At the MikroSystemTechnik Kongress 2023 (MST) in Dresden, the "Green ICT Awards" were presented for the first time as part of the 'Green ICT @ FMD' competence center to honor bachelor's and master's theses on resource-saving information and communication technology (ICT).
The announcement of the exact ranking and the award ceremony took place at the MST Congress on Tuesday, October 24. After a welcome address by Chairman Prof. Hubert Lakner, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, and two keynote speeches, Prof. Amelie Hagelauer, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microsystems and Solid State Technologies EMFT, and Dr. Stefan Mengel, Head of Division at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, presented the Green ICT Award.
Kareem Mansour won the first Green ICT Award with his Master's thesis 'Design and Implementation of a Highly Efficient Bidirectional DC-DC Converter for Multi-Phase Control of Capacitive Loads' (prize money: €2,500). Second place went to Alexander Maximilian Busch with his Bachelor thesis 'Power Consumption Models for Sustainability in Wireless Communication Sys-tems' (prize money: €1,000). Tuğana Ceren Aslan was awarded third prize for her Master's thesis 'Climate Neutral Data Centers by 2030 - An evaluation of influential parameters based on a scenario analysis' (prize money: €500).
Students and young professionals were able to apply with their bachelor's and master's theses in the field of Green ICT until summer 2023. Following the application phase, a jury chaired by Prof. Amelie Hagelauer reviewed all submitted abstracts and selected the three best theses. The theses were judged according to the criteria of scientific content, level of innovation and sustainability aspect. The decisive factors for the jury were also the leverage effect of the studies on sustainability and the implementation potential of the proposal.
The ICT sector plays a central role in achieving environmental protection goals. This is because increasing digital networking and the Internet of Things (IoT) are causing the data and energy consumption of global ICT to grow rapidly. This is why this year's MST Congress, jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the VDE Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik e.V., is increasingly focusing on the topic of sustainability.
However, in order to overcome the challenges of the coming years and develop innovative and resource-efficient solutions, especially in the ICT sector, we also need enthusiastic young scientists who are committed to the topic and have new ideas. For this reason, the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) wants to promote interest in sustainable microelectronics among students and young professionals with the Green ICT Award.
"The Green ICT Award is an excellent opportunity to get students excited about sustainability in the field of microelectronics and to give talented researchers a platform to present their developments to the industry," says Prof. Sabine Döring, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Prof. Albert Heuberger, Chairman of the FMD Steering Committee and spokesman for the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics, adds: "The award is intended to help raise students' awareness of resource conservation at an early stage. This is important in order to initiate a sustainable paradigm shift and use microelectronics to make a significant contribution to saving energy and thus reducingCO2 emissions."
The Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD), a cooperation between the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics and the Leibniz Institutes FBH and IHP, is the central point of contact for all issues relating to microelectronics and nanoelectronics in Germany and Europe. As a one-stop store, FMD has been combining scientifically excellent technologies and system solutions from its 13 cooperating institutes from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Leibniz Association into a customer-specific overall offering since 2017. Under the virtual umbrella of FMD, the largest association of its kind in Europe has been created, with more than 4,500 employees and a unique diversity of expertise and infrastructure. From 2017 to 2021, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research supported the modernization of the research infrastructure of all 13 participating institutes.
