A panel of experts evaluated some 72 scholarly papers submitted by soon-to-be AHS school graduates.

A jury of experts reviewed and evaluated pre-academic papers submitted by 72 soon-to-be AHS high school graduates. The 14^th annual Dr. Hans Riegel Awards were presented in recognition of outstanding papers in chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology, and computer science. The awards are accompanied with a total of € 7,250 in prize money, distributed among the winners. Senior year students from all over Upper Austria were eligible to submit their pre-academic paper and once again, the results were impressive.

The jury selected papers by six female students and nine male students. The gifted young students submitted papers on a variety of topics ranging from geo-tracking satellite positioning, manufacturing plastics through injection molding, exploring how satellites see the world using AI, probability theory, time travel à la Hollywood, testing how effective a medieval ointment recipe is, and much more. A particularly noteworthy aspect is that this year, three students at the BRG Schloss Wagrain in Vöcklabruck won awards, 2 placing first and one student placing second.

Encouraging Young People to Conduct Research
Prof. Alois Ferscha, Dean of the JKU's Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, remarked: "These awards for budding STEM scientists represent a prestigious way of recognizing outstanding pre-scholarly accomplishments and innovative ideas. The awards focus on identifying young talent in science at an early stage and supporting the students’ potential to further pursue studies in science, engineering, and technology. Experienced scholars are responsible for selecting the award winners, based on criteria that include originality in research, significance of the findings to the scientific community and its potential impact on the wider society. The award opens the door to a host of new opportunities for the winners, including an opportunity to connect to leading scholars and potentially work with industrial partners. The awards are also an invitation to maybe pursue a degree in engineering and natural sciences or perhaps even an academic career at our university's Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences."

The Kaiserschild Foundation focuses on encouraging young people to pursue STEM subject areas. The Dr. Hans Riegel Awards are presented in an effort to encourage gifted young people to pursue higher education or a career in natural sciences or engineering. The awards also serve as an important link between schools and the university by fostering interaction and dialogue as well as introducing the award-winning students to the university system early on. Univ. Prof. Dr. Markus Achatz, a Kaiserschild Foundation board member, remarked: "The Kaiserschild Foundation created the Dr. Hans Riegel Awards to recognize outstanding pre-academic papers, encouraging soon-to-be high school graduates to pursue a career in a STEM field. During their studies, they also benefit from various support services, such as events and special seminars, as well as national networking opportunities."

Experimentation and Critical Analysis
Once again, this year’s students had an opportunity to present their research findings to a panel of university experts consisting of JKU faculty members. The award criteria included textbook use as a basis to independently write their paper, as well as the students' own experimentation and a critical examination of their hands-on experiments.

The awards are endowed with prize money for each subject area: €600 for the first-place winners, €400 for second-place winners, and €200 for the third-place winners. In addition, the first-place winners’ schools receive a material prize of € 250 in recognition of the teachers’ academic supervision.

Individual category winners:

Mathematics

• 1st Place: Miriam Patry (Realgymnasium Lambach): „Meilensteine in der Entwicklung der Aussagenlogik“
• 2nd Place: Erika Fischer(Kollegium Aloisianum): „Asymmetrische Kryptographie am Beispiel des RSA-Verfahrens“
• 3rd Place: Stefan Obermayr (Stiftsgmynasium Kremsmünster): „Das Spiel mit der Wahrscheinlichkeit - Die Komplexität der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung bei strategischen Brett- und Würfelspielen“

Physics

• 1st Place: Nikolai HERMANN (AHS des Schulvereins Kreuzschwestern): „Untersuchung der Umwandlung von Sonnen- in elektrische Energie mit einer selbstgebauten Stirlingmotor-Anlage“
• 2nd Place: Christian Koller (Akademisches Gymnasium): „Satellitenortung - Geotrackingdienste und Trackingapplikationen im Vergleich“
• 3rd Place: Ayberk Tosun (BG/BRG Gmunden): „Zeitreisen à la Hollywood“

Chemistry

• 1st Place: Anna Waldl (BRG Schloss Wagrain): „Die Methämoglobinbildung unter verschiedenen Bedingungen”
• 2nd Place: Lilian L. Schweitzer (Europagymnasium Auhof): "Entwicklung und Einsatz von Zusatzstoffen in Lebensmitteln - mit Fokus auf zugesetzte Aromen"
• 3rd Place: Martin Ebenhofer (Europagymnasium Baumgartenberg): „Die Herstellung von Kunststoff und dessen Verarbeitung durch das Spritzgussverfahren“

Informatics/Computer Science

• 1st Place: Pandora Spindler (BRG Steyr-Werndlpark): „Computer Vision - Wie Satelliten mit Hilfe von künstlicher Intellligenz die Welt sehen“
• 2nd Place: Clemens Sageder (BRG Schloss Wagrain): „Building a Custom Language Model using Minimal Compute“
• 3rd Place: Julian Gabriel (BG/BRG Rohrbach): „Emulation von Videospielen: Funktionsweise und Anwendungen”

Biology

• 1st Place: Severin Brandstötter (BRG Schloss Wagrain): „Überprüfung der Wirksamkeit eines mittelalterlichen Salbenrezepts mit antistaphylokokktischem Effekt“
• 2nd Place: Mathias Lahnsteiner-Schier (BRG Schloss Traunsee): „Die Anpassung von Salmoniden an steigende Wassertemperaturen“
• 3rd Place: Nathalie Fink(Bischöflichen Gymnasium Petrinum): „Die Determinanten von Intelligenz im Spannungsfeld zwischen Vererbung und Umwelt“

Learn more:

www.hans-riegel-fachpreise.com, opens an external URL in a new window

www.jku.at/hansriegelfachpreise, opens an external URL in a new window