Briefly about the tailcoat week—the origin of Frackwoche goes back to the year 1925. Most students at that time came directly to the vocational college from the secondary schools and completed their studies at around 19 years of age. They wore beards and tailcoats to demonstrate their new membership of the adult world. After the Tailcoat Week stopped being held during World War II, it didn't experience a renaissance until 1950.
Since then, the beard-wearers have declared themselves with a beard contract, making Tailcoat Week into more than just a fun time for the graduates. Over time the idea developed in the mechanical engineering department to draw attention to themselves by driving through the old town of Winterthur with innovative and unusual vehicles in the so-called Tailcoat Parade. The wearing of tailcoats and beards has remained a custom to this day.
All the doors to school in the morning were blocked and to enter, everyone had to get around the balloon playground shown in the picture. The seniors who are about to graduate were each wearing a tailcoat and waiting for us.
To enter the school in the morning, students must pass the balloon playground. After passing through the obstacle with the partner, the winner must decide what liquor is to be given to the loser and the loser must drink it! Drinking a shot in the morning seemed very crazy but it was really interesting.
In the class, today's task was to create a line tracking vehicle using a coding program. As you can see, the vehicle robot was given by a professor, and we had to write a code to make the robot would softly and quickly follow the line. It was a challenge at the first time, but most groups did very well at the end.
Every team kept trying to make sure that their robot was staying on the line in the track, and we all tried to find the best solution that the robot did not break away from the line even if they sped up.
After the class, Students in ZHAW, who came to Minnesota to study before, came to the class and gave us a mug to pour the beer. I was not used to drinking in and out of school, but I thought it was really cool.
That night our room 106 was full of snoring sound. We really enjoyed the festival and we wished have a similar festival or this cool culture in U of M!
-- Changuk J.
