Press

The CLAAS Foundation awarded prizes to nine young talents of agricultural engineering at the CLAAS Technoparc in Harsewinkel. The young prize winners presented their projects in brief presentations.

Dr. Hermann Garbers, Deputy Chairman of the CLAAS Foundation Board, explained the objectives and the development of the CLAAS Foundation hitherto: „We would like to draw the young generation’s attention to agriculture and related fields and make the global importance of agriculture known to the public.“

The award of the „Helmut Claas-Scholarship“ is directed at students of general engineering and also economics. This year Helmut Claas, Chairman of the CLAAS Foundation Board, handed out the scholarship certificates for outstanding projects to students coming from Germany, Great Britain, Russia and for the first time Ghana (West Africa)

In the ceremony the two former scholarship holders Bernhard Böcker-Riese (prize winner 2007) and Dr. Benjamin Schutte (prize winner 2002) reported on the positive impact on their career and personal life after having received the Helmut Claas-Scholarship.

Scholarship holders, Board and Jury (back row, from left to right): Prof. Stefan Böttinger, Dr. Peter Crossley, Thomas Preuße, Prof. Bernd Johanning, Helmut Claas, Dr. Hermann Garbers, Sylvia Looks, Uwe Lütkeschümer, Dr. Rolf Meuther, Dr. James Brighton; (front row, from left to right): Kirsten Wulfmeier (for Svenja Nörenberg), Robert Fillingham, Matthias Dietzel and Steffen Häberle.

Scholarships:

1. Prize: The first prize, coming to a value of 4.800 Euro, went to Steffen Häberle. He is 25 years old and studies at the University of Stuttgart. Aim of his project was to develop sensors to detect and measure crop loss on grain pre-cleaners.

2. Prize: The second prize at a value of 3.600 Euro was awarded to Matthias Dietzel (24), student at the University of Hohenheim. As an alternative to the mechanical and chemical treatment of oil plants, which serve as intermediate crops in between two main crop cultivations, he worked with a tailor made roller crimper and compared this with the conventional mulching technique.

3. Prize: Robert Fillingham (22), from the Harper Adams University College in Great Britain was happy about his third prize coming to a total of 3.000 Euro. He carried out a mathematical survey of failure modes on agricultural and off-road machinery and as one example of this group took a small excavator in his tests. The main reason for failure was material fatigue.

4. Prize: The fourth prize of a total of 2.400 Euro went to Svenja Nörenberg (23) from the Institute of agricultural machinery and fluid power of the Technical University of Braunschweig. She examined the influence of different wheat cultivation systems on the CO₂ emissions and bio ethanol yield. Her project was presented by her tutor Kirsten Wulfmeier.

Bonus prizes:

Apart from the annual scholarships there were five bonus prizes at a value of 1.000 Euro each. The prize in the category „process orientation“ went to Florian Kreis (26) from the University of Applied Sciences Bingen. In the category „Forward looking“ the student Franz Phillip Drerup received the award. He is 28 and studies at the University of Bonn. The prize of the category „International“ was given to Nikolay Buldyaev from the Kuban University of Krasnodar in Russia. The bonus prize of the category „Technology transfer“ went to John Reeves Aidoo from Ghana, West Africa. Frederick Steinmeyer won the bonus prize in the category „Energie Efficiency“.

Prof. Markus Geimer of the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT) was welcomed as a new member of the jury following Prof. Stefan Böttinger. Prof. Stefan Böttinger changes into the Board of the CLAAS Foundation. The Foundation works with a jury consisting of international experts of agriculture and cooperates with renowned universities at home and abroad. The Foundation capital is 6,0 million Euro. Next to the Helmut Claas-Scholarship the CLAAS Foundation also supports international research projects at universities and funds initiatives at schools to raise pupil’s interest in sciences and technology topics.