Fun, Excitement, and Cutting-Edge Research!

The four Clusters of Excellence of the Northwest Alliance stand for internationally recognized, cutting-edge research and highly complex topics. An exciting quiz night in Oldenburg proved that these topics can also be entertaining.

The four Clusters of Excellence of the Northwest Alliance stand for internationally recognized, cutting-edge research and highly complex topics. An exciting quiz night in Oldenburg proved that these topics can also be entertaining. More than 30 teams experienced this firsthand at the “Excellence Edition” of QuizNight at CORE in Oldenburg. With teams ranging from two to eight members, they successfully worked their way through four rounds of questions.

The market hall at the CORE coworking and event venue is traditionally transformed into a quiz arena once a month. Host Tobias Janßen challenges participants to a battle of wits with questions spanning all fields of knowledge. Last Friday, the quiz had a special theme: “Excellence.” In addition to questions about the cities of Oldenburg and Bremen – whose universities, together as the Northwest Alliance (NWA), are currently competing for funding as a University Excellence Consortium – there were questions focused specifically on the two universities’ most renowned research areas. Prof. Dr. Katharina Al-Shamery, the University of Oldenburg’s Vice President for Academic Career Paths, Equal Opportunities, and International Affairs, welcomed the participants and posed a quiz question: “The Northwest Alliance conducts cutting-edge research in four areas: animal navigation, marine research, and resource scarcity. What is the fourth research area?”

The correct answer is “auditory research.” In keeping with this theme, moderator Tobias was joined throughout the evening by Oldenburg-based auditory researcher Dr. Thomas Schwarz, who explained how active noise cancellation works. This feature blocks out all external noise and is used daily by many people when they wear headphones. “Microphones on the headphones pick up these sounds, and the headphones then generate the appropriate counter-sound to cancel out the external noise,” he explained. This cancels out the unwanted external noise, allowing you to focus exclusively on the music or your phone call. Most participants had likely encountered so-called Shepard tones before the QuizNight event without realizing it. This auditory illusion sounds like an infinite musical scale. In movies, it’s often used to build suspense. Schwarz had brought along a short clip from Batman: The Dark Knight. The seemingly endless acceleration of the Batpod, a type of motorcycle, is an example of Shepard tones.

Also present at the event was musicologist Dr. Michel Bürgel. He brought a Vibro-Chair, developed at the University of Oldenburg. Visitors tried it out with great interest, of course only after guessing its function. After sitting down, visitors were given a pair of headphones and could hear and feel the music being played. Various vibration plates under the armrests, backrest, and seat convert the instruments and vocals into vibrations. The researchers aim to use this approach to give people with hearing impairments an additional way to experience music.

The traditional highlight of every QuizNight event is the music round. This time, however, there was live music instead of the usual format. Music students Nils Brandenburg and Elli Hasler rehearsed numerous songs and came up with tricky questions about them. Sometimes, contestants had to guess song titles and artists, sometimes they had to complete song lyrics, and sometimes they had to identify which two songs Nils and Elli had merged into a single track.

If you’re curious to see if you would have won one of the four quiz rounds, test your knowledge with these 12 out of 70 questions:

Round 1: Bremen and Oldenburg

Round 2: Multiple Choice

Round 3: True or False

Round 4: Music Round

Impressions

Copyright Photos: Universität Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt