RWTH Innovation Award Honors Diverse Ideas
“Innovation draws on diverse and interdisciplinary ideas,” said Professor Malte Brettel, RWTH’s Vice-Rector for Industry and Business Relations, during the presentation of the Innovation Award at the RWTHtransparent event last week. With the Innovation Award, which is sponsored by Hilti AG, RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich annually recognize three outstanding projects that strongly contribute to the standing of the Aachen region as a major center for technology.
The CarboBat team, headed by the Chair of Solid-State and Quantum Chemistry, Professor Richard Dronskowski, came in first place, receiving 5,000 Euros in prize money. The team, working in close collaboration with Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of Montepellier, utilizes a novel class of materials of inorganic compounds, so-called carbodiimides, as anodes in rechargeable batteries. The technology makes it possible to produce highly powerful, cost-efficient, and non-toxic batteries.
The Cardial Help team from Forschungszentrum headed by Professor Andreas Offenhäusser und Dr. Svetlana Vitusevich took second place for their work on cardial point-of-care diagnostics. In case of an acute myocardial infarction, it is essential to initiate therapy promptly, so reliable, fast, and highly precise diagnostic methods are needed.
The third-place winners were Team Fedorov Project from Forschungszentrum Jülich, led by Dr. Alexey Yakushenko. The team conducts research on printable sensors based on nanomaterials. Chemosensitive and biosensitive materials, in combination with conductors such as gold, can be directly printed as measuring elements. The overall goal is to produce one-way chemo- and biosensors at very low costs.