Jan 21, 2025
Funding of young academics: Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences awards four new company scholarships to Master's students
Managing Director Dr. Michael Krieg with the company scholarship holders of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in the winter semester 2024/25 (from left to right): Dr. Michael Krieg, Gregor Wehrle, Josua Demant, Sarah Kalinofski, Shengzhe Huang
For the winter semester 2024/25, DB InfraGo AG, Rail Power Systems GmbH and ISB Ingenieurgesellschaft für Sicherungstechnik und Bau mbh are supporting a total of four Master's students with their own company scholarship.
With the faculty's own company scholarships, the faculty and cooperation partners from business and administration are breaking new ground in order to draw attention to transport studies at TU Dresden, attract qualified young talents and meet the urgent need for skilled professionals beyond the current number of graduates.
Four Master's students on the Railway System Engineering degree program at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences have now been awarded a company scholarship at the start of the 2024/25 winter semester.
Company scholarships: promoting young talent through student financing
Managing Director Dr. Michael Krieg welcomes the scholarship holders.
Company scholarships from the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences are intended to support particularly talented students of transport and traffic sciences who are expected to excel in their studies and careers from the first semester of their Master's degree. The students are financially supported by the sponsors for 24 months with € 750.00 per month. In addition to funding, the scholarship holders gain valuable insights into the partner company during their studies and thus benefit from excellent career prospects.
Portrait of this year's scholarship holders
DB InfraGo AG: Sarah Kalinofski
Sarah Kalinofski has been studying for a Master's degree in Railway System Engineering at the Faculty of Transport Sciences since October. The path to her Master's degree was rather unusual, as she had previously completed her first state examination in mathematics and ethics as a teacher, where she was already able to put her mathematical and analytical skills to good use. Outside of her teaching studies, she developed an enthusiasm for mobility and rail transport, which primarily stems from a socio-political motivation: "The complex rail system is so essential for the mobility of the future and therefore for society as a whole, but at the same time it faces major challenges. I am convinced that there are many practical problems waiting to be solved here, for which I would like to use my analytical skills."
The company scholarship from DB InfraGo AG is helping the Master's student to catch up with the previous knowledge of her fellow students, as she has big plans for the future: "I would like to be involved in improving the rail system and thus perhaps also get more people to switch from private to rail transport."
Alongside her studies, Sarah Kalinofski has already volunteered in various tutoring and support activities with pupils. She is passionate about playing volleyball.
DB InfraGo AG: Gregor Wehrle
Social commitment has always been important to Gregor Wehrle: after graduating from high school, the Railway System Engineering student first completed a voluntary social year in youth work before successfully completing an apprenticeship as a web developer. This is also where he discovered his passion for programming. This was followed by a Bachelor's degree program in Transport Engineering at the TU Braunschweig. Initially, he was interested in transportation in general, but during the course of his studies, rail transport as a system with a long history and its need for transformation in today's digital society aroused his curiosity. Gregor Wehrle came across a central problem: the lack of availability of free data and open planning software made it difficult to reproduce calculations for rail infrastructure. His mission: the development and provision of open source software in the rail sector. The scholarship helps him to pursue this goal: "In my opinion, open rail infrastructure data and reproducible research are an important step towards making rail attractive, competitive and transparent for companies, the public and initiatives."
In addition to his studies, Gregor Wehrle is involved in various student initiatives and the Environmental Culture Association. He is also part of Seebrücke.
ISB Ingenieurgesellschaft für Sicherungstechnik und Bau mbH: Josua Demant
Scholarship Holder Josua Demant when signing the contract.
After an internship at DB Netz AG in the field of noise remediation, Josua Demant completed a dual degree in railroad engineering at the Technical University of Central Hesse in cooperation with DB InfraGO AG. As part of this, he was involved in a wide range of projects focusing on overhead line systems, electrical energy systems and control and safety technology and acquired in-depth knowledge from conceptual design and project planning to project awarding. In his Bachelor's thesis, Josua Demant dealt with the conceptual design of an overhead line system at Leichlingen station and the section of the open line between Leichlingen and Opladen. With his Master's degree, Josua Demant would like to continue to focus on infrastructure planning in the future: "In my view, the Railway System Engineering degree program offers very good conditions for gaining knowledge about the complexity of the entire railway system and understanding the dependencies within the system in order to make an effective contribution to the implementation of future infrastructure projects."
In addition to his studies, Josua Demant is passionate about playing the trumpet. He also likes to travel a lot, whether by bike or Interrail.
Rail Power Systems: Shengzhe Huang
Prof. Steffen Röhlig, Head of Business Development at Rail Power Systems in conversation with Shengzhe Huang
Shengzhe Huang completed his bachelor's degree at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China. In addition to his studies, Shengzhe Huang gained a wide range of practical experience, including engineering activities for the Beijing-Daxing Airport and Tainan P251 metro lines and the MTR Tung Chung Line in Hong Kong. He discovered his interest in overhead line planning, system design and simulation. Shengzhe Huang has also already completed further training in the areas of overhead line position planning and the simulation software "TracFeed ® OSSCAT" and has already met his scholarship provider, Rail Power Systems GmbH, in this context. He would like to continue to deepen his practical experience during his Master's degree: "The scholarship allows me to get even more involved in projects, internships and student organizations. This allows me to broaden my horizons, gain practical experience and continue to specialize in my field."
When asked how he would like to help shape the future of rail transportation, Shengzhe Huang replies: "My long-term goal is to contribute to the development of innovative solutions for dynamic simulations so that railroads will be faster, more punctual and technically more innovative in the future."
Outside of his specialist field, Shengzhe Huang's interests include painting, reading and hiking.
We would like to congratulate all the scholarship holders and wish them every success in their Master's studies.