Award of the Dr Norbert Schmidt Prize

The two best dissertations completed at Fulda University of Applied Sciences in 2023 come from the Applied Computer Science and Social Work doctoral centres. On Wednesday this week, they were awarded the Dr Norbert Schmidt Prize.

Since 2021, the Fulda radiologist's foundation of the same name has awarded a prize worth 10,000 euros once a year for outstanding academic work towards a doctorate. "The award is intended to draw attention to research at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences and at the same time show how broadly based research is in East Hesse," says Dr Norbert Schmidt, describing the aim of his foundation. "Once a year, the award shines a spotlight on highly specialised academic research issues that are highly relevant in practice but are otherwise primarily perceived in specialist circles," emphasises University President Professor Dr Karim Khakzar. This year, the prize money is shared by Dr Tobias Wagner and Professor Dr Jasmin Brück.

More cost-effective method for predictive maintenance

Dr Tobias Wagner has developed a new, more cost-effective method for the predictive maintenance of so-called permanently excited synchronous motors. Such drives are widely used in industrial practice. For example, they are the driving components of robotics and CNC machine tools, which are machines that use control technology to automatically produce highly precise workpieces, even for complex moulds. Above all, it is the ball bearings that often cause unexpected failures and downtime costs. For this reason, they are usually exchanged on the basis of fixed time intervals. However, the actual wear of the components is not taken into account. For many years, therefore, attempts have been made to recognise the progression of defects through predictive maintenance, i.e. maintenance based on actual wear, and to predict the optimum point for exchange. Until now, however, this has required external sensors to be fitted to the motors - not an attractive solution from a business perspective.

In his work, the 31-year-old electrical engineer has developed a method that does not require additional sensors and utilises the motor's internal signal data for early fault detection. For example, temperature, electrical currents and torques are analysed. He recorded the data for his investigations under real environmental conditions in industrial plants. "This guarantees that the newly developed method is highly practical," praised the selection committee.

Tobias Wagner now works in Stuttgart as a data scientist in the research and development division of a market-leading enterprise for the development of painting systems and painting robots. In addition to predictive maintenance applications for rotating machines, he is primarily concerned with machine learning approaches to image processing. He completed his Bachelor's degree and Master's programme in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. His doctoral degree was completed at the inter-university doctoral research centre for applied computer science and was supervised by Professor Dr Alexander Gepperth and Professor Dr Elmar Engels (both from Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and reviewed by Professor Dr Uwe Klingauf (TU Darmstadt).

Insights into the realities of life for young queer people

Professor Dr Jasmin Brück analysed the situation of young queer people in the transition from school to training and into the profession and investigated the perceptions and experiences of young queer people in the professional training system with regard to their queerness and how they encounter social and structural disparities.

The 43-year-old social scientist focussed in particular on the school vocational training system and the transition system. She worked out that young queer people in these training systems find themselves in a field of tension between normative social and institutional expectations and demands on the one hand and their own individual wishes and needs for a queer lifestyle on the other. In doing so, they must constantly grapple with the question of whether they can make their queerness visible and thus experience and live their authentic self or whether they can keep their queerness hidden in order to protect their integrity. This area of tension thus influences queer life and experience and the biography of young queer people.

"The dissertation makes a significant contribution to research on queerness in the education system," said the selection committee. The in-depth analysis provides valuable insights into the realities of young queer people's lives. For social work in the professional appointment system, the work shows approaches that can support a needs-based and non-discriminatory orientation of the study programmes offered.

Dr Jasmin Brück is now Professor of Social Work at the International University of Applied Sciences. She studied the part-time Master's programme in Social Work with a specialisation in social space development and organisation (maps) at Fulda University of Applied Sciences and RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. Her dissertation was supervised by Professor Dr Susanne Dern at the inter-university doctoral research centre for social work and reviewed by Professor Dr Monika Alisch (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Professor Dr Maria Bitzan (Esslingen University of Applied Sciences).

As at 1 December 2023, a total of 186 doctoral degrees were in progress at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, 106 of which were at doctoral research centres at Fulda University of Applied Sciences or an inter-university doctoral research centre. The remaining 80 doctoral degrees are being completed in cooperation with universities. In 2023, four doctoral degrees were completed at the university's own doctoral centres and seven in cooperation with a university.