The award ceremony usually takes place in front of an audience during NEULAND Innovation Day, which had to be cancelled in summer 2020 due to the corona pandemic. Professor Dr. Thomas Hirth, Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs and Dr. Jens Fahrenberg, Head of Innovation and Relations Management, have now presented the certificates and awards to the nominees under exclusion of the public.

The team technology transfer of KIT congratulates the winners of the two categories idea award and transfer award. In a selection process led by company representatives, the three winners prevailed against 29 and 5 competitors.

Most innovative ideas of KIT in 2020: The award winners

1. Prize: „SERPENS” (Super Efficient and Rapid Printing by Electromagnetic-heating Necessitated System)

Team: Dr. Nanya Li, Dr. rer. nat. Guido Link and Prof. Dr.-Ing. John Jelonnek from the Institute for High Power Pulse and Microwave Technology (IHM)

This prize is sponsored by Zeiss. Max Riedel of Zeiss Innovation Hub @ KIT congraluates: "Congratulations from the ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT on these great ideas and their implementation. Further proof that the KIT is an excellent partner for transforming today's research into tomorrow's applications together."

2. Prize: „STOKES2: Freely programmable Lab-on-a-Chip“

Team: M.Sc. Philipp Marthaler and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Class from the Institute for Thermal Energy Engineering (ITES)

ABB has sponsored this prize. Dr. Andreas Burger of ABB asserts: "We are pleased to award the 2nd prize to STOKES2. Particularly in today's world, it is clear how necessary it is to have fast, modularly adaptable test environments such as STOKES2, which can be used in medical technology or vaccine testing, among other applications. Congratulations!"

3. Prize: „Detection of neurotransmitters in biologically relevant media using fluorescent zeolite-based receptors“

Dr. Frank Biedermann, Dr. Stephan Sinn and Laura Grimm from the Institute of Nanotechnology (INT)

This prize is sponsored by Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA. Enrique Luque Aleman of Voith congratulates: "Voith is proud to support this award-worthy innovation with our contribution, which will hopefully make medicine safer and better tailored to the individual. We wish the team every success in its implementation and all the best for the future."

Most promising transfer projects of KIT in 2020: The award winners

1. Prize "Homogeneous paint curing by means of UV LED Array" 

Team: Dr. Michael Heidinger, Dr.-Ing. Rainer Kling and Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Uli Lemmer from the Institute of Light Technology (LTI) in cooperation with mpg-lightsystems

This prize was sponsored by Robert Bosch GmbH. Rudolf Maier of Robert Bosch pronounces: "Congratulations to the winners of the transfer prize, an outstanding example of KIT's innovative strength and transfer performance."

2. Prize "Pyrolysis process and plant engineering for the raw material recycling of mixed plastic waste" 

Team: Dipl.-Ing. Hans Leibold and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Stapf from the Institute of Technical Chemistry (ITC) in cooperation with ARCUS Greencycling Technologies GmbH 

The BW Bank has sponsored this prize. Axel Weisheit of BW Bank affirms: "Sustainability is an important guiding principle in society, research and business and has been a key strategic thrust of BW Bank for many years. Therefore, we are pleased to support an innovation at KIT with the transfer award for 'Raw Material Recycling of Mixed Plastic Waste', which will sustainably solve a major everyday problem of our society."

3. Prize "Multisensory person localization inside and outside of buildings" 

Team: Dr.-Ing. Nikolai Kronenwett, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gert F. Trommer and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sören Hohmann from the Institute for Control Systems (IRS) in cooperation with iMAR Navigation GmbH

This prize is sponsored by ABB. Dr. Andreas Burger of ABB acknowledges: "Personnel localization is not only a necessary system in an emergency or for rescue services, but also in industrial environments, such as mines or large industrial plants. Here the multi-sensorial person localization offers an optimal and cost-effective solution. Congratulations on the 3rd place!"

The application round for the 2021 NEULAND Innovation Contest will start shortly.