The Cluster of Excellence SimTech will show its public science exhibition "Simulated Reality - How Bytes, Formulas and Computer Models Improve the World" at the foyer of the Rathaus Stuttgart. It will be exhibited from 26 September to 13 October 2023 and is open accessible for the public. SFB 1313 is one of the cooperation partners and will be part of the exhibtion. The Collaborative Research Center presents its newly realised porous media exhibit "Under the surface: making the invisible visible" for the first time.
About the SimTech exhibition
The world of science has changed dramatically in recent decades. Today, many experiments no longer take place in real laboratories, but are simulated virtually on the computer. Today's research is hardly conceivable without simulations. The same is true for everyday life. There is hardly an area in which one does not come into contact with simulations today: weather forecasts, climate simulations, population development, election forecasts, spread of infections - to name just a few examples. Simulations make it possible to use simplified models to reproduce processes and facts, to imitate them realistically and thus to be able to make predictions about them. So simulations are important, but everything associated with them sounds quite abstract and incredibly far away.
About the SFB 1313 exhibit "Under the surface: making the invisible visible"
What happens below our feet is not directly visible for us – al though the processes there are highly relevant for example plant growth and crop yield: water is flowing, salts and nutrients are transported and even animals live there. All this happens in the hollow spaces of the soil, the so-called pores. A soil is a “porous medium”. Our exhibit shows invisible porous media processes like flow of water, transport of dissolved salts, and the deformation of the soil that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The digital exhibit shows the porous media processes "flow, transport, and deformation" in a playful manner. Visitors can click through different climate and weather situations and explore the impact of rain or dryness for the soil and the atmosphere. At the end of each scenario they can test their knowledge with a quiz and immerse themselves in the world of porous media!
