RWTH: Graduates Honoured with 2022 Otto Junker Awards
RWTH graduates Ryan Benkert, Daniel Fallnich, Josefin Wilkes, and Tomasz Engelmann were presented with the 2022 Otto Junker Awards for their outstanding academic achievements. Wolfgang Bleck, RWTH Rector Ulrich Rüdiger, Marianne Conradt, the Deputy Mayor of the City of Aachen, and Udo vom Berg congratulated the winners.
The Otto Junker Award is conferred annually to RWTH students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and the Materials Science and Engineering Division of the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering.
The Otto Junker Foundation was founded in 1970 by Dr. h.c. Otto Junker. As an alumnus of RWTH, he felt intimately connected to the University throughout his life and particularly valued the ongoing intellectual dialogue. The foundation aims to support young researchers as well as numerous individual projects.
Udo vom Berg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Otto Junker GmbH, and RWTH Rector Ulrich Rüdiger presented the awards at a ceremony. Professor emeritus Wolfgang Bleck, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Foundation, and Marianne Conradt, Vice Mayor of the City of Aachen, congratulated the winners.
2022 Otto Junker Award Recipients
Ryan Benkert studied Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering at RWTH. He completed his Master’s thesis, titled “Out-of-Distribution Detection for Unsupervised Perception Systems”, at the Institute for Communication Technologies and Embedded Systems, then headed by Professor Gerd Ascheid. He studied abroad at the Georgia Institute of Technology and completed three internships at US companies, including Apple, Cupertino. Currently he is a doctoral candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA.
Tomasz Engelmann studied Materials Engineering at RWTH and completed his degree with distinction. He completed his Master’s thesis, titled “Structural Analysis of Functionalized Surface Layers of Thermally Poled Lithium Aluminosilicate Glasses and Glass Ceramics” at the Institute of Mineral Engineering headed by Professor Christian Roos. Currently Engelmann is a research assistant at the Institute and conducts research on the zero carbon production of container glass
Daniel Fallnich completed his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Leibniz University Hannover before enrolling in the Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering Master’s program at RWTH. During his studies, the Dean’s List student embarked on a six-month study-abroad period at the Department Quantum and Computer Engineering, TU Delft. He completed his Master’s thesis, titled “Design of a Hardware Architecture for the Niederreiter Cryptosystem,“ at the Chair of Integrated Digital Systems and Circuit Design headed by Professor Tobias Gemmeke. Currently, Daniel Fallnich is working at IBM, Böblingen.
Josefin Wilkes completed her Master‘s degree in Materials Engineering at RWTH with distinction. The Dean’s List student wrote her Master’s thesis, titled “Investigation of Factors Influencing the Bauschinger Effect in a Duplex Steel by Means of Tensile and Compression Testing“, at the Steel Institute headed by Professor Ulrich Krupp. Since October 2021, she has been working as a materials engineer at Otto Fuchs KG, Meinerzhagen.