Anyone who claims that young people today lack an interest in the natural sciences and fail to achieve success in those fields clearly hasn’t yet taken a look around the plus-MINT boarding school Steinmühle. There, in fact, the students have racked up one victory after another in the “Jugend forscht” competitions. Akaash Bhagwat (14) and Emil Zuckermann (12) recently took first place in physics at the state level in this competition.

A Dedicated Team of Teachers

There’s a whole team of students at Steinmühle High School who are investing a lot of enthusiasm and time in the subjects of math, computer science, natural sciences, and technology. An amazing fact: Not a single one of them went home empty-handed from this year’s “Jugend forscht” competition! The fact that Steinmühle in Marburg stands out from surrounding high schools with these results also makes the teachers proud. STEM coordinator Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf says, “Our students are eager to do research, and we as a team of teachers support them in that.”

It goes without saying that this team itself consists of die-hard scientists. However Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Dr. Sven Freibert, Malte Klimczak, Dr. Eva Neumann, Antje Seel, and Dr. Patrick Szabo manage to do it—they manage to inspire the young people.

“An outstanding piece of work”

The laudatory speech for the winners of the Hessian state competition “Jugend forscht” in physics, Akaash Bhagwat and Emil Zuckermann, certainly offers deep insight: “…They presented an outstanding project on the topic “Smart Fluids—Smart Cars?”, which impressed us with its exceptionally high level of motivation and genuine interest in the subject.
We particularly appreciated your highly structured scientific approach, in which you systematically varied influencing factors independently of one another, conducted measurement series meticulously, and evaluated your results in a clear, meaningful, and reproducible manner,” the laudatory speech states.

What had Akaash and Emil done?

Since both students are huge car fans, it was obvious: their joint research project would be about cars. The two teenagers investigated the viscosity of MR fluids. Magnetorheological (MR) fluids are smart functional fluids that change their viscosity—that is, their viscous properties—from liquid to semisolid within milliseconds when exposed to a magnetic field. Using various measurement methods, Akaash and Emil developed a working prototype for adaptive shock absorbers. — A success that earned them press coverage, including an article and a video, about their research.

Considering that in the previous regional qualifying round, all 6 of the 6 teams from Schule & Internat Steinmühle that competed had emerged victorious, that fact alone must be described as absolutely extraordinary. The fact that several Steinmühle teams subsequently competed at the very top at the state level is evident from the following list:

The “Jugend forscht” winning teams in the regional competition (RW) and the state competition (LW):

Felix Sacher (10th grade) and Sophie Sacher (6th grade) / Topic: AIceBear cares everywhere—AI assistance system for chronically ill children: RW 1st place in the “Working World” category, LW 2nd place in the “Working World” category & Special Prize from the German Hearing Aid Industry Association

Aurelia Wild, Marietheres Schwabe, Fatma Sepetcigil (5th grade) / Topic: Making Baby Diapers More Eco-Friendly—Plant Power Instead of Superabsorbents: RW 1st Place in Chemistry, LW Geolino Special Prize (Participation in the “Jugend Forscht Junior” competition)

Marlene Jerrentrup, Ida Watzlawek (6th grade) / Topic: Living Foam Experiment: Elephant Toothpaste: RW 1st Place in Chemistry, LW 2nd Place in Chemistry & Special Prize from the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) (Participation in the “Jugend Forscht Junior” competition)

Lotte Wagner, Isabella Kuhl (7th grade) / Topic: The Formula for Flight: RW 1st place in physics, LW 2nd place in physics & special award for attention to detail (participation in the “Jugend Forscht Junior” competition)

Lara Khatib, Giorgia Kuhn (8th grade) / Topic: The Gen2 Horse Paper: RW 1st Place in the “Working World” category, LW Special Prize for Materials and Substances (Institute of Materials Science and Engineering). Participation in the “Jugend Forscht Junior” competition.

Akaash Bhagwat (8th grade), Emil Zuckermann (6th grade) / Topic: Smart Fluids—Smart Cars? MR fluids as metamorphic shock absorbers; RW: 1st place in Physics & Special Prize in Physics (game prize); LW: 1st place in Physics and the plusMINT Special Prize for Creativity in Physics. “Fascination with Electric Cars” experiment kit.

Unfortunately, there is no national competition in this category.

Oberhessische Presse, April 7, 2026