Outstanding academic achievements and social commitment: Once again this year, the interdisciplinary Karl H. Ditze Prize of the Hamburg University of Technology was awarded to young people who have shown particular commitment through their academic achievements and initiatives and projects. In 2024, four students and one working group were delighted to receive the award, which is endowed with a total of 6,000 euros.
The Karl H. Ditze Foundation promotes Hamburg universities and supports charitable and social projects. At TU Hamburg, funds from the Ditze Foundation are used to support students with the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship and student projects, among other things. The Karl H. Ditze Prize, which has been awarded annually since 2000, is awarded for outstanding Bachelor's and Master's theses as well as dissertations and to students who have rendered outstanding services to the TU.
This year, the following prizewinners were honored:
Jasper Brüggmann'saward-winning Master's thesis entitled “Turbo equalization with coarse quantization using the information bottleneck method” deals with the development of particularly efficient methods to make digital communication technologies more energy-efficient and powerful.
Jakob Brunow impressed the jury with his dissertation on nanostructured metal laminate coating as a post-weld treatment method at the Institute of Metal and Composite Construction. This area of research is intended to increase the service life of steel bridges and offshore wind turbines in the future and thus make Germany's infrastructure more sustainable in the long term.
Felix Häusler received an award for his bachelor's thesis on gas source localization. Gas source localization helps to identify and mitigate the consequences of industrial accidents and natural disasters, but is often dangerous for people and time-consuming to implement. In his work, Häusler presented a new localization strategy involving the use of nanodrones.
Geerish Sahye is studying General Engineering Science with a focus on mechatronics and has previously worked as the International Affairs Officer for the General Student Committee (AstA) at TU Hamburg. During his time in office and beyond, he was strongly committed to international students: For example, he started an interpreting service for visits to authorities and doctors, designed the brochure “Your First Steps in Hamburg”, which is now handed out to international students with their admission letter, and acted as an English translator for AstA meetings, thus promoting the internationalization of student committees. As a volunteer at the German Red Cross, he is also committed to the integration of refugees in Hamburg.
Since November 2022, the DuckING AG has been working to ensure that animals can feel at home around the pond on the Südwiese at TU Hamburg's Schwarzenberg campus despite events and walkers. The members of the working group come from the Process Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Shipbuilding, Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering and Environmental Engineering degree programs, among others. For example, they tested nesting possibilities for pond hens and checked the water quality of the pond.
