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English Logo - Department of Physics - TU Dortmund
Studierende sitzt am Arbeitsplatz und schaut auf den Laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund
Lecture series on modern physics

"Between bread rolls and Borussia" kicks off the 2026 summer semester

© Igor.stock.adobe.com
How does a soccer team manage to prevail against 47 other nations in an XXL World Cup? What does physics really tell us about shooting techniques, trajectories and coincidences in the game? And to what extent can soccer results actually be predicted with the help of statistics, medicine and AI? The popular public lecture series "Zwischen Brötchen und Borussia: Moderne Physik für alle" at TU Dortmund University in the summer semester 2026 is dedicated to all these questions. The focus is on this year's World Cup with its new dimensions and a scientific look at professional soccer.

The series kicks off on April 18 with the lecture "This is how WE become world champions!" by Prof. Metin Tolan. With a view to the World Cup, which will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico from June 11, he will explore the question of how physical principles shape the game. Topics include the use of video evidence, the physics of kicking techniques and historical match situations. The question of which parameters actually determine victory or defeat will also be explored - and why soccer always remains surprising despite all its predictability.

The series continues on May 9 with the lecture "Muscles and Money" by Prof. Karl-Heinz Bauer. The focus will be on the human body, which in professional soccer is a high-performance organism under extreme conditions. High stress levels, short regeneration times and psychological pressure characterize the everyday life of players. The lecture sheds light on how sports medicine and reality meet in top-class sport and why it is often not possible to fully heal injuries before the next match.

On June 13, Prof. Andreas Groll will present modern data-based models for predicting soccer matches in his lecture "Will WE be world champions?". Based on statistical methods and AI-supported simulations, match outcomes are calculated and entire tournaments are played out. This results in probabilities for individual teams, the achievement of certain tournament phases and the possible overall winner of the World Cup.

The series will conclude on June 27 with the lecture "Robot soccer - soccer without emotions?" by Diana Kleingarn and Prof. Uwe Schwiegelshohn. The focus will be on the question of whether autonomous systems and humanoid robots will be able to compete with human teams in the future. Research approaches from the RoboCup show how robotics, image processing and machine learning are used to master complex game situations and artificially develop game intelligence.

On site

All events will take place on Saturday mornings from 10:30 to 12:00 in Lecture Hall Building II (Lecture Halls 1 and 2) on TU Dortmund University's North Campus (exception on June 13: in the large lecture hall of Seminar Room Building I). Students can earn a student diploma by participating on site and completing an accompanying quiz. This will be credited as coursework in the first semester of a later degree course in physics or medical physics at TU Dortmund University.

Further information

Contact for further questions: