The best way is to test: The Escape-from-Carbonia team works on the puzzles and experiment stations in e-conversion’s school lab. (Photo: V. Hiendl/e-conversion)

The “Escape from Carbonia” project team – awarded a prize in the University Competition 2025 – is working flat out on an interactive escape room on future energy. Developed by students, doctoral candidates, and communication professionals at TUM, the game combines exciting puzzles with current energy research from the Cluster of Excellence e-conversion. The aim is to bring science to life – with aha-moments, fun, and lasting impulses.

Brainstorm. Create. Discuss.

To develop the stations for “Escape from Carbonia”, we meet in our ideas workshop: the e-conversion student lab. After the first creative workshops and crafting sessions, we brought a few test players into the lab: Prof. Jennifer Strunk (TUM), Heidi Henrickson (TUM), and Barbara Wankerl (Max Planck Institute for Physics). We had much fun trying out, puzzling, and discussing, and received constructive feedback. Now it’s time to continue fine-tuning our stations, working out the concrete storyline, and getting to work on the experiments, because the premiere is approaching – the Kunstarealfestival from June 27-29, 2025, in Munich.

Impressions from our think tank