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Authors: Alfonso Aceves-Aparicio and Pablo Narezo-Guzman

Alfonso Aceves-Aparicio and Pablo Narezo-Guzman took first place in the biology category with their video "The Ant-Slayer." Their video uses impressive high-speed footage to show how the Australian spider Euryopis umbilicata (ant-slayer) takes down much larger and more defensible prey. The hunting technique consists of two phases: The first phase is a kind of acrobatic attack in which the spider swoops over the ant from its resting hunting position while itself secured to the trunk by capture silks. It pulls this capture silk out of its spinnerets with its hind legs, thus immobilizing the ant. The first phase occurs within 300 milliseconds. In the second hunting phase, the spider circles the ant to entangle it in more adhesive silk and then executes the fatal venomous bite. The Australian spider has an 85 percent success rate in its attack, making it one of the most successful predators in the world.

Author: Alexey Stepanyuk

Alexey Stepanyuk took first place in the chemistry category with his video "Merry Christmas!". His video shows the soft rubber fingers for robotic applications developed in the research group of Dr. Werner Pauer in action. In the video, which is accompanied by Christmas music, a robot packs small Christmas packages using a universal gripper equipped with rubber fingers. The fingers were produced using an injection molding process, and a suitable gripper base was produced using a 3D printer. Via pneumatics, the fingers can be spread according to the bellows principle by generating a vacuum and closed with the help of overpressure.

Author: Sina Simona Pinter

Sina Simona Pinter took first place in the Earth System Science category with her video "Analyzing how ocean physics prevents coral reef formation." In her video, created with Microsoft PowerPoint, she explains the formation processes of coral reefs and how an internal wave can affect the biogeochemistry of the water column in a way that prevents coral reefs from forming. As a result, even the thriving coral reef ecosystems that provide shelter for many plant and animal species cannot develop.

Authors: Dr. Matthias Kerzel, Erik Strahl and Franziska Schmidt

Dr. Matthias Kerzel, together with Erik Strahl and Franziska Schmidt, won first place of the University Video competition in the category of computer science with their video "NICO Robot." The video showcases the humanoid robot platform NICO (Neuro-Inspired COmpanion), developed by the "Knowledge Technology" research group led by Prof. Stefan Wermter. NICO is an open platform for research in the field of neuro-robotics and human-robot interaction. The system can communicate with human interaction partners through facial expressions, gestures, and speech, as well as learn from them. With cameras, microphones, and haptic sensors in its hands, NICO perceives its environment and is capable of grasping and manipulating small objects. The video is a compilation of various recordings from the years 2018 to 2022.

Author: Franziska Esmek

Franziska Esmek took first place in the physics category with her video "A new Method for analyzing DNA." In her animated video, created with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects, she presents the novel laser scanning method BIOREAD, which can be used to read DNA molecules like barcodes for biomedical applications, such as cancer monitoring. A blood sample is sufficient to extract the relevant genetic information. The DNA strands contained in the sample are fluorescently labeled, elongated and pushed into a channel where a laser scanner collects the valuable information. Like a barcode, each DNA segment has its characteristic pattern. In this way, cancer genes can be identified and thus metastases detected at an early stage.