On November 18, 2022, the kick-off event for the Voluntary Scientific Year 2022/23 took place. The one-year educational offer – comparable to the Federal Volunteer Service – enables the selected high school graduates to gain insight into the research projects of the engineering faculties and to participate in university courses.

At the start of the kick-off event, the 23 FWJ participants were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Peter Mark (Chair of Concrete Structures) and Dr. Heike Hunneshagen (School-University Team) as well as the Rectorate of the Ruhr University Bochum. With presentations, a look at last year's successful FWJ was taken and this year's FWJ participants encouraged. After the presentations, Dr. Karsten Winkler guided the FWJ participants through the IAN Structural Testing Laboratory, and the kick-off event was rounded off with a social get-together and musical entertainment.

The participants are supervised by 18 chairs and working groups of the engineering faculties. The participating chairs and working groups of our faculty are:

• Chair of Building Materials (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Breitenbücher)
• Chair of Foundation Engineering, Soil and Rock Mechanics (Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Torsten Wichtmann)
• Chair of Concrete Structures (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Mark)
• Working Group of Wind Engineering and Fluid Mechanics (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Höffer)
• Chair of Urban Water Management and Environmental Engineering (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc Wichern)
• Chair of Highway and Road Engineering (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Radenberg)
• Chair of Steel, Lightweight and Composite Construction (Prof. Dr. Knobloch)

We wish the 23 FWJ participants a good start, informative insights and, above all, lots of fun!