This year, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Coburg awarded the IHK prize for the 42nd time for the best theses of the academic degrees Diploma, Master and Bachelor to graduates of the Coburg University of Applied Sciences. The prize is intended to promote young academics and particularly reward performance.
With the award, the IHK award also underlines the great importance of knowledge transfer between the university and the commercial sector for our location.
“Due to technological change – keyword Industry 4.0 – the need for highly qualified employees, academically, but mainly professionally qualified! In certain departments, however, our companies need well-trained specialists with university degrees, for example IT specialists, engineers, physicists in the key sectors of our Coburg economic area: mechanical engineering and automotive as well as insurance and financial services, “explains IHK President Friedrich Herdan.
IHK President Herdan describes the fact that the number of students has been increasing for many years as positive, but this development is clouded by high drop-out rates (30 to 40 percent) in the natural sciences. Cooperation between the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the university is particularly in demand here in order to facilitate the integration into the dual education system for students affected by crediting their academic achievements. “In view of the demographic development, securing the demand for skilled workers is generally one of the major challenges for politics, universities and business. Our prosperous, globally networked high-tech location offers young academics interesting career paths that can more than compete with those in metropolitan areas,” emphasizes IHK President Herdan.
Outstanding work
Against this background, the IHK zu Coburg works closely with the university on various levels, one example is the annual award of the IHK prize. Unfortunately, due to the corona, the award winners could not be honored in the official, festive setting this time. “However, it is very important to us to publicly highlight the outstanding quality of the final theses”, explains IHK President Friedrich Herdan.
The President of the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Christiane Fritze, also regrets that no ceremony can be held this year, and thanked the Coburg Chamber of Commerce for the annual award of this prize. She is sending a strong signal for her connection to the university.
The jury – consisting of the IHK presidium, representatives of the university management and the chief executive of the IHK – decided this year that five prizes will be awarded to the following graduates:
Maximilian Schmidt (endowed with 1500 euros), Ralph Biller and Benjamin Bock (1000 euros each) and Sophia Fahl and Alexander Eller (750 euros each).
Maximilian Schmidt receives the IHK prize for his work in the master’s degree in electrical engineering and information technology on the subject of “Commissioning and verification of a thermal and DC loaded HV bushing via potential measurements on the control strips”. With his work Maximilian Schmidt has made an important contribution to a better understanding of the transition processes in insulating materials.
Ralph Biller convinced the jury with his thesis “Simulation and Optimization of a Bobsleigh” in the Master’s degree in Simulation and Test.
Benjamin Bock wrote his master’s thesis in the business administration course on the subject of “Development and introduction of a modern and applicable human resources management for Wöhner GmbH and Co. KG Electrotechnical Systems – A case study”.
Sophia Fahl received the IHK award for her bachelor thesis “Young Living Coburg – Living for All. Living together – sustainable, diverse, efficient” in the architecture course, which she created in cooperation with Wohnbau Stadt Coburg GmbH.
Alexander Eller received the award for his master’s thesis in the field of mechanical engineering and automotive technology on the subject of “Topology optimization to improve the crash properties of an augmented reality head-up display”.
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