Two students win Joseph Binder Award and Gold at the Art Directors Club
Bachelor’s graduates Lilli Schmelz and Deborah Schultheis of the Faculty of Design of THWS received two awards for their work “Summe + X – Wie Einfachheit aus Komplexität entsteht”.
The two students based their work on the assumption that humans tend to think in individual elements, and asked themselves what would happen if these singular elements were turned into systems or groups. So for example when fish turn into a shoal, or one rain drop becomes rain.
This work received Gold by the Art Directors Club Germany and also received the Joseph Binder Award, an international competition and showroom focussing on graphic design and illustration.
Read more in the press release in German.
THWS-team participates in the international programming competition NWERC 2022
The team “Pie-Oh-Near” of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt participated in the international programming competition Northwestern Europe Regional Contest (NWERC) 2022 and scored a good 75th rank of 140 participating groups.
For our University, students Tamer Emad, Javier Pantoja Copado and Jakob Bach entered the competition. This year, the competition was held at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Participating teams came from Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Within a time period of five hours, the teams solve around twelve tasks of varying difficulty. Finding the solution must not exceed a certain computing time. The available storage space is limited as well.
For further information, please see read the press release in German.
CommAwards 2022: Three THWS-projects receive two silver, two bronze and two awards
Six CommAwards in 2022: The students Celina Hank, Teresa Wimbauer and Hanna Hoffmann from the Faculty of Design of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt receive six awards with two silver, two bronze and two awards. They had applied with three projects with the interdisciplinary national creative competition of the CommClubs Bayern e.V. (the association of the Bavarian advertising and communication industries) in the category for young talents. This project was supervised by Professor Erich Schöls from the field of Interactive Media.
A total of 160 works from the areas of films, sound, space, print, outdoor, digital, PR, health and design were submitted. With six awards in the category for young talents, THWS was the best higher education institution.
For additional information, please read the press release in German.
Master’s graduate Markus Marschhäuser receives Kulturpreis Bayern 2022
Markus Marschhäuser, graduate of the Master’s degree programme of the Faculty of Business and Engineering, is one of the 17 award winners in the category of Bavarian higher education institutions of the Kulturpreis Bayern 2022. He was honoured for his work on the scientific topic “Automatisierte Kompetenzfeststellungsverfahren im Entrepreneurship” (Automated competence evaluation procedures in entrepreneurship), and thus received a prize money of 2,000 euros. In his work he answered the question “if and how it is possible to identify, determine and measure competences in the field of entrepreneurship”. The determined competence profiles can be integrated in e-learning systems of higher education institutions by the use of artificial intelligence and can thus help students to develop lacking competences in a target-oriented way. This would then lay the basis for successfully founding a company.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Indian student Pranav Avadhanula receives DAAD Prize 2022
The objective of the prize awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is to make international students visible and to honour them. This year, the Indian student Pranav Avadhanula from THWS received the award that comes with a prize money of 1,000 euros. He is a student of Business and Engineering, and was honoured for his excellent performance and his engagement at THWS. This year’s award winner founded a new series “FWI Forum” with panel discussions at the faculty regarding possible career perspectives. He also supports new students as buddy of the faculty.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
THWS-graduate Max Seeger wins “UX Design Awards 2022” in Berlin
With his Bachelor’s thesis “Jewels of the Sea”, Max Seeger, student of the Faculty of Design, impressed the jury in the category “New Talent 2022”. The jury applauded the ingenious interaction and experience on several levels, which the models present. Diatoms, a species mostly unknown to human, even though they produce a large share of the world's oxygen, come alive and become tangible through Seeger’s work.
The UX Design Awards are awarded twice a year, in spring and in autumn. They honour the influence of experience design on creating a positive living environment. Out of over 400 submissions from 48 countries, the jury has selected 124 projects which will participate in the worldwide competition for excellent user experience. A total of 17 exhibits were honoured.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Professor Kilian Moritz honoured with the Frankenmedaille
The media scientist, musician and folklorist Professor Kilian Moritz was honoured by the Fränkischer Bund with the Frankenmedaille for his engagement for Franconian folk music in the media.
“In the programme areas of the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting) entertainment, movies, TV-series and folk music, the Franconian regional culture has been significantly under-represented for decades”, says Professor Moritz.
Moritz was music editor and radio moderator with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, head of TV music with the Hessischer Rundfunk and until 2012 Professor of Radio Journalism and Cultural Journalism at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. Moritz studied music in Würzburg and Nürnberg as well as cultural management in Ludwigsburg, and he completed the Master’s degree programme Media Law at the Mainzer Medieninstitut.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Doctoral student of the Institute for Power Engineering and High Voltage Technology receives award
M. Eng. Lisa Roth, doctoral student at the Institute for Power Engineering and High Voltage Technology receives the “Award for best oral communication“. She received the award in Sevilla, Spain, during the 21st IEEE International Conference on Dielectric Liquids (ICDL 2022), one of the most important conferences on dielectric liquids.
This was the second award for Roth’s academic work within one year. Her research is based on examinations of the dielectric properties of insulation arrangements consisting of liquid insulating material (oil) and solid, cellulose-based insulator barrier. The aim is to optimise insulation systems and to increase efficiency.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
THWS-team wins German Open of the Robocup@Work championships
After the fourth place last year, they have now succeeded: The team led by Professor Tobias Kaupp has won the Robocup@Work championships in Marburg.
Their next goal are the world championships in Bordeaux in 2023. At the Robocup@Work, the robot must operate independently in an intelligent factory and move construction parts from one work station to the next without getting lost or colliding with obstacles.
The THWS team was not as quick as most competitors, however, their robot scored points in reliability and thus successfully completed the task.
Further information can be found in the press release in German.
The smaller team due to Corona infections in front of its robot (middle): (from left to right) Lab supervisor Thomas Glowacz, team captain Moritz Heimbach, lab engineer Martin Löser, research associate Felix Endres, Professor Tobias Kaupp, Bachelor’s student Michael Didszun and Master’s student Felix Hoßmann (© Jolan Voßhage)
Professor Stefanie Retka awarded the Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education in Bavaria (Zertifikat Hochschullehre Bayern)
Professor Stefanie Retka from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering was awarded the Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education in Bavaria.
This certificate evaluates teaching and learning concepts, presentation and communication, examination, reflection and evaluation as well as counselling and supervision. It was developed by BayZiel (Didactics Centre of the Bavarian Centre for Innovative Teaching) with the aim to constantly optimise and deepen didactics at universities of applied sciences. BayZiel has locations in Ingolstadt and Munich.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Master’s students honoured in Singapore
Two students of the Master’s programme Integrated Design and Construction participated in the “2nd International Civil Engineering and Architecture Conference” (CEAC). The research Master’s programme of the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering only started in summer semester 2020 with only two students: Sebastian Höhn and Thomas Kreß.
At the CEAC, Thomas Kreß gave a talk on “Digital building twin with thermographic information – identifying energetic weaknesses of existing buildings”.
With his talk “User comfort versus sustainability and energy efficiency – the importance of integral surveillance of comfort parameters as equivalent planning criterion”, Sebastian Höhn won the “Best Presentation Award”.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Students win IBM Chatbot Challenge with their potato stall
The so-called Kartoffelhäusle of potato farm Höfler are currently located in the periphery of Würzburg. Another häusle is in the planning which was developed by four students from Würzburg, Andreas Eitel, Felix Windt, Max Werner and Niklas Liebler. In the course of their project work at the Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems, they were supervised by Professor Christian Bachmeir.
The Kartoffelhäusle is now digital. It is aired and air-conditioned via app, the fill level is automatically sent to the operator, interactions with customers are possible and the highlight: a language assistant. As winner of the challenge, the student group may now present their häusle on an IBM convention.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
Very good result in the international ranking “U-Multirank”
In the university ranking “U-Multirank” of the Centre for University Development, 106 German higher education institutions participated and were analysed in the five performance dimensions “teaching and learning, research, international orientation, regional engagement, and knowledge transfer”. The results are based on surveys with 62,000 students from a total of 314 institutions.
Our University was successful in the category “knowledge transfer” and scored a very good fourth rank.
According to the authors of U-Multirank, the category knowledge transfer includes “joint publications with individuals from the economy and publications of universities quoted in patents, which show that the research results are relevant for technology development.”
For further information, please see the press release in German.
THWS-professor wins first Anton Fink Science Prize for Artificial Intelligence
Professor Jan Schmitt of the Institute of Digital Engineering won the first Anton Fink Science Prize for his work that aims to realise industrial measurement tasks by using robots and artificial intelligence. The prize came with a prize money of 10,000 euros.
It is Schmitt’s aim to simplify robot operation as much as possible so that tools for the robot can be designed by hand. Schmitt presented his work in front of the jury at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology and succeeded against 15 other competitors from Germany and Austria.
Further information can be found in the press release in German.
Students participate successfully in the German Collegiate Programming Contest
Solving as many algorithmic tasks as possible within five hours, that is the challenge of the German Collegiate Programming Contest. Among the 73 teams, there were also two THWS student teams. Within a limited time period of five hours, as many problems as possible are solved and sent to a server for checking the answers. Working fast is key in order to score most points.
Making mistakes, however, leads to penalty points. Tamer Emad, Javier Pantoja Copado and Jakob Bach succeeded against their competitors and achieved a very good eleventh rank. Also the team of Tejas Shastry and Balen Kther finished the competition successfully and reached the 59th rank.
For further information, please see the press release in German.
University team in the finals of the Robothon Grand Challenge 2022
The university team “RoboPig“ won the award “honorable mention“ and a prize of 1,000 euro in this year’s Robothon Grand Challenge. The competition aims to use robots to find solutions for increasing the recycling quota of electronic waste. Electronic waste is becoming more and more problematic for industrial and development countries as well. It is intended to use robots to dismantle electronic devices into their components, and to thus enable a circular economy.
In the previous year, the teams taught their robots to take out batteries, to open a lock, or to remove plugs, to just mention a few. Now, the expectations on the teams were heightened a little: All previous tasks needed to be possible in any order, in addition a button battery needed to be removed; the robots also had to become much faster. All steps should not only work with the training device, which was the same for every team, but also had to be transferable onto another electronic device of the team’s choosing – the Schweinfurt team chose a pocket calculator. A total of 27 teams applied of which 20 teams from 13 countries were accepted; 15 of them submitted evaluable results. The winners were from Italy, the team “RoboPig” made the 5th rank and, as the only German team, made it to the finals.
More information on the competition can be found under Robothon.
15 ADC awards for the Faculty of Visual Design
Six times gold, one time silver, three times bronze, and five additional awards: students of the Faculty of Visual Design at our university were rewarded with a total of 15 awards for their excellent creative works. In the 58th competition of the Art Directors Club (ADC) with this year’s motto “Ideas create reality” the most creative works of the German-speaking area were honoured – across all media and visualisation areas. In total, three Grands Prix, 17 gold nails, 36 silver awards and 56 bronze awards were awarded. The jury judged more than 10,000 submissions in total and, again this year, praised the “very high standard” and the “brave, independent, progressive and unconventional approaches to relevant questions“. The work “Der Fraß” by Markus Arens received two gold awards (see picture). It is concerned with the topic “plastics”.
The ADC award is considered one of the most important European awards in the communication industry.
For further information on the individual awards and on the ADC award 2022.
Prof. Dr. Sven Warnke receives certificate “Hochschullehre Bayern Profistufe (University teaching Bavaria pro-level)”
Prof. Dr. Sven Warnke of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences was awarded the certificate “Hochschullehre Bayern Profistufe“. Vice president Prof. Dr. Achim Förster could thus award the certificate to lecturers of our institution already for the third time.
The certificate of the BayZiel (Bavarian Centre for Innovative Teaching) comprises coaching and supervision by experienced trainers, feedback by the other participants, and the development of an individual teaching portfolio with a total of at least 80 working units. The programme focusses on the didactic composition of lectures and creates immediate value due to the intertwining elements and the individual supervision.
Further information on the Zertifikat Hochschullehre Bayern Profistufe (University teaching Bavaria pro-level)
Digital award of the foundation “Vogel Stiftung Dr. Eckernkamp” for two university projects
"Use of parallel programming on an embedded system to optimise the potato cultivation in Columbia" and "CO2-reduced cements in the digital construction material lab": These digital projects of our university were awarded with the “Digitalpreis der FHWS (FHWS Digital Award)”. For the second time, the foundation “Vogel Stiftung Dr. Eckernkamp” rewarded the excellent project ideas at the university with the digital award and a prize of 10,000 euro each.
The main award was given to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ansgar Brunn, Prof. Dr. Arndt Balzer and Prof. Dr. Alexander Pérez Ruiz (Columbia) and their student team. They dealt with the optimised potato cultivation in Columbia: The aim is to fly areas for potato-growing with multispectral drones, and to collect data for example on the water content in the soil, and to classify plant growth to optimise the growing.
The special advancement award was given to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Fischer and his student team at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering for the research project "CO2-reduced cements in the digital construction material lab". This project aims to increase the speed and reliability of testing and evaluation methods of the durability and sturdiness of CO2-reduced cements. Further information on the projects and on the foundation “Vogel Stiftung Dr. Eckernkamp”, can be found in the press release (German).
Graduate awarded “ALLOD-Werkstoff-Preis” for the best final thesis
Tim Beuerlein, graduate of the Master’s degree programme Product Development and Systems Design was awarded the 13th ALLOD-Werkstoffpreis 2022. He received the prize for his final thesis on the topic "Determination and optimisation of mechanic component properties of the material extrusion process". The final thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Ludwig Schlenk of the Faculty of Plastics Engineering and Surveying.
The award, with a one thousand euro prize, is given out every year by ALLOD Werkstoff GmbH in Burgbernheim to the students who produce the best final theses in the field of plastics and rubber engineering.
Eight FHWS Bachelor’s and Master’s Students to Receive an Award
For their outstanding final theses, eight graduates from eight different degree programmes at FHWS have been awarded by the Hans-Wilhelm-Renkhoff foundation and the Society of Sponsors and Friends of FHWS e.V. in an online event. Event speakers were Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke (Chairwoman of the Foundation Council and of the Development Fund), Sebastian Remelé (Mayor of Schweinfurt), Dipl.-Ing. Hans-Jürgen Schneider (former site manager of the ZF Friedrichshafen AG and FHWS alumnus), as well as Professor Dr. Robert Grebner (President of FHWS).
Students who received an award for their bachelor's theses were Cedric Ziegler, Daniela Reyes Ortega, Michelle Fribance, Simon Heilig, and Magdalena Soetebeer, as well as Korbinian Zimmermann, Ines Nickel und Sarah Bernhardt for their Master’s theses.
Read about the topics of the corresponding final theses and additional information in our press release
FHWS Doctoral Student to Receive Excellent Paper Award
M. Eng. Lisa Roth, a doctoral student at the Institute for Power Engineering and High Voltage Technology (IEHT) has been awarded the Excellent Paper Award. It has been awarded in the background of the 22nd International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering (ISH2021) in Xi’an, China. On the symposium, her contribution “Combined Kerr-Effect and Polarisation Current Measurements in Oil-Pressboard Barrier Systems” was highly appreciated.
The thesis of Lisa Roth is concerned with research on the dielectric properties of insulating arrangements of liquid insulators and solid, insulating barriers based on cellulose, as they are also used in transformers for high-voltage DC transmission. It is realised in cooperation with the Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG (Transformer factory in Nuremberg), which produces power transformers for highest voltage levels, and the Weidmann Electrical Technology AG, producer of cellulose-based insulators for transformers based in Rapperswil, Switzerland.
BDA Award for Architecture Student Moritz Hahn
A smart discussion on the topic of ethics in architecture: For his outstanding performance, FHWS graduate Moritz Hahn was awarded the 2022 Bavarian BDA Award by the Association of German Architects.
The jury unanimously decided for Hahn’s bachelor’s thesis with the title “Ideal: Zur ethischen Kritik der Architektur” (“Ideal: On the Ethical Critique of Architecture”), supervised by Prof. Wolfgang Fischer and Albert Dischinger. According to the jury, the thesis is a smart analysis of a difficult problem. Moritz Hahn’s approach to ethics in architecture is full of curiosity. He asks questions many architects ask themselves during their studies or in their professional lives. For example: “Who bears responsibility for a building?”, “What does sustainable construction mean?”, “Are we allowed to waste material?” (...) The great achievement of this work is the engagement, the creation of an overview and the stimulation of a discussion that – unfortunately – hardly or not at all occurs in education as well as in practice.
The BDA Student Award is among the most prestigious architecture awards in Germany. Please find further information on the website of the BDA Student Award: