Final Theses Awarded the Karl H. Ditze Prize

Excellence gets recognized: from brilliant final theses and new solutions for industry to team spirit lived out on campus, the interdisciplinary Karl H. Ditze Prize at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) once again honored the impressive scope of student achievement this year. TUHH President Prof. Andreas Timm-Giel and the chairman of the Karl H. Ditze Foundation, Rüdiger Schramm, honored three individual academic achievements and one student initiative in the Karl H. Ditze lecture hall. The total prize money amounted to 6,000 euros.

Reducing Data for Shorter Computing Times

The ceremony opened with Carla Roskothen. She is studying computer engineering as an undergraduate and received the prize for the best bachelor's thesis. Roskothen focused on the computer-based preprocessing of data. The goal of her thesis was to mathematically simplify complex and time-consuming computing tasks. To do this, she applied a theoretical reduction method that limits the problem size to a much smaller core, allowing the computer to theoretically solve the task faster.

Roskothen examined this using the example of the so-called number partitioning problem, in which a set of numbers must be divided as evenly as possible. She chose the programming language Rust for the implementation. In practice, she demonstrated that this reduction can massively shorten the runtime of the subsequent Korf algorithm. Her work also provided an important practical insight: a highly complex sub-approach that is popular in theory actually slowed the computer down in tests and proved rarely necessary in everyday use.

Smart Control for Complex Machines

In the master's thesis category, mechatronics student Fritz Engeln impressed the judges. He addressed a central problem in modern control engineering: to proactively adapt the future behavior of complex systems such as power grids and wind turbines, experts often use purely data-driven models based on measurement data. However, existing physical prior knowledge about the system is frequently left unconsidered.

Engeln developed a new method that closes this gap. He designed mathematical filters for the input and output data, allowing physical prior knowledge – such as known natural frequencies of the system – to flow directly into a data-driven model. System trajectories are represented via a structured matrix. By incorporating this prior information, the influence of disturbance variables on the prediction decreases significantly, while the accuracy of the state description increases.

Blackberry Structure vs. Milk Powder Clumps

The prize for the best doctoral thesis of the year went to Dr. Kathrin Kramm. Her work at the Institute of Particle Process Engineering and Particle Technology was conducted in collaboration with the food company Nestlé. Kramm researched how plant-based milk powders can be dissolved more easily in water. Until now, mixing oat, pea, or soy powder has often produced unattractive clumps, making everyday use more difficult.

The researcher showed that this problem can be solved through targeted particle design. By controlling process conditions and material properties, she combined primary particles into larger, porous agglomerates resembling the shape of a blackberry. This morphology improves wetting and dissolution behavior. Through four years of research, she also provided mathematical models showing how this structure can be transferred directly from the laboratory to industrial production scale.

Great Commitment to the Perfect Start of Studies

Alongside research, social engagement also took center stage. To mark the 25th anniversary of the program, the tutor initiative “StartING@TUHH” was honored. There, senior students help first-year students in weekly tutorials to make connections and master self-organization in their studies. In this way, the initiative has already successfully guided more than 20,000 first-year students into the “university cosmos,” as AStA chair Anna Miora Gerull emphasized in her tribute. The tutors' commitment goes far beyond duty: their work often develops into years-long, voluntary networks reaching around 80 percent of all first-year students.

About the Prize

The Karl H. Ditze Foundation supports Hamburg universities and funds non-profit and social projects. Foundation funds are used at TUHH to support students through the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship, among other things, and to fund student projects. The foundation awards the Karl H. Ditze Prize at TUHH for outstanding bachelor's and master's theses and dissertations, student initiatives, or students who have made special contributions to TUHH.