The State of Carinthia honours academic theses on digitalisation

This week, State Governor Peter Kaiser honoured three Bachelor’s, three Diploma and three Master’s theses as well as three doctoral theses, awarding a Carinthian Digitalisation Grant 2020 to each of the authors.

Digitalisation has entered into almost every facet of our lives. The Corona crisis and the shift to working from home and home schooling has brought this to our attention still more strongly. Last Monday, the award ceremony for nine grants to support academic theses in the field of digitalisation was also held via video conference. Altogether, grants totalling 7,200 euros were awarded. According to Governor Peter Kaiser, this is an important signal indicating that high-quality and innovative scientific work is taking place in Carinthia despite the Corona pandemic.

Kaiser thanked all the prize winners, the academic supervisors of the theses, the jury of experts and the team from Strategic State Development for organising the awards. He further acknowledged that the on-line award ceremony provided a timely way of recognising the outstanding achievements of the winners. “I would like to assure you that the State of Carinthia will continue to do everything in its power to promote and support achievements that serve to strengthen our location”, the Governor emphasised. He appealed to the award winners to continue to share their knowledge and commitment with the State of Carinthia and its people.

Markus Bliem from Strategic State Development also expressed his gratitude to all concerned. He highlighted the numerous initiatives undertaken by the European Union with regard to digitalisation. “Carinthia does not simply want to watch, but wants to play a role”, Bliem stated further. The chairman of the jury, Ralf Terlutter (Department of Marketing and International Management at the University of Klagenfurt) underscored the excellent quality of the theses, as well as the broad range of topics covered.

The honours were awarded to students from Carinthian higher education institutions for their academic theses completed between 1 January 2019 and 15 October 2020. The requirement stipulated that the work concerned the topic of digitalisation and its effects and significance for the State of Carinthia. Three Bachelor’s theses each received 300 euros, three Diploma or Master’s theses each received 600 euros and three doctoral theses each received 1,500 euros.

These are the winners in the category “doctoral thesis”: Stefan Pasterk (“Competency-Based Informatics Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools”), Konstantin Posch (“Regularization of Statistical Models with a Focus on Bayesian Methods”) and Jennifer Simonjan (“Resource-efficient and Resilient Self-Calibration in Distributed Visual Sensor Networks”). All three are students at the University of Klagenfurt.

These are the winners in the category “Diploma and Master’s thesis”: Kerstin Maier (“Solving the Combined Cell Layout Problem with Exact Approaches”), Kathrin Spendier (“Advanced Bayesian Statistical Methods for Fast Prediction of Human Motion in Cooperative Human-Robot Interaction using Space-Time Models”) and Christian Truden (“Civilian Applications of UAVs: Towards the Use of Defibrillator Drones in Mountainous Regions”). These three students are also from the University of Klagenfurt.

These are the winners in the category “Bachelor’s thesis”: Kathrin Egger (“Instagram’s Impact on Destination Choice in Tourism: A critical perspective”) from the University of Klagenfurt, Heike Glantschnig (“Prozessmodellierung und -optimierung im kommunalen Umfeld – Aufbau einer kollaborativen Referenzdatenbank anhand einer prototypischen Realisierung für Kärntner Gemeinden”) from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and Luca Rodiga (“Embedded Client für Smart Ticketing Platform”) from the University of Klagenfurt.

Source: Landespressedienst / State Press Service. Translation provided by the University of Klagenfurt (Uni Services)