Opening Week 2024: What makes someone intelligent?
2024-09-30 Individuals, groups, machines, designs, decisions, systems and even buildings: what makes someone – or something – intelligent? More than 1,400 young people are invited to the traditional opening week at Leuphana University Lüneburg from 1 to 11 October. This year, the focus is on the phenomenon of "INTELLIGENCE". The first-semester students are invited to get to the bottom of intelligence – as the potential of humans to understand and shape society and its environments.
In 75 project groups, students will explore soft robotics, machine learning, future urbanism, fungal networks, the circular economy, and the future of language and democratic knowledge. Renowned guests from science and social practice will support the students as guest speakers and impulse givers. The opening week will be launched by psychologist Marina Weisband and neurologist Nils Schweingruber on Tuesday, 1 October, in the Libeskind Auditorium at Leuphana. Marina Weisband, as a public intellectual, has made it her mission to combine digital education with democratic participation. Nils Schweingruber is a doctor and founder and managing director of the UKE subsidiary "Innovative Digital Medicine" (IDM), which researches and develops personalised precision medicine with a focus on artificial intelligence. The musical prelude will be provided by the University Music Director Rebecca Lang and the violinist Azadeh Maghsoodi.
Guest speakers at the opening week include the AI-expert Tristan Post, the anthropologist and behavioural scientist Michael Tomasello, the philosopher and neuroscientist Kristina Musholt from the Leipzig Research Centre for Early Childhood Development, the political scientist and artist Liya Yu, and the biologist Aletta Bonn from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.
Interested parties from the region are also very welcome to attend the opening week. On Wednesday, 9 October, at 6:30 pm, Terrell Jermaine Starr, journalist and founder of the "Black Diplomats", will talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the future of US democracy.
Michaela Wieandt, head of Leuphana College, is looking forward to the special atmosphere of Opening Week: "During the first week, the campus belongs to the first-semester students. From the very first moment, we combine academic intensity with interpersonal encounters."
Note for the editorial offices
Tuesday, 1 October, 10:15 a.m. – Opening in the Libeskind Auditorium at Leuphana University Lüneburg
We would be very pleased if you would report on the 2024 opening week. If you require further material or would like to arrange interviews with participants, please let us know.
Further information about the event is available at: www.leuphana.de/startwoche
The complete programme in English can be found here:
https://www.leuphana.de/openingweek