Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: Erna Scheffler Prize for Young Scientists at KIT

The award, which is awarded every two years, is endowed with 5,000 euros and is divided into a prize for a doctoral thesis and a prize for a master’s thesis. “I am very happy for the two young researchers. With your research you have made a significant contribution to solving socially very relevant problems, ”says Professor Oliver Kraft, Vice President for Research at KIT. “Young scientists in particular give the KIT new life, new momentum and new ideas in research, teaching and innovation.”

This year’s dissertation award goes to Dr. Gabriela Molinar for her work “Machine Learning Tool for Transmission Capacity Forecasting of Overhead Lines based on Distributed Weather Data” at the KIT Institute for Information Processing Technology (ITIV). In it, she presents a system that enables increased electricity transport and optimizes the current carrying capacity of overhead lines. The basis for this is the use of so-called overhead line monitoring (FLM) and artificial intelligence (AI), which can support the transmission of wind power from northern Germany to the south. “The system predicts the load capacity of overhead lines for 48 hours. The efficiency of the power generation plan of conventional power plants can thus be improved by ten percent, ”says Molinar.

Leona Schmidt-Speicher received the Erna-Scheffler-Förderpreis for a master’s thesis for her work “Production, investigation and parameterization of bactericidal nanostructures using the example of titanium and silicon”, which she produced at the Institute for Microstructure Technology (IMT). To prevent inflammation around new implants, antibiotics are currently being secreted from special layers on the implant surface. “Due to the increasing number of pathogens resistant to antibiotics and too few new developments of active ingredients, however, inflammations occur again and again in the tissue surrounding implants,” says Schmidt-Speicher. With her research on bactericidal nanostructures on titanium and silicon, she makes an important contribution.