TU Dortmund University Awards Prizes for Special Transfer Achievements
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On Wednesday, 17 January, TU Dortmund University awarded the Dr. Michael Brenscheidt Transfer Prize for the first time to three outstanding projects. The first prize went to Professor Anna-Lena Scherger and Jannika Böse for their project in the area of language acquisition in multilingual preschool children. Dr. Alvaro Ortiz Pérez from the Chair of Sensor Technology received the second prize for a study commissioned by an SME. The third prize went to photographer Uwe Grützner, who was able to attract new co-operation partners with drone photography. The prize money of 10,000 euros was donated by Dr. Michael Brenscheidt, a commercial attorney from Dortmund.
“Alongside research and teaching, transfer is the third pillar of our university,” said Professor Manfred Bayer, President of TU Dortmund University. “Transferring knowledge and scientific findings to society and in this way creating added value is particularly important to us. I am therefore very grateful to Dr. Michael Brenscheidt for his generous donation.” Within the “Zukunftsdialog” (Future Dialog) event, he congratulated the winners, who had been selected by the Research Transfer Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer (CET) at TU Dortmund University.
The prizewinners
The first prize, worth 6,000 euros, went to Professor Anna-Lena Scherger and Jannika Böse from the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, who are working on language acquisition in preschool children from immigrant families. In their project “Strengthening Basic Skills – Qualification, Diagnostics, Intervention”, they have developed a training concept to qualify child carers in “bridge groups” in a special type of language acquisition that is integrated in everyday activities. Bridge groups prepare children for primary school who do not yet have a place in a preschool. The results have met with such a positive response in practice that Scherger and Böse have already received several requests for qualification measures since the end of the project, e.g. for nursery schools and playgroups.
Dr. Alvaro Ortiz Pérez from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology came second (3,000 euros prize money) with a feasibility study for an SME on the detection of carbon dioxide and a specific insulating gas. The objective was to identify a sensor technology that meets the client’s requirements in terms of metrological and economic performance. Following the successful completion of the project, cooperation continued with the aim of jointly developing a prototype and making it ready for market introduction. The transfer project illustrates how non-university partners can build up technological autonomy and know-how with the help of TU Dortmund University.
The third transfer prize, worth 1,000 euros, was awarded to photographer Uwe Grützner from the Department of Spatial Planning for his use of drone photography within TU Dortmund University and at external partners. The use of drones for thermal imaging or laser measurement has led to several successful collaborations between different disciplines at TU Dortmund University. At the same time, Uwe Grützner has also made the new technology available to non-university partners and established new networks by doing so.
Dr. Michael Brenscheidt Transfer Prize
The prize is awarded every two years and acknowledges special achievements in research transfer and scientific cooperation with partners from practice. TU Dortmund University understands transfer as an interdisciplinary and mutual exchange of knowledge, services, technologies and people with external partners in business, society and politics. The donor, Dr. Michael Brenscheidt, has been a member of the executive board of various companies, a lawyer and an attorney and partner at audalis Kohler Punge & Partner in Dortmund. With the prize, the commercial attorney wants to promote important and inspiring ideas generated by researchers at TU Dortmund University and the CET for the realization of new business proposals and for the region’s economic development.
“Zukunftsdialog”
The transfer prizes were awarded at the third “Zukunftsdialog” (Future Dialog) event organized by the CET. The event offers companies from the region the opportunity to illuminate current issues from their perspective and in the context of the university that are important for the future and to discuss topics with students, researchers and staff of TU Dortmund University. On 17 January, Simone Schulz, Managing Director of Boehringer Ingelheim microParts, which has its headquarters in Dortmund, was a guest and reported on the neo-ecology megatrend from the standpoint of the pharmaceutical industry.
Further information on the “Zukunftsdialog” (German only)
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