News

2025 National Conference in Nashville

After a year of intensive work on TSA projects such as webmaster, digital video production, engineering design, and architectural design, we had set ourselves a major goal: to present our results at the National TSA Conference in the USA and bring home as many successes as possible. This year, our journey took us to Nashville, Tennessee. We were accompanied by Mr. Schwieger and Ms. Frischmann, who stepped in at short notice for Mr. Brunsch, who was unable to attend due to illness. Ten motivated students from our chapter also joined us.

Our journey began on Monday afternoon in Leipzig. We took the FlixTrain to Berlin, but heavy storms had brought down a high-voltage power line, so we were stuck in Luckenwalde for two hours. We therefore had to travel from Südkreuz to BER Airport in a crowded public bus instead of the S-Bahn (our group, with all our suitcases and huge bulky luggage, was hard to miss). Once we arrived at BER, we checked into the hotel and got something to eat before resting up for the next long day of travel.

The first two days in Nashville were mainly spent settling in. We went on a shopping spree at Walmart, explored a nearby mall, and tried typical American cuisine at a diner. On Thursday, we drove into downtown Nashville. We visited the Capitol, strolled along the famous Broadway, and experienced firsthand how live bands played in almost every bar, creating an atmosphere of music, smells, and colorful lights. Finally, we tried the legendary “Nashville Hot Chicken” at Hattie B's.

On Friday, we focused on intensive preparation for our projects. Many constructions, models, and posters had to be set up on site or repaired, as the transport from Germany had not been without minor damage. In true teamwork, we cut, glued, soldered, and painted late into the night. In between, we attended our first TSA chapter meeting, where we received our participant ID cards and made initial contacts with other teams.

The official kickoff took place on Saturday morning with the festive General Session. The sight of thousands of participants from all US states was overwhelming. In the days that followed, our hours were filled with project submissions, competition rounds, spontaneous ideas, lively discussions, and the popular pin trading. We made contacts with TSA members from a wide variety of regions, exchanged experiences, and gained valuable insights into other ways of working. On Tuesday, the award ceremony took place. Here we were proud to announce that we had achieved 5th place in Digital Video Production and 4th place in On Demand Video. The latter is a suburban competition in which a short film must be created within just 36 hours. In the evening, we celebrated our results at a dinner together before packing for our departure.

On Wednesday morning, we began our journey home: a flight back to New York, then overnight to Berlin, and finally by bus back to Leipzig. Our time in Nashville was exhausting, but of course very enjoyable and impressive. We worked hard, but we also gained unforgettable impressions, saw and got to know old and new faces, and gained a wealth of experience.

2024 National Conference in Orlando

After a year of hard work on our TSA projects, the time had finally come to present our results in Orlando, USA, and, with a little luck, take home some extremely good rankings. On Sunday morning, our TSA chapter met at 8:00 a.m. at the airport in Leipzig. After a short flight to Frankfurt am Main, we boarded the plane to Orlando. The long-haul flight took just under 11 hours, during which we mainly spent our time watching movies, reading, and chatting. Despite the long journey, our arrival in Orlando at 6:00 p.m. was marked bysignificant tropical heat – 38°C and 80% humidity. At the airport, we picked up our rental car and also used an Uber to take our team and luggage to the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel. After checking in and settling into our rooms, we did some initial shopping at the nearby Publix supermarket before ending the evening with a relaxing swim in the hotel pool.

On Tuesday, we set off for the Everglades to take part in the Wild Willy Airboat Tour. The ride through the swamp on the air cushion boat gave us the opportunity to observe alligators up close and experience the impressive landscape of the Everglades. In the afternoon, we drove on to watch a SpaceX rocket launch. The event was a special highlight of the trip and left a lasting impression on all of us. After this eventful day, we returned to the hotel in the evening.

Wednesday was all about shopping and preparations. We visited the International Premium Outlet Mall in Orlando, followed by a shopping trip to Target. In the afternoon, the first TSA delegation meeting took place, where we received the official TSA backpacks and key chains with access cards. We used the evening to finish our physical model for the competition in the “Architectural Design” category and to print the documentation for other projects.The preparations were intensive, but necessary in order to be well prepared for the coming days.

The TSA Conference began on Thursday with the General Session, which brought together over 9,000 participants from across the United States, as well as international teams from Germany, Turkey, and South Korea. The opening event served as a welcome and to introduce the new national officer candidates. The following days were spent working on our projects and participating in various on-site competitions. The production of the on-demand video, which had to be completed by early Sunday morning, was particularly challenging. On Sunday, the final general session took place with the award ceremony. Our team was able to achieve 9th place in the “Data Science” and ‘TechBowl’ categories and 8th place in the “Coding” category. After the award ceremony, we took the opportunity to spend the day at Coco Beach, where we were able to relax by swimming and jumping in the waves.

On Monday, we took a full-day trip to the Kennedy Space Center. There, we gained interesting insights into space travel and the history of NASA. In the evening, we returned to the hotel and ended the day with our traditional “Root Beer Ceremony” and a final visit to the hotel pool.

The last day began with a visit to Beth's Burger Bar, where we successfully mastered the “Double D Burger Challenge.” In the afternoon, we took an Uber to the airport in Orlando. The night flight took us back to Germany, where we landed in Leipzig the next morning.

2023 National Conference in Louisville

After a year of hard work on our projects, Monday, June 26, marked the start of our trip to Louisville, Kentucky. We took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport and flew to Frankfurt, where we transferred to a transatlantic flight to Chicago. Upon arrival in Chicago, we were informed that our connecting flight to Louisville had been canceled, so after a long wait at the airport, we were given a hotel in Chicago.

Since the next available flight wasn't until the following evening, we spent the whole day in Chicago and explored downtown Chicago. We also walked along the Chicago River and checked out the Chicago Harbor. In the evening, we took the flight to Louisville. Upon arriving at our destination, we discovered that our suitcases had been left behind, lost, or even flown to the wrong city. With only our carry-on luggage and without our TSA projects—which were in our suitcases—we checked into the OMNI Hotel Louisville.

On Wednesday morning, we drove to the local Walmart to buy food for the competition week. We also took a boat tour along the Ohio River, where we learned more about Louisville's history and marveled at the Louisville skyline. In the evening, the 45th National TSA Conference began, where we were briefed and the first project submissions were due. Since one of us was able to locate our luggage, we learned that it was back in Louisville, picked it up, and were able to submit the first projects on time. From that point on, the next few days were packed with competition and there was hardly any free time.

On Thursday, the day started with the first general session, where we learned more about life as an engineer and the work of TSA over the past year. This was followed by the annual pin exchange, where you can swap pins from your own state with those from other states and have nice conversations. During the course of the day, more projects had to be submitted, on-site projects were scheduled, and we learned that we had reached the top 24 with Architectural Design and Data Science. In the evening, it was time for On Demand Video, where the task is to shoot a one-minute short film on a specific topic in 36 hours. We spent the evening writing the script and planning the shoot.

Friday began again with a general session and the subsequent pin exchange. The semifinals for the Digital Video Production, Coding, and Music Production projects were coming up, and we spent the day shooting our short film. It had to be edited and finalized overnight, as it was due the following morning. Saturday began very early for all officers and election delegates, as the new national officers for the following TSA year had to be elected, followed by another general session. Since we had reached the top 12 with Architectural Design, the semifinals were scheduled for today.

We spent the rest of the day recovering from the stress of the past few days and eagerly awaiting the award ceremony on Sunday morning, as we were in the top 12 with a total of four projects and thus had the chance to win a trophy. We came in seventh place with Architectural Design and fourth place with Music Production. To our surprise but equally pleasing, we won first place with Digital Video Production, which rewarded our work throughout the year.

Exhausted from the competition days and delighted with our first place, we drove as a whole chapter to the amusement park in Louisville. Unfortunately, the fun didn't last long, as a thunderstorm rolled in and all the rides and water slides were closed. In the evening, we visited a typical American pizzeria as a chapter and ended our stay in a harmonious and relaxed atmosphere. On Monday morning, it was time to head back home, which went almost smoothly. We arrived at Leipzig Airport on Tuesday afternoon with new experiences, memories of all the wonderful moments, and great motivation to work on new projects.

2023 Final Presentations - Day 3

On Wednesday, April 19th, the finals went into the last round. Architectural Design was the first project of the day and was presented by Julia, Johanna and Felix. They presented the 3D model of their assisted living home and explained their extensively thought-out ideas. They also had clear ideas for the creation of the physical model and summarized them in an understandable way. The creative project Children's Stories was presented by Johanna and Marlene. This year's story will promote a career as a STEM teacher and will appeal especially to children between 1st and 3rd grade. In addition, an interactive aspect should be included this year. The group wrote a logically structured, understandable and beautiful story and created the matching pictures. These support the plot and ensure a child-friendly overall book through rich detail and bright colors. An interactive website will form creative extensions to the pages. The final presentation was the Dragster project. Felix explained the concept for this year, the approach, as well as his prototype. He also presented his further plan and ideas for improvement. Our finals finally came to a close. Many thanks to the alumni and sponsors for their support and numerous tips. Now the final spurt is on for all members, so that all projects come to a great, satisfying result and of course they can be proudly presented at the Nationals, this year in Louisville (Kentucky). For the Officers and Advisors, the difficult task now remains to select those who will be allowed to fly to the Nationals this year to represent our Chapter. But to all members, thank you for your hard work. Now we have to wait for the results at the end of June!

2023 Final Presentations - Day 2

Tuesday the 19th of April was the 2nd day of our finals. This time we started with the presentation of Biotechnlogy Design. This year's task was to research a new solution that helps to provide astronauts with food while traveling in space. Helena started with the explanation of the problem and presented the chosen solution "Fy", a nutritional fungi protein. Sophia then presented the trifold design, which reflected the general theme of "space" and integrated the explanations into the design. LED technology that will be added after printing should provide interactivity and an interesting overall look. Lilly followed with presenting the plans of the model group for example a 3D-printed spaceship, which serves as visual support. Erik finished by explaining the video concept that will promote the chosen solution. Digital Video Production was the next project on the schedule. Here, a three-minute short film was to be shot this year, presenting a good-cause from the region. The team decided on a program where young people can learn about professions for free, making it easier for them to decide on a career path. Marlene and Sophia explained the approach, the idea as well as the plot. The latter was clarified by the presentation of the storyboard by Johannes. Afterwards the video was shown, which was able to capture the problem of missing future plans of many young people and presented the chosen project, which provides a solution for this, in a versatile way. The final project was Data Science, which was presented by Lauris. As part of their work, the group evaluated comprehensive data sets on public transportation in American cities. They illustrated the results in clearly laid out graphs, and Lauris presented them with confidence. Finally, Day 2 came to an end as well. The members of the presented projects openly accepted the numerous suggestions and can now finalize and optimize their work.

2023 Final Presentations - Day 1

On Monday, April 17th, we started our annual "final presentations" and thus the last working phase before the Nationals. The purpose of the finals is to present all projects and their status once again in detail in order to receive tips and suggestions for improvement from the other members of the chapter as well as alumni and sponsors and to keep them in mind when finishing the projects. Nils, Arthur and Erik opened with the presentation of Webmaster. One of our largest - and very successful - projects, where the task is to create a new website for our chapter each year. This time they incorporated all of the information in a clever and aesthetic forest design and presented the content, as well as special features of the website. Another aspect of Webmaster is creating a design brief. This year, the website had to be about a fictional company involved in space tourism. Lara W. then introduced the Audio Podcasting project. The task this year was to present and evaluate a product that high-school aged students could use. She explained the working process and introduced the portable blender that the podcast is about before playing it for everyone. Keanu and Lara S. then presented the Video Game Design project, which this year focused on Puzzle & Party Games. They showed their point-and-click adventure game, in which tasks must be solved to assemble a bubble machine over several levels. Next, Lara W. showcased the Photographic Technology project. She presented her 5 pictures, which all revolved around the 4 elements according to the assignment and explained how she implemented the specifications of a macro-, a black and white- and a still life picture. Finally Konstantin presented the project Music Production and therefore also played the self-composed song of the group. The song convinced with its great arc of tension as well as the creative use of vocals, instruments and effects. Thus the task of developing an energizing song was fulfilled. After this first successful and versatile day, we are looking forward to the next two days and wish all presenters good luck.

Winter celebration 2023

On January 21st 2023 our annual Christmas party took place - this time a bit delayed. As every year, we used this event to present the status of some projects to the other members, our sponsors and alumni over a buffet. Once all preparations were made and everyone found their seat, we started with a review of the successful competition year 2021/2022. Afterwards followed the presentation of 7 projects, including Biotechnology Design, Children Stories, Music Production and Webmaster. Thank you to all members for your hard work and great presentations. We were especially pleased with the attendance and numerous questions and comments from our sponsors, alumni and advisors

National Conference 2022

At 7:15 a.m. on June 23, 2022, the time had finally come. Our journey to the 44th National Conference in Dallas, Texas began. With anticipation, nervousness and motivation, we finally arrived about 24h later at the Super-8 Hotel, where we spent our first night. The next morning we moved to the Gaylord Texan Resort, our actual accommodation for the coming week and also the venue for the National Conference. After checking into our rooms, we headed to the local Walmart to stock up on food and pick up the last few essentials to fine-tune our projects. Saturday was all about exploring Dallas. On the list were the 6th Floor Museum, which educated about Kennedy's assassination, the Union Tower as the tallest building in Dallas, and a rodeo show in the evening. Sunday we used to relax and prepare. Documentations were printed and filed, the Architectural Design model was assembled, and the numerous conference rooms were checked out so we would know exactly where to go later. In the evening, we received our official name badges in a meeting and were explained the rules. Afterwards we already had to hand in the first projects. On Monday morning, the first General Session started, which we all eagerly awaited, since it was the first National Conference for every member. This was followed by the activity of pin trading, which also served as an exchange with other chapters. Throughout the day, projects were handed in and on-site projects, such as coding, were mastered. In the evening, the Cyber Security Challenge began and the topic for the on-demand video shoot was announced. This also meant that many members of the chapter were coding or drafting a script during the night. Tuesday also featured the morning General Session and the pin trading that followed. The rest of the day consisted of handing in many projects, such as Biotechnology Design, contesting other onsite projects, such as Problem Solving, and continuing to work on Cyber Security and On-Demand Video. In addition, the semi-final interview of the project webmaster was successfully completed. Wednesday, 9 a.m. marked the end of the Cyber Security Challenge and the submission of the completed on-demand video. After the General Session, there was diligent preparation for the Architectural Design and Biotechnology Design interviews, which were scheduled for early afternoon. Thursday meant the end of the conference and our trip, but first, the big awarding ceremony took place. We were eagerly waiting for the results, which did not disappoint us. The projects On-Demand-Video and Biotechnology Design made it to the semi-finals and thus to the top 12, while the on-site project Coding reached 4th place. We can be especially proud of our 3 trophies for 3rd place in Webmaster, Cyber Security and Architectural Design. After celebrating we spent the afternoon at the historic Grapevine before our trip home started around 6 pm. We finally arrived at the school around midnight on Friday, tired but happy and with numerous new memories.

Entry Projects 2022

This school year started with an extremely important task for our chapter - the admission of new members. At the end of the previous school year, we already advertised diligently to make as many interested students as possible aware of the competition and our chapter. With success, since the application list was well-filled. To find the students who would best complement our team and get involved, all applicants were asked to prepare an entry project over the summer break that reflected their areas of interest, skill, and also their will. In the 2nd week of school, the time had already come. On two afternoons, all applicants were given the opportunity to present their projects. These ranged from scientific presentations and computer programs to small inventions, composed pieces of music, and so much more. This spectrum of interesting projects did not make it easy for the existing chapter, advisors and especially the new officers to make a decision. But in the end, we chose the students who showed great commitment and potential, who can enrich our projects and continue them in the years to come, and who bring team spirit to the table. And with that, a warm welcome to Alek, Erik, Ina, Konstantin, Lily and Oskar. We are looking forward to the upcoming year and to working with you.

2022 Final Presentations - Day 3

Julia and Felix kicked off the last day of the finals with their presentation of the Park Lodge they created for the Architectural Design project. According to the specifications, it should be environmentally friendly and designed for 12 rangers. The team created a vivid 3D model for the lodge in Mount Rainier National Park, and began working on a physical model. Their building has a shape that immediately catches the eye and a well-planned concept of how 12 rangers can live there together over a period of several months. Keanu and Lara S. showed their talent and diligence afterwards with their presentation of the Video Game Design project. The assignment, "An arcade game for a museum," called for creating a video game that could appear as an arcade game in a museum. The team decided on a 2D runner game with dinosaurs. The player can learn about dinosaurs and understand their way of life in a playful way and with a very appealing design. After that Nils, Arthur, Johannes and Geriet showed the project webmaster with a comprehensive presentation. They presented the newly designed website of our TSA chapter, which was designed this year with an underwater theme. Programming was done with Django (Python) as backend. Also, the website was made available in Spanish and French in addition to English and German. The last project presented at this year's finals by Sophia is Digital Video Production. A short film of around three minutes in length was to be made on the theme of "A day in the life". The team decided to use the theme of a cancer survivor to draw attention to the everyday nature of this disease and to spread hope. The film, which had already been shot and edited, showed in high quality the protagonist, who learns in the course of the story that she has been able to beat cancer, thus taking the audience on an emotional journey. At the end of this long third day, all team members left the room and headed home, somewhat excited, while the Officers and Advisors, with the assistance of some alumni, stayed behind to make a decision on who would get to represent the Chapter at the National Conference this year. The following day, the names of those who will be going on the trip to Dallas were announced, causing some happy and proud faces and only further motivating the others to continue to step on the gas in working on projects next year. We are already looking forward to Nationals this summer!

2022 Final Presentations - Day 2

Freshly strengthened from the weekend, the finals went into the second round on Monday, 11.04.2022. We started with the presentation of the Children's Stories project, which was held by Johanna and Marlene. Children's Stories is about creating and illustrating a children's story. This year, the story should address the target group between preschool and first grade and introduce children to the field of engineering. The story "The Bat That Carried my Dreams" is about a protagonist who believes in her goals. After losing a competition in her childhood, she remembers the idea she had then in adulthood and refines it so that she and her research team can win an important competition. Through the story, reading children can be motivated to believe in themselves and learn about the field of engineering through the idea that the protagonist deals with in the course of the story. In doing so, the book's child-friendly illustrated pages help guide them into the story. After the presentation of Children's Stories came - who would have thought it - the presentation of Engineering Design. Felix and Andor showed three approaches to solving the infrastructural problem of medical care. They presented the concept of Plastic Roads for an environmentally friendly, faster and cheaper road construction, as well as "Telehealth" and "Telemedicine", which serve the communication between patient and doctor. Very "impressive" was how they showed their self-built and 3D-printed drone. After that, a more creative project was presented again. Sophia and Helena showed self-shot photographs on the topic of challenges. These represented different aspects - be it the challenge to "keep all balls in the air", i.e. to coordinate one's own life and to master challenges, the psychological challenge to accept oneself or the global challenge of consumption, which is getting out of hand in western societies. Dhruv and Helena concluded this day, which was longer than Thursday, with the presentation of the Biotechnology Design project. This year's theme calls for the development of a solution to cyanobacteria and two other solutions that were considered but ultimately rejected. Their solution called "Ultrasonic Algae Control Technique" minimizes the population of cyanobacteria in the affected water body by up to 90% in an environmentally friendly, effective and cost efficient manner. The associated trifold, which illustrates the solution, was also presented and could be further developed with the help of hints from the alumni. Due to the large number of projects, this second day was followed by a third day of presentations, at the end of which the officers and alumni would decide which team members would represent the TSA Germany Chapter at the 2022 Nationals in Dallas, Texas.

2022 Final Presentations - Day 1

For the first time in three years, we were able to have our TSA Final Presentations this year! The goal of these is to present the project progress and get more tips and critique for further work, so that we can start armed with more knowledge into the heated final phase of the TSA year. Due to the improved pandemic situation, we were also very pleased to welcome sponsors and alumni in person. We have divided our project presentations into three days. On Thursday, April 07, 2022, Lara W. and John kicked things off with their presentation of Scientific Visualization. They described the visual implementation of a solution against cyanobacteria and showed their skills with their impressive video, which they had already animated. Marlene and Frida closed the first day of finals with their presentation of Board Game Design. The goal of Board Game Design is to design and produce a board game. The team decided on a strategy game that combines magical elements and a jag of luck with strategic and planned thinking. The project was able to convince with a sophisticated game principle, as well as with high-quality and creative designs. After this first day of the finals, we were looking forward to the following ones and were curious to see what would happen next.

Christmas celebration 2021

This year's TSA Christmas party took place on December 16, 2021. However, due to the prevailing pandemic situation, we were unfortunately only able to make it online for our alumni and sponsors. Nevertheless, in compliance with Corona measures, our chapter met at the school and, with some snacks, presented seven projects, including Biotechnology Design, Architectural Design, and Video Game Design. But before the Christmas party could start, there was a lot of preparation to be done. The chapter was divided into three groups a few weeks beforehand, one of which took care of the shopping and preparing the buns, the other of setting up the technology and setting up the tables and chairs, and the last of which had to clean up everything and spruce up the auditorium at the end. While the shoppers were desperately looking for the filled gingerbread, the others were already setting up the camera and the microphone so that everything could run smoothly afterwards. After all the technology was set up, the external alumni and sponsors were connected via BigBlueButton and could follow our presentations online and give us tips and criticism. After everyone had presented their projects and everyone's nervousness had subsided, we were still able to give each other helpful tips and support each other. Shortly before the end of our Christmas party, there were still gifts, everyone had a little something for scrap Secret Santa. Everyone rolled the dice one after the other and whoever rolled a six was allowed to choose a gift.

Atlanta, here we come! - National Conference 2018

Once again this year it happened: Two weeks before the end of the school year, twelve students and two teachers disappeared from school to drowsily arrive at Leipzig Airport at 4:15 a.m. for a romantic sunrise over the A14 motorway. After a long bus journey, which was interrupted by a very short flight, we then arrived in a gigantic labyrinth also known as Frankfurt airport. All the more we were happy about the quite recommendable film selection of Lufthansa, which entertained us ten hours and 40 minutes on the way to Atlanta. At 3 pm local time we reached our destination and took the subway to the city center. We moved into our rooms on floors 31, 36 and 62 of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, the highest building in the city. The view was breathtaking, especially at night and from the outside glass elevator. Exhausted we fell into our beds. The next day we went sightseeing. At first, we visited the Georgia State Capitol - a magnificent building from colonial times, which contained numerous watercolor paintings by politicians as well as natural and social studies exhibitions. Of course, we didn't miss the chance to take part in the CNN Studio Tours. On the 50-minute guided tour, we gained many exciting insights behind the scenes of the world news station. From there we went through the Olympic Park in the city's heart to the Georgia Aquarium and enjoyed a live dolphin show. The next day we went to the iconic World of Coca-Cola, which we could hardly leave after an immersive experience in the 4D cinema because the floor in the last room was so sticky from dozens of cola varieties from all over the world. Afterwards, we were actually quite satisfied with our European soft drinks (even though the American ones were quite drinkable, too). Following this stimulating dose of pop culture, it was time for some contrasting though very educational experiences at the Center for Human and Civil Rights. This touching exhibition on human rights violations all over the world has left no one unaffected. Particularly striking was an interactive simulation in which the visitor was being put in the skin of a protester who was insulted and beaten during a peaceful sit-down blockade. In addition to testing the local restaurants, we used our evenings first and foremost to rebuild our competitive event work after the flight and give it the finishing touches. On Friday evening, the long-awaited day had arrived: This and the following day we worked according to a well-organized schedule to register and submit all projects in time. The conference opened with the Opening General Session at the Georgia World Congress Center in front of thousands of members clothed in navy-blue. In addition to the projects worked out during the school year, we took part in various on-site competitions and regularly kept an eye out for our names on the semi-final lists. We reached this stage six times and proudly prepared for our interviews in which we had to present and defend the projects in front of a jury. A visit to a baseball game of the Atlanta Braves, which was delayed due to bad weather, loosened up the competition atmosphere a bit. We concluded that Baseball was a very fascinating sport. On Tuesday morning the final standings were announced: Our team was on stage five times, including the ninth place for Biotechnology Design and the fifth place for Scientific Visualization. Finally, one sentence took our breaths away: "And the first place trophy goes to a team that came to us all the way from Germany..." we heard three times that day: We won three trophies for Webmaster, Digital Video Production, and - to everyone's surprise - Architectural Design. Very happy and at the same time sad about having to leave again, we made our way home. We would like to thank all team members, the parents who supported us on our way and, of course, our teachers, sponsors as well as TSA. They are the ones who make it possible for us to embark on this exciting journey every year.