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The Vienna Girls' Day gives girls the opportunity to get a first-hand look at technology and science companies. VRVis has been a partner of Girls' Day for many years and opened its doors again on April 27th - this time for 9 year old students of the Oskar Spiel Elementary School in the 19th district of Vienna.

Promoting young talent is something that VRVis does very actively. To inspire the researchers of tomorrow, children need to be introduced to exciting and accessible computer science projects. VRVis welcomed the girls with a mix of virtual reality, inclusive art and a Q&A session with female researchers.

• Art for the blind, how is that possible? Researcher Andreas Reichinger answered this question for the girls and showed them his research on inclusive art. Using advanced visual computing technology, paintings are translated into tactile reliefs that make art tangible in a new way. An interactive multimedia guide, developed as part of the EU project ARCHES in collaboration with more than 200 people with different disabilities, provides further information about the tactile relief at the touch of a finger, be it an audio recording, a video recording in sign language or various color projections that illuminate the history of the painting's creation.

• The girls were also able to see for themselves why virtual reality is sometimes better than "real" reality. In our VR demo room, they tested the Virtual Fire Extinguisher, our VR application for fire safety training. In virtual reality, students were able to safely practice extinguishing various fires in a kitchen and living room scenario.
• In a low-threshold Q&A session, researchers Rebecca Nowak and Theresa Neubauer answered the girls' questions: How does one become a researcher? And what is so exciting about being a computer scientist? In the end, the students were amazed to learn that researchers are actually detectives who get paid to solve tricky puzzles and learn new skills.