We organize a raft of activities for kids of all ages, backgrounds and levels, both during school time and in free time. For parents of school age children, engage with us by enrolling your child in one of the programmes or workshops listed below. For teachers, see how we can support you through initiatives such as researcher in my class, SATW TecDays and GirlsCodeToo, or our downloadable materials developed in collaboration with IFAC.
For Schools
For: Ages 10–19 
mint&pepper develops activities to help young people discover their talents as well as the fascinating world of the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). See their programmes for primary school, first- and second-level secondary school for more information.
We are currently supporting mint&pepper in designing didactic material to make their offer more accessible for children with disabilities. Read more about some of our past workshops with mint & pepper.
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For: Ages 8–18
GirlsCodeToo organises activities introducing kids (especially, but not only, girls) to software tools, coding languages and processes that are used to build apps, games, websites, and robots. They have several offers for primary and secondary schools (ages 8–18).
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For: Gymnasium classes (ages 12–18)
SATW TecDays bring scientists to Italian-, French-, and German-speaking Gymnasium classes (ages 12–18) for one day. NCCR Automation researchers are actively contributing to the programme. Read the SATW TecDays website for more information.
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For: Ages 7–16
EPFL Outreach Department organises several activities for schools (grade 3 to first-year secondary school).
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For: Ages 10–15
Girls in Control provides all the material (in more than 10 languages) to run a 2-hour workshop on control in your school.
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Researchers in my class
For: Ages 12–18
Our researchers are available to organise workshops for school classes. If you are interested, please contact us.
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National Future Day at ETHZ
For: 5. to 7. Class pupils 
NCCR Automation is involved in the organisation of workshops for children visiting ETHZ during the Future Day. For more information visit the website of the ETHZ Future Day.
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Visit ETHZ
For: Ages 7–18 
If you want to visit ETHZ, we are happy to organise a programme for your class. Please contact us.
Our partners offer a range of activities for kids during free time and school holidays:
- Mint & pepper leisure time initiatives
- Girls code Too after school courses
- EPFL Outreach Department free time activities
- ETH Treffpunkt Science City workshops, activities and lectures for adults and children on 6 Sundays every year.
- Scientifica Zurich workshops, activities and lectures for adults and children.
To make control theory more understandable to everyone, we publish a series of explainers that take a complex concept and break it down into small steps. Please see our technology explainers page
Promoting diversity is a key part of the NCCR Automation’s purpose and underpins all our activities for kids and schools. In particular, through our collaboration with mint & pepper, we aim to engage children with different backgrounds, such as kids with disabilities, neurodivergent kids, and kids with a migration background. Programmes such as those described above from GirlsCodeToo, Girls in Control and the extracurricular offers from EPFL Outreach are designed to give the opportunity to a greater number of girls to develop their tech skills and confidence.
We are also working on creating and sharing more resources in a wide range of non-Swiss languages.
You can learn more about this mission on the Diversity page.
Contact
