Lightweight construction brings laurels on young engineers

Prize-winners 2012 – Concrete Answers to complex questions

Mr Karlheinz Liebrandt, member of the board of Walter Reiners-Stifung and co-owner of Liba Machinenfabrik GmbH in Naila presented the awards. The promotion prize in the dissertation category endowed with 5,000 Euros has been awarded to Dr. Roman Rinberg of Chemnitz University of Technology. In his theses he developed a technology for the production of components reinforced by natural fibres for the use in door trims of cars. The basic material for these components is flax, a natural fibre.

The promotion prize of 3,000 Euros in the Diploma category has gone to Ms Dörte Marlow of Technical University of Dresden. The subject of her diploma thesis is simulation, dimensioning and structural testing of composite isogrid structures. The results are of particular importance for the application of these components in aviation.

Mr Johannes Thumm of University Suttgart/ITV Denkendorf has been glad about the creativity prize endowed with 2,000 Euros. Starting point of his study were braided bike frames made of carbon. Up to date the tubes for such bike frame are braided individually and fitted together by sleeves. In his study Thumm developed concrete proposals for braided branches, which for example enable complete frames with continuous fibres.

Dropout rates – fatal for the national economy

In his keynote address Liebrandt explained the challenges confronting the industry with regard to lack of engineers. The dropout rate of 50 per cent in university engineering courses is alarming. “Such high dropout rates are fatal for the national economy. In times of demographic changes we cannot afford such wear”, he added. The VDMA initiative to increase the quality of university studies in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering offers concrete solutions to reduce these dropout rates and to realize the full potential of junior engineers, said Liebrandt.

Walter Reiners-Stiftung (Foundation) – Promoting Talents

With the Walter Reiners-Stiftung the VDMA Textile Machinery Association is actively engaged in promoting junior engineers. Each year, the foundation provides an incentive for top performers by granting two promotion prizes for dissertations and master/diploma thesis as well as one creativity prize for seminar papers. Students regularly gain an insight into practice with excursions to member companies and to the leading textile exhibition ITMA, which are financially supported by the foundation. Particularly high-performance students are supported by scholarships.

VDMA Textile Machinery Association