A regular day in Karthaus

All lectures and exercises took place in an abandoned primary school (the children of Karthaus go to another village these days). The old gymnasium was large enough for the lectures. A typical day started at 8:30 with two hours of lectures. After a short break, two more lectures followed. The afternoon was filled with assignments and computer exercises. Half of the group started with assignments (often on a topic that had been dealt with during the morning), while the other half started with their computer exercises. The groups switched halfway the afternoon. The computer groups were done in small groups of three. Like the lectures, many subjects were possible. Common in all of these exercises was, that the students used a (often simplified) computer model of one of the lecturers to get an idea about certain processes. Every group presented its conclusions on the last day of the summer school by doing a small presentation. Even though the results were very serious, many people could not resist to put little jokes in their presentations. While this says little about the scientific quality of the presentations, it tells much about the excellent atmosphere in Karthaus.

The scientific part of the Summer School was finished with an extensive group discussion by the students (lecturers had left voluntarily to encourage free speech). Many points were discussed, but the general feeling was that it had been an excellent summer school.

The complete programme is available as a PDF.

On Sunday September the 14th, all the students and staff went on an excursion into the Ötztaler Alps to walk over the Hochjochferner, and to see the Hintereisferner.

Many people used the free afternoon of Wednesday 17 September to go to Bolzano. There they visited the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, where the remains of Otzi the Ice Man reside. A great many people declined the trip to the city: they preferred to go hiking around the village.