Diverse Ideas Given Recognition
"At your desk, in the shower, while jogging, in your sleep, alone, in a team – the circumstances, under which ideas originate, are as diverse as the ideas themselves“, read the text in the announcement. The Innovation Award – sponsored by Hilti Aktiengesellschaft – is awarded by RWTH and Forschungszentrum Jülich to honor ideas and projects from all faculties and reward creative minds that contribute to the innovation and charisma of the Aachen region.
This year the first place for the Innovation Award was given to Team PriSuScreen. The award is endowed with 5,000 Euros and was given out by Professor Malte Brettel, Vice-Rector for Industry and Business Relations, during RWTHtransparent. Under the direction of Aachen Chemical Engineering and the Institute of Plant Physiology, PriSuScreen is developing a new screening process to identify agents as "resistance priming" to protect plants. Like in a vaccination, priming addresses the activatable immune system of a plant, so that a plant is treated with an agent that causes mild stress in it. As a result, it can defend itself better later on against pathogens and abiotic stress. The market for plant protection in Germany alone is quite large with 1.3 billion Euros, thus offering many opportunities to apply this process.
Team Luminous, supervised by the Chair of Integrated Analog Circuits and the Institute of Semiconductor Technology won second place and 3,000 Euros. Luminous is develop innovative LED drivers, to maximize the efficiency of LED systems and reduce their costs.
Team SenseUp, under the direction of the Institute of Biology and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, received third place, endowed with 2,000 Euros. The team is developing a revolutionary processes for screening productive microbial production strains, that transform affordable, renewable resources into complex, valuable products.
Professors, post docs, doctoral students, students, scientists, and non-scientists were eligible to apply for the Innovation Award. A jury made up of representatives from science and business sponsors judged the ideas on their innovation, feasibility, and commercial potential.
Source: Press and Public Relations
Photo Caption
Professor Malte Brettel, Vice-Rector for Industry and Business Relations (left), handed out the RWTH Innovation Award durign RWTH transparent. The award rewards particularly creative minds that contribute to the innovation and charisma of the Aachen region. This year first place was awarded to Team PriSuScreen. PriSuScreen is developing a new screening process to identify agents as "resistance priming" to protect plants