Press

The CLAAS Foundation awarded eight promising young students in the field of agricultural engineering with scholarships and bonus prizes at the Technoparc of the CLAAS headquarters in Harsewinkel (Germany) where the award ceremony was held. The prizewinners illustrated their research projects by way of short presentations. This year, the CLAAS Foundation also celebrated its 10th birthday.

After the award ceremony, prizewinners and members of the Board of Trustees and jury assembled for the photo shoot.

Helmut Claas unveiled the new logo of the CLAAS Foundation designed to mark the Foundation's ten year anniversary.

Speaking before the Board of Trustees, the jury and a large guest audience, Foundation Director Uwe Lütkeschümer illuminated the development of the CLAAS Foundation: "In the past decade, we have awarded 80 scholarships and prizes for students, worth a total value of over € 180,000."

Uwe Lütkeschümer, Director of the CLAAS Foundation, illustrated the development from the foundation's establishment in 1999 to the present day.

The awards referred to as "Helmut Claas Scholarships" are intended for students in the fields of general engineering and business administration. This year, Helmut Claas, President of the Board of Trustees of the CLAAS Foundation, awarded the prizes for outstanding research projects to eight students from Germany, Canada and Russia.

The first prize, a scholarship worth € 400 a month for a period of 12 months, went to Joachim Pförtner (University of Stuttgart). His research work "Modelling a tractor cab with suspension as a multi body-system using SIMPACK" seeks to make tractors more comfortable to drive. Maximilian Birle (Technical University Munich) was awarded the second prize, a scholarship worth € 300 each month for a period of 12 months, for his work on the subject of energy generation entitled "Economic analysis of syngas plants test". Andreas Sillies (University of Hanover / TU Braunschweig) investigated the topic of agricultural tillage.

His research project "Development of a test rig concept for the investigation of tillage tool friction when stimulated ultrasonically" won the third prize of € 250 over a period of 12 months. The fourth prize, € 200 for 12 months, went to Frank Hausdörfer (TU Braunschweig) for his research project entitled "Modelling a loading spout for an autonomous field robot". 

In addition to the annual scholarships, four bonus prizes to the value of € 1,000 each were also awarded. Stephanie Müller (University of Kassel) received a bonus prize for her Bachelor thesis on "Design, construction and test of a trough for nuzzling to facilitate species-appropriate feeding of litterless pigs", while Nicolas Dubuc (Mc Gill University, Quebec / Canada) was rewarded for his Bachelor thesis tackling the subject of ploughing. Markus Hubel (FH Aalen) received a bonus prize for his project essay "Early detection of mechanical failures within combine harvesters", while the final bonus prize went to Irina Goncharova (Kuban University, Krasnodar / Russia) for her research work on "Increasing the productivity of maize harvesters".

The award ceremony was held at the Technoparc in Harsewinkel and laureates were highly applauded for their talks.

The CLAAS Foundation works together with a jury comprising international experts from the field of agricultural science and has partnerships with renowned universities both in Germany and abroad. The foundation capital currently amounts to € 6.0m. In addition to the Helmut Claas Scholarship, the CLAAS Foundation also supports international research projects at universities as well as initiatives in schools to get pupils interested in science and technical issues.