Prizes and awards in teaching, research and transfer
The (professorial) staff at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences have already received numerous prizes and awards. These honors reflect the commitment, innovative strength and excellence of our academic community. Our lecturers and researchers set standards in their fields and contribute to the further development of science and teaching with their outstanding achievements. Be inspired by the innovative projects and pioneering contributions that are shaping our university and shaping the future.
Award winner 2025
Image: Günter Augustin, Prof. Dr. Julia Kormann, Prof. Dr. Martin StirzelAward for innovative teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Martin Stirzel
Awarded for: The concept ‘Immersive teaching for intensive learning and acquisition of skills’. This aims to use immersive learning methods and interactive materials to enable students to acquire international sales partners by independently going through phases such as strategy, selection, initiation, negotiation and closing.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Best Paper Award in the Junior Award category
Award winners: Nikola Finze, Deinera Jechle, Prof. Dr. Stefan Faußer and Prof. Dr. Heiko Gewald
Awarded for: Their publication ‘How are we Doing Today? Using Natural Speech Analysis to Assess Older Adults' Subjective Well Being’. They developed a machine learning model that identifies the subjective well-being of older people based solely on natural language, thereby advancing innovative research on AI, speech analysis and health support for an ageing society.
Awarded by: the Special Interest Group on IT in Healthcare (SIGHealth) of the Association for Information Systems (AIS)
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award „AIS Senior Scholar“
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Heiko Gewald
Awarded for: His long-standing contribution to research in the field of business informatics, particularly in the area of the use of digital innovations by an ageing society. In addition, his commitment as organiser of ICIS 2024, as track chair for ‘IT in Healthcare’ and as co-head of the ‘Digital Health’ specialist group of the German Informatics Society, through which he has made a significant contribution to the further development of business informatics as a scientific discipline.
Awarded by: AIS College of Senior Scholars
Further information can be found in the University News.
2024
“Professor of the Year” award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Alexander Bartel
Awarded for: His outstanding support for students in their career preparation. He is intensively involved in working with emloyers, arranging internships and entry-level positions as well as organizing career guidance offers.
Awarded by: UNICUM Foundation
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award for digital teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Claudia Kocian-Dirr
Awarded for: The concept “The basis of the future: AI and teaching hand in hand”. This is about integrating artificial intelligence into teaching, preparing students for the future in a practical way.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award for innovative teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Johannes Basch
Awarded for: The concept “Metacompetencies: Communication, Conversation & Conflict Management”. This involves innovative teaching methods for teaching practice-oriented meta-skills in rhetoric, conversation and conflict resolution and applying these to situations from the everyday work of business psychologists.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
Transfer Award Innovation
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Klaus Lang, Prof. Dr. Daniel Schallmo and Prof. Manfred Plechaty (Team of the IDT Open Lab)
Awarded for: The outstanding digital transformation project that develops innovative solutions for collaboration between science and business.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
2023
German Photo Book Award in Silver in the “Documentary Photography” category
Award winner: Prof. Danny Franzreb
Awarded for: The photo book “Proof of Work”, which documents the transformative effects of modern society and captures the world of cryptocurrencies in atmospheric photographs.
Awarded by: German Photo Book Award
Further information can be found in the University News.
2022
Award for outstanding digital teaching
Award winners: The team around Prof. Dr. Antje Wild, Prof. Michael Hebel, Prof. Guido Kühn and Sebastian de Andrade
Awarded for: The “Project management and process models” concept. The concept is characterized by a consistently project-centered design in a game context with a team-teaching approach and a high degree of self-direction. In addition, a wide range of digital tools and methods for game-based knowledge transfer, task completion and reflection are used both in the classroom and online. The concept is rounded off by a holistic examination mode that is geared towards real-life requirements.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
BayWISS Award for outstanding research achievements
Award winner: HNU PhD student Felix Holl
Awarded for: His dissertation in the field of mobile applications in healthcare, which offers innovative solutions for the healthcare industry.
Awarded by: Bavarian Science Forum (BayWISS)
Further information can be found in the University News.
2021
“Professor of the Year” award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Michael Gutiérrez
Awarded for: His practical and inspiring teaching as well as his great commitment to preparing students for their professional future.
Awarded by: UNICUM Foundation
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award for outstanding digital teaching
Award winners: Prof. Dr. Wilke Hammerschmidt and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bihler
Awarded for: The concept of an integrated approach of two courses. This combines activating live online teaching, self-directed practice phases and teamwork on a semester-accompanying case as well as a coordinated portfolio examination approach in a comprehensive blended learning concept. Digital tools and methods are used in a variety of didactically useful ways.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
Friedrich Braun Prize
Award winners: The CLIDE project team under the direction of Prof. Patricia Franzreb
Awarded for: Innovative teaching methods and outstanding research performance by students in the CLIDE project, which enables the safe transportation of temperature-sensitive medicines.
Awarded by: Friedrich Braun Foundation
Further information can be found in the University News.
“Best of Show” award from photoSCHWEIZ
Award winner: Prof. Danny Franzreb
Awarded for: His photographic works from his series “Benidorm”. This is a series about a city that embodies hyperurbanism like no other.
Awarded by: “photoSCHWEIZ” exhibition
Further information can be found in the University News.
ISPIM-Award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Daniel Schallmo
Awarded for: The outstanding scientific contributions in the fields of digitalization, innovation and business models.
Awarded by: International Society for Professional Innovation Management
Further information can be found in the University News.
2020
Award for outstanding digital teaching (professors)
Award winner: Prof. Dany Meyer
Awarded for: An innovative concept for the course ‘Car IT’ in the degree programme ‘Information Management Automotive’. This involved setting up a remote microcontroller lab that enabled students to take part in practical exercises with real microcontroller boards and electronic circuits from home. Each group had round-the-clock access to a laptop, which was centred on an assigned circuit. In this way, the students were able to work on their programmes via Zoom video conferencing in the remote lab and observe the effects of their programming live.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award for outstanding digital teaching (lecturers)
Award winner: Helmut Demmelhuber and Andrea Lührs
Awarded for: A ‘practical course’ in the degree programme ‘Business Administration in Healthcare’. The online block course, which lasted several days, aimed to enable students to review the knowledge and experience they had gained during their practical semester, to exchange ideas and to receive individualised professional orientation. The event was successfully converted into a live online concept via video conference and included a variety of activating methods such as role plays, online group work and reflection tasks.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Further information can be found in the University News.
Award for outstanding teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Michael Gutiérrez
Awarded for: His committed, inspiring and practical teaching style, which makes even complex and supposedly dry content lively and accessible. His passion and enthusiasm for teaching and his ability to actively involve students in the learning process were particularly emphasised.
Awarded by: Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art
Further information can be found in the University News.
DIVR Science Award in the category “Best Concept”
Award winners: Prof. Dr. Alexander Kracklauer, Barbara Dannenmann and Jan Fiedler (Team of the InnoSÜD sub-project “Sales Lab”)
Awarded for: The virtual negotiation training “Beat the Bot”, which was developed together with corporate partner TriCAT GmbH. Participants in the training interact with a virtual negotiation bot that uses artificial intelligence to recognize what is being said and reacts accordingly. This makes it possible to test different negotiation styles and learn which style is most effective.
Awarded by: German Institute for Virtual Reality
Further information can be found in the University News.
2019
Emerging Photography Award
Award winner: Prof. Danny Franzreb
Awarded for: The photographic works in his “Benidorm” series. This is a series about the Spanish city that embodies hyper-urbanism like no other.
Awarded by: International Competition “Emerging Photography Award”
IPA Gold Award in the category “Urban Sceneries”
Award winner: Prof. Danny Franzreb
Awarded for: The photographic works in his “Benidorm” series. This is a series about the Spanish city that embodies hyper-urbanism like no other.
Awarded by:“International Photography Awards”
Best Paper Award in the category “Best Young Scientist”
Award winner: HNU-Research fellow Robert Rockmann
Awarded for: The best scientific publication in 2018 in the “IT in Healthcare” category of the Association for Information Systems. The article published as part of his dissertation examines the influence of emotional reactions on the long-term use of fitness trackers.
Awarded by: SIG Health
2017
Fellowship for innovations in university teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Claudia Kocian-Dirr
Awarded for: The innovative concept “Bridge the Gap. Scientific work for digital natives”. This teaches the principles of research and writing step by step via blended learning. It combines gamified online elements with face-to-face sessions and comprises the steps of “orientation”, “research”, “writing” and “defending”. The aim is to turn students into digital residents in the academic working world.
Awarded by: Donors' Association for German Science
2016
Teaching Award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Oliver Grieble
Awarded for: His innovative teaching project in the module “IT Project Management”, which combines digital and agile didactic methods. In the project, students designed an amusement park using agile methods and implemented it digitally in the Minecraft computer game. The students themselves were responsible for time allocation and role distribution - problem-solving skills were trained as well as the use of agile methods, which is increasingly required in practice.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
2015
Teaching Award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Sibylle Brunner
Awarded for: The “HNU Culture Program”, which contributes to the promotion of students' cultural competence and personal development.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
2014
Award for outstanding teaching
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Claudia Kocian-Dirr
Awarded for: The development of a self-assessment tool that helps students to test their factual knowledge and interrelated thinking with pinpoint accuracy.
Awarded by: Bavarian Ministry of Education and Culture, Science and the Arts
Teaching Award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Alexander Kracklauer
Awarded for: His practical and successful concept seminars in the Faculty of “Business Administration and Economics” are in great demand among students.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
2013
Teaching Award
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Thomas Bayer
Awarded for: The development of the “Key Competencies” seminar series, which teaches practical soft skills on topics such as “Emotional Intelligence”, “Conflict Management”, “Dealing with Criticism” and “Communication”.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
2012
Teaching Award (professors)
Award winners: Prof. Dr. Stefan Distel, Prof. Dr. Stefan R. Mayer, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Welte, Markus Brust from the HNU student council
Awarded for: The so-called “O-Phase” - a unique combination of the orientation week and a business simulation game at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
Teaching Award (Administration)
Award winner: Mirjam Wenke
Awarded for: The organization of Welcoming Week, with which the International Office welcomes international guest students.
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
2009
Publication awards
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Sibylle Brunner
Awarded for: A new textbook on economics
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Rupert Bardens
Awarded for: His contribution to learning transfer in continuing vocational training (personnel policy)
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Philipp Brune
Awarded for: An essay on business processes with free software (IT)
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Michael Grabinski
Awarded for: A mathematical model for organizational forms (organization)
Award winner: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Reisach
Awarded for: A comparison of the handling of knowledge in Germany, the USA and China (intercultural management)
Awarded by: HNU Sponsors' Association
