Outstanding theses honoured

Sebastian Gick receives VDE Prize 2023

M.Sc. Sebastian Gick was honoured with the VDE Prize for the best electrical engineering thesis. In his master's thesis entitled "Development of a pulse generator for insulation testing with high voltage gradients", he dealt with the insulation stress on electrical machines caused by modern inverters. To this end, he developed a special testing device that generates repetitive voltage pulses with slopes of up to 100V/ns at voltages of over 2000V.

Due to the very high technical quality and, above all, the very high practical demands, Mr Gick's Master's thesis was awarded a grade of 1.0. Overall, Mr Gick achieved an excellent final grade of 1.2 in his Master's degree, which once again demonstrates his versatility.

The thesis was supervised by M.Sc Markus Fürst and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mark Bakran, Head of the Chair of Mechatronics.

If you are interested in writing a thesis in the field of power electronics, students can view the thesis topics here.

VDI prize for Johannes Welsch

M.Sc. Johannes Welsch was honoured with the VDI prize for the best engineering thesis. In his master's thesis entitled "Evaluation of Si and SiC-based submodules for use in HVDC converters", he dealt with a very topical issue of the energy transition, namely the efficient transport of electrical energy over long distances. Direct current is used instead of alternating current in order to transmit more power in less space. As a basis for the work, he had to develop models for the different operating modes and evaluation criteria for the optimisations. Welsch succeeded in impressively demonstrating that even with the already challenging starting point, further improvements in energy transmission are still possible.

With an overall average of 1.1 in the Automotive and Mechatronics degree programme, Johannes Welsch achieved the best final result of this year's graduates. This was a truly impressive achievement in all sub-disciplines of this broad-based degree programme. He demonstrated that it is also possible to successfully complete a Master's thesis in a related discipline.

The thesis was supervised by M.Sc Lukas Bergmann and Prof Dr Mark Bakran, Head of the Chair of Mechatronics.

Lukas Maar receives ZET Prize 2023

M.Sc. Lukas Maar has been honoured with the ZET Prize for the best energy technology thesis. In his master's thesis entitled "Investigation and simulation of non-linear phase change cooling for power semiconductors", he dealt with the cooling of power semiconductors for particularly dynamic loads, such as drives for railway vehicles in this case. These are characterised by short times with very high losses during acceleration and braking and longer times with low losses. The maximum temperature reached is the most important limit value and determines not only the performance but also the service life. The results of his work, which promise an increase in performance of almost 30%, are so promising that a new research project is to be based on them.

Due to the very high technical quality, both in theory and experiment, Mr Maar's Master's thesis was awarded a grade of 1.0. Overall, Mr Maar achieved an excellent final grade of 1.2 in his Master's degree in Energy Technology.

The thesis was supervised by Dr Michael Gleißner and Prof Dr Mark Bakran, Head of the Chair of Mechatronics.