At the award ceremony, the students gave an insight in their final theses and presented details of their research areas. Until the end the scholarship candidates did not know which prize they would receive. The certificates were awarded by Helmut Claas, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the CLAAS Foundation, and Dr. Hermann Garbers.
In detail, the following prices were awarded:
Scholarships:
1st prize: Kristian Evgeniev Velkovski, student at the University "Angel Kanchev" in Ruse (Bulgaria), was awarded the first prize, a scholarship of 7,200 euros. He studies digital communication at the Faculty of Engineering and Electrical Engineering and his bachelor thesis dealt with the Design and development of the AgRUbot - an inexpensive and autonomous small-scale robot platform for precision agriculture and farming. The jury was impressed by the depth of his analyses and used the award to give the student the opportunity to include an international perspective in his master's programme.
Due to the high quality of the applications, two second places of the Helmut Claas Fellowships were awarded instead of one fourth place.
2nd prize: Florian Fipp was pleased about the second place and a scholarship of 6.000 Euro. He made an apprenticeship as a famer and completed a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering for Agricultural and Horticultural Enterprises at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. In his final thesis, he analysed different Seeding Rates in Row Crops for Forage Production.
2nd prize: Jana Korrmann, a business management student from Osnabrück, living in a small town near Osnabrück, is a member of the Young Farmers Association and worked on the implementation of a service contract for GPS steering systems using CLAAS as an example. She received a scholarship of 6,000 euros.
3rd prize: A scholarship of 4,800 euros went to engineering student Benno Bunte from Osnabrück. The former industrial mechanic apprentice developed a concept to optimize and automate manual assembly line for forage harvesters.
Bonusprizes:
In addition to the scholarships, five bonus prizes worth 1,500 euros each were awarded in various categories. Four out of five prizes were awarded to women, a testament to the fact that today young women are conquering technical or scientific careers.
In the category "Marketing", Miriam Schuster from the University of Kassel Witzenhausen was honoured for her work in setting up producer associations from the point of view of dairy goat and milk sheep farmers. She thus developed a significant approach to the marketing of agricultural products.
Nadine Hückl from the Weihenstephan - Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences was awarded a prize in the "Technical Application" category. Under the title "Increasing the quality of wood chips through screening - Development of a mobile wood chip system", she looked in particular at the quality improvements in smaller heating systems and already aroused the interest of a device manufacturer for here idea.
Kate Tomlinson from Harper Adams University (Great Britain) dealt with the mental health of farmers and received an award in the category "working conditions" for her work. The jury was particularly impressed by the combination of a solid foundation with practical recommendations which can be implemented.
Sophie Thornton from Harper Adams University (Great Britain) received an award in the "Digitisation" category. She analysed the integration of modern data storage systems into the poultry supply chain.
The team Jack Cotter, Eddie Lane and Donal Hand from the Technical Institute in Tralee won the prize in the "Design" category for their unusual but convincing work. They developed a children's electric tractor in their work, which was a combination of technical sophistication and marketing skill. The detail of the work showed a dedication to completing a whole project rather than just a build.
International Student prices:
The international student prizes worth 4,500 euros each were awarded to students from Banat University of Agricultural Sciences Timisoara (Romania), Budapest University of Technology and Economy (Hungary), Wageningen University (Netherlands), University of Agriculture Nitra (Slovakia), Angel Kanchev University Rousse (Bulgaria), Kuban State Agrarian University Krasnodar (Russia) and Poznań University of Life Sciences (Poland).
A further grant was awarded to Siba Laurent Koropogui from Guinea, a student of the international MBA Agricultural Management at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences.
