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Technische Hochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt

Awards & grants

“The winner takes it all!” Not just the members of ABBA, but also many students and graduates at FHWS know it. Ambition and hard work are frequently honoured with an award. We present a select series of prize-winners and their projects to you here. Some of the foundations which support FHWS are also presented. Without these foundations, these prizes would probably not have been achieved.



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.

 © FHWS IEHT /Michael Fell


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.

 © Moritz Ruben Hahn


DAAD Prize for Intercultural Engagement

Jinan Sakaan, a student from Syria, was awarded a prize for her voluntary activities at FHWS and in Würzburg and the greater Würzburg area. She received the price which is endowed with 1,000 Euro and awarded annually by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Born in 1998 in Aleppo, Syria, Jinan Sakaan and her family fled to Germany in 2015. Since 2019, she has been volunteering as a language and cultural mediator at the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband in Würzburg and surroundings. She is providing help in the form of translation and interpreting services for Arabic and German to facilitate the dialogue between authorities, institutions, and immigrants. Furthermore, during her studies in 2020 and 2021, she worked as an assistant in the Welcome Team for students with a refugee background.

The aim of the DAAD Prize is to give international students at German universities a face and to recognise them. Read further information on the DAAD Prize here.

 © Nataliya Kudelya

Dr. Daniel Wimmer, Head of the FHWS International Office, presents Jinan Sakaan with the DAAD Prize 2021.


FHWS graduate receives Bavarian Culture Prize

FHWS graduate Laura Siehler, who has already won an award, was presented with the Bavarian Culture Prize in the science category for her final thesis by the Bavarian Minister for Art and Science, Bernd Sibler, and by Bayernwerk CEO Dr. Egon Leo Westphal. In her Master's thesis, the graduate of the FHWS Master's programme Brand and Media Management dealt with the topic "Podvertising and consumer behaviour. An empirical structural equation analysis on the influence of the credibility of podcasters" (podvertising refers to advertising in and with podcasts). The results convinced the jury of Bayernwerk and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art. Previously, Laura Siehler had already been awarded the Alfred Gerardi Memorial Prize. Laura Siehler has already been awarded the Alfred Gerardi Memorial Prize.

Read further information in the Bavarian Culture Prize press release.

 © Kulturpreis Bayern


OPUS KLASSIK award for FHWS project "Mozart and AI"

Experiencing Mozart via an augmented reality app - with the project "Mozart and AI" scientists from FHWS and the University of Würzburg participated in the citizens' project "100 for 100" as part of the Mozart Festival Würzburg. The anniversary project of the city of Würzburg received the OPUS KLASSIK award in the category "Audience and Participation Projects". The app was developed at the Competence Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics CAIRO at FHWS under the direction of Prof. Dr. Frank Schleif. The award ceremony took place at a gala event in Berlin and was broadcast on ZDF. OPUS KLASSIK is a German music award that honours personalities and productions of classical music.

Read further information in the OPUS KLASSIK award press release.

 © Dita Vollmond / OPUS KLASSIK


Start-Up Prize for "WeSort.AI"

The Würzburg start-up "WeSort.AI" was honoured with the Würzburg Start-Up Prize, which is awarded annually by Würzburg AG. The master's students and graduates from FHWS, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and Technical University Munich want to start a "Recycling Revolution" with their start-up. At the Founder's Award event, they convinced the jury with their business model and their software development for sorting waste even more cost-effectively, cleanly and with fewer staff. Founded in August 2021, they have access to a prototype hall in Schweinfurt as part of the FHWS EntrepreneurSHIP project with Chancen-Center Maintal.

A total of 14 young companies applied for the "Local Hero" and "Global Hero" prizes, six of them were nominated for the final. The jury as well as the audience gave their clear vote for the "Global Hero", endowed with 3,000 euros, to the seven members of "WeSort.AI".

Read further information in the press release on the Würzburg Start-Up Prize.


FHWS students honoured at Annual Multimedia Award 2022

The Faculty of Visual Design students Jana Braun and Max Seeger received two of the six talent awards of the Annual Multimedia Award 2022. In the categories "Digital Services", Apps, Tools, Voice User Interfaces, etc. Jana Braun convinced with her app "breeth".

Max Seeger won the category "xReality: AR, VR & MR" with "Everything is growing. Everything is math. The world is a formulary."

A total of 269 projects from agencies or companies and 46 projects from students were submitted for the Annual Multimedia Award 2022. 103 projects were awarded for their digital excellence: 18 in gold, 79 in silver and six for students in the special "Digital Talents" award.

More information can be found in the press release release for the Multimedia Award.


Andreas Schütz achieves 2nd place in the BayWISS award

FHWS doctoral student Andreas Schütz achieved the 2nd place in the BayWISS award 2021 for "outstanding or pioneering research achievement in the respective scientific field". The prize was awarded at the annual colloquium of the Bavarian Science Forum at the University of Bayreuth. In his doctoral project at FHWS, Andreas Schütz is working on the "Development of a method for raising employees' awareness to the topic of information security". Prof. Dr. Kristin Weber, director of the FHWS Business Information Systems bachelor's programme, and Prof. Dr. Dirk Riehle, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen Nürnberg, are supervising the cooperative doctoral thesis. Prof. Dr. Nicholas Müller, member of the FHWS Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems, professionally supports the doctorate.

It is not the first award for the research group: One month ago, Tobias Fertig, also doctoral student at FHWS, achieved the second place in the pitch competition at the BayWISS cooperation meeting on digitalisation.

Read further information in the BayWISS award press release.

 © BayWiss / Steber


First place in ADC ranking for Faculty of Visual Design

In the creativity ranking of national higher education institutions by the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) FHWS shares the first place with the European branch of the Miami Ad School Hamburg. For the ranking, the universities were identified whose students participated most successfully in the creative club's young talent competition over the past three years. After FHWS and Miami Ad School Hamburg with 100 points each, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim came in second with 89 points. The third place was achieved by Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University with 86 points.

For the eighth time in a row, the Art Directors Club for Germany provides a nationwide overview with the Creativity Ranking for higher education institutions on the award-winning work in the ADC Talent Competition - the industry's largest competition for young talent.

Read further information in the ADC press release.

 © FHWS Bolza-Schünemann


FHWS double degree student wins CIDD award

 

Our double degree student Thy Thi Van won the 1st prize of the Consortium of International Double Degrees (CIDD). Her three-minute video on her life and studies in Finland and Germany convinced the CIDD jurors. There, she shares her personal experiences with her double degree. As an incoming student from LAB University of Applied Sciences, Finland, she studies Business Administration at FHWS.

The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and thus FHWS has been a member of the CIDD since 2019. Consisting of more than thirty higher education institutions throughout the world, it is one of the largest networks for establishing and developing international double degree programmes. In the course of CIDD's activities, two scholarships are awarded each year.

Read further information in the CIDD press release.

 © Screenshot/Filmbeitrag Thy Thi Van


Student receives aed award

 

Theresa Rosa Schneider received a recognition award of the interdisciplinary, international young talent competition "neuland" for her "fonízeichen" concept. The student from the Faculty of Visual Design wanted to make automated voice services sound less dull. In written texts, punctuation marks and similar means help to visualise the content. By developing a so-called "paratextual" system of signs, i. e. text elements accompanying or complementing a text, the spoken language is to be kind of enriched by the written language: By applying the so-called "fonízeichen" (foní signs) the written word is assigned a sound without being spoken.

Together with further 508 participants, the student applied at the Karl Schlecht Foundation and aed e.V., the association for promoting architecture, engineering and design in Stuttgart. The competition was launched for the eighth time. The jury selected a total of fifty award winners in the five categories Architecture + Engineering, Exhibition Design + Interior Design, Product Design, Communication Design, and Interaction Design.

Read further information in the aed press release.

 

 

 © aed e.V.

 © aed e.V.


Für „Virtuelles Aquarium“ prämiert

The FHWS student Maximilian Seeger has received the silver European Design Award in the category Student Projects 2021. Protecting fragile eco systems - this is the background the student of the Faculty of Visual Design used to develop his virtual aquarium named "EVERTHING IS GROWING. EVERYTHING IS MATH". The projects wants to show how much mathematics is involved in nature and to what extent natural processes can be understood and comprehended better through algorithmic simulations. In addition, it becomes clear how fragile eco systems are.

The European Design Award has been presented since 2007. Every year, a group of publishers, journalists as well as scientists meets to collect, assess and finally award the best examples of international communication design.

More information can be found in the press release release for the European Design Award.

 © Maximilian Seeger

 © Maximilian Seeger


Awarded with the "Dualissimo Prize"

As one out of five award winners from 130 applicants, Carolin Demar was awarded the Dualissimo Prize. She not only is a student of the Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at FHWS and does a vocational training to become a mechatronic technician at Preh GmbH at the same time, but she also is committed to voluntary work at the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund.

Together with vbw, the Bavarian Industry Association, and bayme vbm, the Bavarian Employers’ Associations for the Metalworking and Electrical Industries, "hochschule dual", the network for dual cooperative studies, honours excellent students of dual cooperative programmes at Bavarian higher education institutions by awarding the Dualissimo Prize. The prize is endowed with 3,000 euros.

Read further information in the “Dualissimo competition” press release.

 © Julia Bergmeister

 © Nadine Moret, Preh GmbH


FHWS student impresses with "My role model and I"

Julia Seitz, student at the Faculty of Visual Design of FHWS, was awarded the 3rd place in the "My role model and I" competition. The prize is endowed with 1,000 euros. Her second poster "When I'm grown up" will be part of the touring exhibition of Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW). The student was supervised by Prof. Dr. Gertrud Nolte.

Which role models do students have today? This was the questions 462 design students from 52 higher education institutions asked themselves during the 35th poster competition by DSW with the topic "role models". 898 posters were submitted.

The DSW poster competition for design students is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research; the Museum of Communication Berlin is a project partner.
Please read further information in the press release “My role model and I”.

 © Julia Seitz

 © Julia Seitz


2. Preis für FHWS-Studenten der Technomathematik

The SKZ student Gerhard Dill won the 2nd place in the young talent competition by the association of material testing institutions VMPA. In his bachelor's thesis, he developed a new measuring system which is able to assess and improve the product quality of plastic components. The 23-year old student of Industrial Mathematics at FHWS won the jury over with his bachelor's thesis "Commissioning and optimisation of a microwave tomography system for 3D reconstruction of plastic components" that was supervised by the SKZ - The Plastics Center. Mr Dill dealt with the construction and commissioning of a microwave tomography for the 3D inline inspection of extruded plastic components: By this process, moulded parts are produced from thermoplastic material with the extruder. The systems helps to assess and improve the inline product quality. However, there is another advantage: Complaints can be reduced and thus a more economical and efficient production can be achieved.

 © Gerhard Dill


Vogel Foundation presents digital award on FHWS anniversary

In 2021, the "Digital Award of FHWS", presented by the Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp, has been awarded for the first time on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of FHWS. It was awarded to an interdisciplinary joint project with the title "Digital Autonomous Data Acquisition and Its Concrete Application for the Prototype Development of a Rooftop Scout". Together with two student teams, three researchers from FHWS intend to compile a preliminary study with the help of this interdisciplinary project during the summer semester. Involved in the project are professors from three faculties: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Melzner, Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Prof. Dr. Nicholas Müller, Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems, and Prof. Dr. Jan Wilkening, Faculty of Plastics Engineering and Surveying.

The Digital Award is endowed with 10,000 euros. The Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp was founded in 2000 by the Würzburg publisher Dr. Kurt Eckernkamp and his wife Nina Eckernkamp-Vogel.

For more information, please read the press release.

 © FHWS/Katja Bolza-Schünemann


Award for "Asterix uff Meefränggisch"

The master's thesis written by Carena Barth, graduate of the Specialized Translation with Media Translation programme, was honoured by the FHWS association of friends "Gesellschaft der Förderer und Freunde der Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Würzburg-Schweinfurt e.V.". In her work, the young researcher examined whether the latest Franconian version of the famous Asterix comic book is a piece of translation or transcreation, i. e. whether the three authors Gunther Schunk, Kai Fraass and Hans-Dieter Wolf simply translated standard German into the lower Franconian dialect  word by word or whether they tried to adapt it to the target audience.

The master's thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Heike Elisabeth Jüngst in the Specialised Translation programme of the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences and Humanities.

For more information, please read the (German) press release.

 © ASTERIX®- OBELIX®- IDEFIX® / © 2021 Les Editions Albert Rene / Goscinny


FHWS receives multiple awards by the Art Directors Club

Students from the Faculty of Visual Design of FHWS were able to convince the jurors in the "Junior Talent Award" by the Art Directors Club (ADC): The young designers from Würzburg received four Golden Nails, two Silver Nails and two Bronze Nails in addition to six further awards. Golden Nails were awarded to Lea Wurthmann for her final thesis "A Scheme of Things", Sandra Dotou and Julia Sukop for their bachelor's thesis "Escape Racism International", Maximilian Seeger for his work "Everything is growing. Everything is Math", as well as Katharina Landisch and Annika Lotter for their book "Exploring restricted fields of vision".

ADC announced the competition in November 2020. For the 37th time, ADC were on the lookout for the most creative young talents from higher education institutions and agencies in German-speaking countries. Several top-class juries assess the submissions in the different categories and award the winners with the coveted Gold, Silver, and Bronze "Nails". The ADC award is considered one of the most important European awards in the communication industry.

For more information, please read the (German) press release.

 © Lea Wurthmann

 © Sandra Dotou und Julia Sukop

 © Maximilian Seeger