Presentation of the awards for the best theses at the BTU in 2022.

The Förderverein of BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg awards the prizes for the best dissertation of the university as well as the best bachelor and master theses of the six faculties. The prizes are presented to the winners during the graduation ceremony by Jörg Waniek, Chairman of the Association, and the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at BTU.

Jörg Waniek, Chairman of the Board of the Friends of the BTU Cottbus-SenftenbergJörg Waniek, Chairman of the Association, congratulated the young graduates on their outstanding achievements and said: "I am extremely pleased to present the awards to our excellent graduates on behalf of our association and all our supporters. It is a matter close to our hearts to honor these very good achievements. At the same time, the awards are meant to be motivation for success in further studies, in the profession or in science. We are very proud of them!"

The prize for the best dissertation at the university, endowed with 1,500 euros, was awarded to Dr. Saskia Fischer for her work on "Self-efficacy expectation, self-regulation and empathy as facets of teachers' intervention competence in bullying - connections to teachers' intervention actions and learners' bullying experiences." The topic of the thesis, which was completed with the overall grade "summa cum laude", is the phenomenon of bullying between students, a form of violence in schools that is widespread worldwide.

Representative studies in Germany show that on average about two students per class are affected. Bullying can have profound negative consequences for the students involved, especially on their mental health. Longitudinal studies show that these effects can extend into adulthood. For this reason, bullying has been the subject of intensive international research for several years, and well-evaluated prevention programs are available.
Little has been known, however, about how teachers can best deal with actual bullying cases. How often do they intervene, what intervention strategies do they use, and what skills do they need to effectively stop bullying? Saskia Fischer addressed these questions in her dissertation.
The work was done as part of a DFG project in the chair of Educational Psychology of Prof. Dr. Ludwig Bilz. The scientist identified relevant intervention competencies of teachers from extensive data collection of more than 2,000 students and over 550 teachers, thus laying the foundation for future training and continuing education measures.
The five publications on which the dissertation is based have appeared in high-ranking English-language peer-reviewed journals. Saskia Fischer has presented her findings at international conferences in Dublin, Vienna and Stockholm and has established herself in the field of bullying research with her work. The second reviewer is Prof. Dr. phil. Herbert Scheithauer, Head of the Department of Education Sciences and Psychology at Freie Universität Berlin.

Dr. Chen-Xiang Chao is honored for the second best dissertation entitled "Strategies for Optimizing the Tooth Root Load Capacity of High-Performance Gears." In the thesis, which was graded "summa cum laude", the scientist dealt with optimization processes for the design of gears of an epicyclic gearbox - often referred to as planetary gears. These gears have become indispensable in high-performance drive systems in automotive, mechanical and plant engineering due to their good efficiency and low mass-to-power ratio. However, for the application as high-performance gearboxes in aircraft engines, the design criteria and procedures commonly used there are insufficient. Therefore, Dr. Chao dealt with adapted criteria in his thesis and developed novel optimization processes for this purpose. The dissertation was written in the KEPLER project (Key System, Design Processes, Lightweight Design, EHM for High Performance Reduction Gearboxes) at the chair of Engineering Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics under Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Hon. Prof. (NUST) Dieter Bestle. Second reviewer is Prof. Dr.-Ing. Berthold Schlecht, Director of the Institute for Machine Elements and Machine Design at the university of technology Dresden.

Awards of 1000 euros each for the best master's theses at the six faculties
go to the following six graduates:

Faculty 1: MINT - Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Franz Theo Schön, M.Sc.
"Instabilities and pattern formation in viscoelastic fluids "
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Michael Bestehorn and PD Dr. rer. nat. habil. Rodica Borcia, Chair of Statistical Physics and Nonlinear Dynamics

Faculty 2: Environment and Natural Sciences

Anastasiia Pastushenko, M.Sc.
"Analysis of Mining and Water Law in Relation to Surface Mining Lakes in the State of Brandenburg "
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. iur. Eike Albrecht, Chair of Public Law, in particular Environmental and Planning Law, and Karina Pulz, Brandenburg State Office for Mining, Geology and Raw Materials.

Faculty 3: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Energy Systems

Pei-Yun Tsai, M.Sc.
"Modeling of simultaneous scalar and momentum transport in turbulent coaxial Poiseuille flow in cylindrical gap "
Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-lng. Heiko Schmidt and Dr. rer. nat. Marten Klein, Chair of Numerical Flow and Gas Dynamics.

Faculty 4: Social Work, Health and Music

Katharina Woschick, M.A.
"Qualification of persons with impairments for participation in the working field of agriculture "
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. soc. oec. Alexandra Retkowski and Prof. Dr. Marina Ney, Institute of Social Work

Faculty 5: Economy, Law and Society

Vanessa Lau, M.Sc.
"In a group, you need a leader: The interplay of sender characteristics and receiver group size on receiver per-ceptions in amplified word-of-mouth "
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Florian Dost and Bastian Werner, Chair ABWL, in particular Marketing

Faculty 6: Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning

Mareike Timpe, M.Sc.
"Kleinstädte - mehr als ihre Einwohner*innenzahl. Approaches to the Characteristics of German Small Towns "
Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Silke Weidner, LS Urban Management and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Weyrauch, LS Construction and Planning Law.

For the best bachelor theses were awarded with distinction 350 Euro each:

Faculty 1: MINT - Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Nicolas Borchard, B.Sc.
"Second order optimality conditions for sparsity objective functionals using generalized second derivatives"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Gerd Wachsmuth Chair of Optimal Control and Prof. Dr. Daniel Wachsmuth, University of Würzburg, Germany

Faculty Environment and Natural Sciences

Marvin Koal, B.Sc.
"Comparative Analysis of Operating Costs"
Supervisor: Dr.-Ing. Andrea Straub, Chair of Urban Water Management and Dr. Martin Gast, LEAG.

Faculty 3: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Energy Systems

Patricia Höwisch, B.Eng.
"Project design for the further development of the inventory tool 'Systemcockpit'"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kathrin Lehmann and Nahal Tamadon, Institute Electrical Systems and Energy Logistics

Faculty 4: Social Work, Health and Music

Samy Dankhoff, B.A. and Katerina Luxemburgova, B.A.
"Evidence-based guideline recommendations for physiotherapy in stroke - a systematic review"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Kopkow and Bettina Scheffler, Institute of Health.

Faculty 5: Economy, Law and Society

Christian Lürmann, B.Sc.
"A microeconomic analysis of the organizational impact of the DRG flat rate system"
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. oec. habil. Jan Schnellenbach and Dr. Sören Schwuchow, Chair of Microeconomics

Faculty 6: Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning

Sarah Kochan, B.Sc.
"Fire protection investigations for wood and wood-concrete composite structures in high-rise building construction using a wood-concrete composite frame"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Bleicher, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Marc Simon and Tim Höltke, Chair Hybrid Structures - Structural Concrete