Johann Andreas Schubert Prize 2024 for Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Maria Zipfel

Maria Zipfel receives the Johann Andreas Schubert Prize 2024 for her thesis on "Development of methods for calculating overhead line unbalances".

In her thesis, the Electrical Engineering student investigates how electrical transmission lines can be planned in such a way that fewer voltage differences occur in the power grid. Due to the expansion of renewable energy generation plants, the overhead line network in Germany is being increasingly extended. The bundling of transmission lines on a common route and the higher capacity utilisation can lead to an increase in unbalances in the three-phase voltage system. These voltage differences have a negative effect on the service life of machines and components.

The results of the work form the basis for the realisation of software that can be used to calculate unbalances as early as the planning phase of overhead lines and reduce them by means of suitable measures. The work was carried out in co-operation with the company LTB Leitungsbau GmbH in Radebeul. At the HTWD, it was supervised by Prof Dr Jörg Meyer (Professor of Regenerative Electrical Energy Systems/Energy Storage).

Maria Zipfel completed her degree programme in April 2023 and is currently writing her thesis for her Master's degree in Electrical Engineering at the HTWD.

The award ceremony for the Johann Andreas Schubert Prize 2024 took place in Marienberg at the beginning of August. The prize was presented by Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and employer president Dr Jörg Brückner.

The Johann Andreas Schubert Prize honours outstanding scientific theses by students and young scientists at Saxon universities that are characterised by their particular practical relevance. The prize is awarded every two years by the foundation of the same name in cooperation with Sachsenmetall, the business association of the metal and electrical industry in Saxony.

Hans Pundt Prize 2019 for Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Tobias Schillinger

The Hans-Pundt-Prize 2019 of the VDE Dresden was awarded to Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Tobias Schillinger at the annual general meeting of the district association on 4 March 2020. Every year, the prize is awarded to scientifically outstanding and at the same time practice-oriented and excellently executed diploma or master's theses in the field of electrical power engineering. The prize is endowed with €1000.

Mr Schillinger's thesis, which was carried out in collaboration with the Electrical Machines and Drives (EMA) research group at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, dealt with modern control methods for permanent magnet synchronous machines (PSM). These machines are currently used, for example, for electric vehicle drives, machine tools or axis drives in robots. As part of the work, a field-orientated three-phase drive control system for a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PSM) was developed, commissioned and successfully tested on a small drive test bench.

The particular value of the work lies in its consistent practical orientation, addressing important aspects in engineering practice such as online data acquisition, the creation of debugging options, the effects of actual current value measurement or the feedforward control of disturbance variables.

Mr Schillinger completed a degree in Electrical Engineering/Electronics at the HTW Dresden between 2015 and 2019. He is currently researching regenerative energy supply concepts for decentralised headends in the broadband data network infrastructure as a research assistant in the EMA Group.

For further information, please contact Prof Dr Thomas Schuhmann.

Gustav Zeuner Prize 2019 for Dr Rene Budich

Dr Rene Budich was awarded the Gustav Zeuner Prize 2019 at the annual general meeting of the VDI Dresden District Association on 6 March 2020. The prize was awarded for his dissertation entitled "Investigations into the use of small electric sweepers as a contribution to the decarbonisation of municipal transport". The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr Manfred Hübner.

International award for junior research group "BioESens"

Young researchers Caroline Henning, Anna Schmid, Sophia Hecht, Daniel Firzlaff and Henry Kettwig presented their work at the 41st International Spring Seminar on Electronics Technology (ISSE) in Zlatibor, Serbia. The annual ISSE conference is the European forum for the international exchange of experimental and theoretical research work and university education in the field of electronics packaging technology.

While Daniel Firzlaff and Henry Kettwig met with such great interest with their poster contribution "Biopolymers for Sensor and Electrical Applications" that they were also invited to give a lecture by the organisers, the poster "Comparison of Different Biobased Polymers for Electronic Substrates" presented by Caroline Henning and Anna Schmid impressed the international jury of experts with its high level of interdisciplinary expertise. Electrical engineer Caroline Henning was honoured with the "VIMNES Award for Woman Scientist" from the VISEGRAD Network for Microelectronics Engineer Scientists.

"These successes show that the junior research group 'BioESens' has succeeded in presenting internationally recognised results in a short space of time through interdisciplinary, cross-faculty research work," says project leader Professor Kathrin Harre.

About BioESens

In the interdisciplinary junior research group BioESens, scientists from Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Organic Farming are researching bioplastics made from renewable raw materials for use in electronics technologies. The aim is to develop novel solutions for the use of bio-based plastics in electronic components, covering the entire value chain from biomaterials, their material modification and processing, application in electronic technologies and functions, to issues of Production Engineering, application testing, durability and environmental compatibility. The project is funded by the ESF.

IHK Research Transfer Prize 2017 for the "Fully electrified cutting unit" project

The IHK Heilbronn-Franken awards an annual research transfer prize in 3 stages. The IHK Research Transfer Award in gold, endowed with €10,000, went to the Zürn i-Flow project as part of the "Fully electrified cutting unit" research project. In addition to the award-winning company Zürn Harvesting GmbH & Co. KG, Schöntal, which manufactures combine harvester cutting units, among other things, and Mr Wöbcke, Professor of Agricultural Systems Engineering at TU Dresden, other companies and researchers from Dresden universities are involved in the project. Mr Uwe Schuffenhauer from the HTW, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, is working on the topic under the project management of Prof. Norbert Michalke. Now in its second funding phase, further extensive field tests have been successfully carried out.

Kirsten Hirschmann, Managing Partner of Hirschmann Laborgeräte GmbH & Co. KG, Vice President of the Heilbronn-Franken Chamber of Industry and Commerce and member of the jury, congratulated the project partners on their success and, in her laudatory speech, particularly emphasised the transfer of knowledge, the intensive cooperation between the project partners and the innovation of the self-optimising cutting unit. The intelligent control system enables an increase in output of 10% to 15%.

Following the silver medal at Agritechnica 2015, the project received another award.

Hans Pundt Prize 2017 for Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Johannes Bretschneider

Mr Johannes Bretschneider received the VDE Dresden District Association's Hans Pundt Prize for outstanding theses for his dissertation on "Analysis and development of an expansion concept for a rural medium-voltage grid under probabilistic aspects". The work was carried out at ENSO Netz GmbH and was scientifically supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Gerhard Hofmann. In his thesis, Mr Bretschneider dealt with the theoretical foundations of various later aspects of the study, such as grid structure, equipment in the medium-voltage grid, grid protection technology, load flow, short circuits, substation operation, supply reliability and economic efficiency. Both reports and the defence were awarded a grade of 1.0, resulting in an overall grade of 1.0 (very good) for the thesis.

Mr Johannes Bretschneider successfully completed a degree in Electrical Engineering/Electronics at the HTW Dresden, Faculty of Electrical Engineering from 2012 to 2016 within the standard period of study. Most of the subjects were completed with very good grades, so that he was awarded an overall grade of 1.2 (very good) for his degree.

We are delighted that this award was given to a graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at HTW this year and congratulate Mr Bretschneider on his success. The award ceremony took place during the annual meeting of the VDE BV, which has been held at the HTW Dresden since 2015 on the Dean's initiative.

Sächs-Tel Prize 2015 for Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Matthias Engicht

Mr Matthias Engicht's diploma thesis on "Development of a GPS-supported tracking system for satellites", which was successfully defended last year with the rating "excellent", was honoured. At the Sächs-Tel Annual General Meeting on 28 November 2015, Mr Engicht presented the concept and the results of his work in a specialist lecture, which was met with great interest. His supervisors at HTW Dresden were Prof Dr Ralf Collmann and Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Bartzsch from the Department of Communications Engineering/Multimedia Technology.

Silver medal at AGRITECHNICA 2015 for research result

The electrically driven Zürn i-flow grain cutter receives a silver medal at AGRITECHNICA 2015. Zürn i-flow was developed with the participation of the Chair of Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering/Electrical Drives (Prof. Norbert Michalke) with significant collaboration from Dipl.-Ing. Uwe Schuffenhauer as part of the eHarvest research project and has already been tested in the harvest. The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) and supported by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE).

Electrification facilitates optimum cutterbar settings for all harvesting conditions. The speeds of all assemblies can be individually adapted to the respective harvesting conditions as well as to the requirements of the combine harvester.

AGRITECHNICA presents leading technology and new developments in agriculture and agricultural engineering. AGRITECHNICA Innovations honours innovations from the agricultural sector with a medal. Of the 311 innovations registered, 44 were honoured with silver medals.

The Zürn i-Flow electric drive concept was developed with the participation of the Chair of Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering/Electrical Drives (Prof. Norbert Michalke) with the significant collaboration of Dipl.-Ing. Uwe Schuffenhauer as part of the eHarvest research project funded by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) and has already been successfully tested in the harvest.