Sponsoring outstanding graduates

Communicating science in an understandable way

Every autumn, the Possehl Foundation and Lübeck Technical University invite students to the Possehl Engineering Award ceremony. Approximately 5 to 10 of the 1,000 dissertations submitted to the Technical University each year are nominated for this award. The Possehl Prize is endowed with €5,000. A second prize of €3,000 and a third prize of €2,000 are also awarded. In addition to the written dissertation and the recommendation by the supervising professors, a short presentation is also included in the assessment for the Possehl Engineering Prize. In five-minute pitches, the nominees are given the opportunity to present their complex subject matter as clearly as possible to around one hundred guests in the Bauforum of the Technical University. The jury selects the winners immediately afterwards.

Possehl Engineering Prize 2024

1st place for Frini Luise Leufer: "Development of a connector for the transmission of digital signals in medical technology"

Five students were nominated in 2024. Frini Luise Leufer was awarded first prize for her bachelor's dissertation, "Development of a connector for the transmission of digital signals in medical technology". In fact, there is currently no connector technology for the transmission of digital signals that fully satisfies the ICE 60601-1 standard for medical electrical devices (including disinfectability, useability with one hand, electrical safety, suitability for use). Comparable connectors for medical technology are not currently available; all connectors currently in use work with exemptions. This could now change: Frini Luise Leufer developed two functional prototypes for her bachelor's dissertation in mechanical engineering, which she wrote at Drägerwerk AG and was supervised by Prof. Dr Nils Kohlhase: a reusable connector and a disposable product.

Using a smartphone for eye examinations

The second prize was awarded to Marvin Feddersen 's bachelor's dissertation, "Autofocus smartphone-based, non-mydriatic fundus camera without infrared illumination". The work was carried out in the medical optics laboratories as part of the biomedical engineering degree course and supervised by Professor Dr Mathias Beyerlein. The vision was to enable the cheap and straightforward early detection of eye diseases using a smartphone. Feddersen developed a smartphone-based fundus camera that is easy to use and does not require the use of mydriatics (pupil dilation agents). This new technology allows uncomplicated imaging with a standard smartphone and will therefore also be of interest in future for follow-up care at home or for screenings completely without specialised personnel in areas with poor medical care.

Which surfaces give germs the least grip?

The third prize was awarded to Franziska Sophia Waide for her dissertation, "Optimisation of a method for the reproducible quantitative transfer of bacteria to identify antimicrobial surfaces and testing the contaminability of selected surfaces". The bachelor's dissertation was completed as part of the Applied Chemistry degree course, supervised by Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dagmar Willkomm from Lübeck Technical University and Dipl. Ing. Hendryk Schnaars from Drägerwerk AH & Co KGaA. The transmission of infectious agents via contaminated surfaces contributes significantly to the transmission of infection, particularly in hospitals. Up to 20,000 deaths a year in Germany are caused by hospital germs. But how can we test which materials reduce the risk of infection? In her bachelor's dissertation, Franziska Waide has revised a novel transfer method that tests the transfer of bacteria to surfaces. This will now make it easier to select anti-adhesive surfaces for medical devices in future to minimise the contact transmission of bacteria in hospitals.

Also nominated for their outstanding dissertations:

Jessica Herrmann, Hearing Acoustics and Audiological Technology degree course: "Influence of noise reduction in hearing aids on listening effort investigated using pupillometry in comparison to speech intelligibility" (master's dissertation), in collaboration with the company Oticon A/S in Smørum, Denmark, nominated by Prof. Dr. rer. nat Dipl Phys. Tim Jürgens.

Paul Christian Sager, Mechanical Engineering degree course: "Development and optimisation of a ply and path generation solution for manufacturing small 3D lightweight components using automated fibre placement", Master's dissertation in collaboration with the company Composite Technology Center GmbH (CTC GmbH), nominated by Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ahmad Zeinolebadi.