ASCEND@Berlin Science Week
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Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
Albert-Einstein-Straße 15,
12489 Berlin
This year the ASCEND project will be joining Berlin Science Week with an interactive experience of its own, bringing topics like AI, self-driving laboratories, green hydrogen, CO₂, and catalysis closer to you:
Meet the Scientist: Discover the Research Behind Tomorrow’s Clean Energy Solutions
Ever wondered what the future of clean energy research look like? Meet our researchers and discover their work up close.
In this interactive session, you will get the chance to talk directly with researchers and learn how they use science, technology, and artificial intelligence to find better ways of producing cleaner energy and developing new materials.
What does a scientist’s day look like? What challenges do researchers face? How do new discoveries happen? Bring your questions and explore the stories, ideas, and experiments behind the research!
Take a look behind the scenes of modern science and discover how our researchers are using new tools and creative approaches to help solve some of the energy challenges of the future. No scientific background is needed—just curiosity. Come meet the people behind the research and discover how today’s discoveries could shape the way we live tomorrow.
- November 5: Meet the Scientist | Berlin Science Week
- November 6: Meet the Scientist | Berlin Science Week
Can You Restart the Lab That Could Power Our Future?
The year is 2050. The future of clean energy depends on a laboratory that has suddenly gone silent. Can you bring it back to life?
Step into the role of an emergency research team and enter a futuristic artificial intelligence-powered laboratory where scientists are developing the next generation of sustainable fuels.
Your mission? Restart the Self-Driving Laboratory (SDL)—a smart research facility that uses automation and artificial intelligence to design and run experiments that accelerate the discovery of better catalysts.
But the clock is ticking. Without new solutions for producing fuels and chemical building blocks from green hydrogen and CO₂, industries such as steel, cement, and chemicals risk returning to fossil fuels. In 60 minutes, you will solve science-based challenges, explore the role of hydrogen, catalysts, and artificial intelligence in future research, and collect the pieces needed to bring the laboratory back online. Work together, make decisions, and experience how scientists of the future could tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.
Registration required:
- November 5: Can You Restart the Lab That Could Power Our Future? | Berlin Science Week
- November 6: Can You Restart the Lab That Could Power Our Future? | Berlin Science Week
About ASCEND
The interactive escape room is part of the ASCEND project, which explores new approaches to accelerate scientific discovery through autonomous experimentation and AI-driven research. Designed for curious minds of all backgrounds—no scientific expertise required. Come ready to collaborate, experiment, and discover how the research choices we make today can shape the energy future of tomorrow.
ASCEND (Accelerated Solutions for Catalysis using Emerging Nanotechnology and Digital Innovation) brings together digital catalysis, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), simulations, and self-driving laboratories, with advanced thin-film technologies to develop more efficient catalysts and enable sustainable fuels and chemicals. The five-year initiative unites six partners from research and industry: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI), BASF, Siemens Energy, Dunia Innovations, and the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin)/BasCat.