & Support: Stiftung EVZ (Meet up: Deutsch-Ukrainische Jugendbegegnungen Німецько-Українські зустрічі), Robert Bosch Stiftung, Auswärtiges Amt, Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Jugend und Sport.

The Ultimate Robot Battle

Marina BykovaComment
The Ultimate Robot Battle

Summer Coding School: The Ultimate Robot Battle took place on the 26th of July, 2017 in the office quarters of the CGE. One room was completely reserved for our young computer geniuses. There were two rounds: one for individual work, where you would need compete inside the circles, and one for cooperation, a truly team activity because you are paired up with someone else. The basic requirements were to use Detect Obstacles and Line Bouncing features, but some of your participants went further and let their creativity drive their constructions. In the end, some of the robots responded to the infrared signals from the TV remote controllers and inflicted a fatal blow. We spent another day together and after all the battles there was an Awards ceremony.

Study visit to the Digital Bauhaus Lab

Marina BykovaComment
Study visit to the Digital Bauhaus Lab

What can be more interesting then to find out that you passion can become your field of study and later on your job? Probably, very few things. That is why we had the study visit to the Digital Bauhaus Lab, where our dear participants could check out the place where research and practice meet.

The Digital Bauhaus Lab of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is an interdisciplinary research center, where scientists from the field of Computer Science and Civil Engineering, as well as artists, meet the challenges of the information society.

We had the opportunity to try on the 3D glasses and see the three-dimensional model of a castle somewhere in Luxembourg, to emerge in the VR using the HTC VIVE set and to learn how with the usage of thousands and thousands of picture it is possible to restore a historical object for the further research. All these prototypes aren’t just for fun, students actually develop them as part of their thesis or PhD work. So it’s both entertaining and contributing to the science.

We’re grateful to the Digital Bauhaus Lab for having us over and kindly showing all the tools!

Summer Coding School: Robotics Week

Marina BykovaComment
Summer Coding School: Robotics Week

And so the second week of our Summer Coding School started, this time about robotics! 🤖 Don’t get scared, we don’t have any AI around us, just small cute orange friends from Meet Edison. The purpose of this week is to teach the participants how to program a robot on the base of the knowledge they received with the Microsoft Visual Studio classes last week. The software for Edisons (EdWare) has drag-and-drop feature, but even with easily put blocks you still need to know the functions that are dragged.

The first sessions were a combination of theory about robotics and the discussion about the type of robots that already exist in the world (e.g. LEGO MINDSTORMS or the ones developed by the Boston Dynamics). Then we moved on to the fields of application and the occupations which are connected to the construction or service for robots. Later in the day we also opened the magic boxes and started exploring the functional arsenal of the Edisons for the first time. Thanks to the Code and Youth Strategic Partnership and Erasmus+ Program the participants got couple of educational robots to work on.

👥 Trainers: Georg Müller & Marina Bykova.