Selected students have now been honored by the Senate of The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) for their outstanding achievements with their theses. Eight out of a total of 2,000 Bachelor's and Master's graduates from HSNR received the Senate prizes, each worth 1,000 euros.

Among those honored are Helena von der Forst and Rabea Marquardt from the Faculty of Design. In their joint work, they focused on illnesses whose symptoms are not immediately recognizable from the outside - including chronic illnesses such as migraine and multiple sclerosis, but also mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder. Von der Forst and Marquardt researched how such illnesses can be made more visible in order to counteract social stigmatization. They also examined the extent to which artificial intelligence is an appropriate tool.

Magdalena Maria Kuhn from the Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology investigated the extent to which waste in textile production can be minimized from the outset. Zero waste design can be used to create patterns that reduce the usual textile waste from 15 percent to less than 1 percent. To this end, she developed a system that simplifies the generation of zero waste designs in various sizes.

Julia Schröder from the same faculty investigated the question of whether a truck tarpaulin can be produced even more sustainably. Her work focused on the development of a single-origin product based on one type of polymer, which makes it easier to recycle.

Christian Kraas' thesis was also sustainable. He worked on car trunk linings at the Faculty of Chemistry. In this specific case, he evaluated the extent to which the textile components made from polylactide could be industrially composted.

Carolin Goj's work also comes from the Faculty of Chemistry. In her Bachelor's thesis, she researched novel surfactant systems. She investigated various ionic liquids that can reduce the use of solvents in industry and compact the formulations.

Melanie Hohl from the Faculty of Health Care dealt with process management in outpatient healthcare. Using the example of a group practice, she examined how certain processes can be adapted and improved and how the success of implemented measures can be monitored.

And Lukas Weirowitz from the Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering developed a system as part of his work that detects contamination in cotton right at the start of the manufacturing process. This is because foreign particles are often only noticed at the end during quality control. As a result, the finished product may have to be disposed of. Weirowitz used a camera with near-infrared radiation (high-speed near-infrared spectroscopy) for this purpose.

Students cannot apply directly for the Senate Prize: Their respective examiner suggests the work to the Examinations Board in the faculties, which in turn passes the suggestions on to the Senate. A Senate jury then selects the winners.

Senate Chairman Prof. Dr. Georg Oecking is impressed by the theses: "We are proud of all our graduates, but of course this one in particular. The majority of the prizes were once again won by women. This shows that achievement is female!"