Dr Walter Seipp Prize of the Commerzbank Foundation for Dr Matteo Cucchi

Dr Matteo Cucchi was awarded the Commerzbank Foundation's Dr Walter Seipp Prize on 27 October 2023 for his outstanding dissertation entitled "Organic electrochemical networks for biocompatible and implantable machine learning". Under the supervision of Prof Karl Leo, he completed his PhD at the Institute of Applied Physics with 'summa cum laude' in 2021. The prize is endowed with a total of 4,000 euros.

Researching novel approaches to artificial intelligence (AI) and implementing them in organic electronics - that was the aim of Dr Matteo Cucchi's doctoral thesis. To this end, he worked at the interfaces between physics, medicine, electronics and computer science, bringing together concepts and techniques from different fields and applying them in a novel and innovative way.

This interdisciplinary character opens up completely new possibilities for biocompatible flexible electronics that can be used in medicine, for example. "Matteo Cucchi has transferred the AI method of reservoir computing (RC) to organic materials and developed polymer networks that are able to recognise heartbeats and distinguish "healthy" from arrhythmic beats with high accuracy and require much less energy than conventional approaches. His work not only led to valuable insights, but also expanded the boundaries of knowledge in his field and resulted in publications in international journals that are very well cited," says supervisor Prof. Karl Leo, emphasising the exceptional quality of the dissertation.

After completing his doctorate at the TUD Dresden University of Technology, Matteo Cucchi took up a postdoctoral position at the renowned "École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne" (EPFL) (Switzerland) and now works as a Scientific Editor at the Springer Nature Group.

About the Commerzbank prizes
The Dr Walter Seipp Prize of the Commerzbank Foundation and the dissertation prizes of the Commerzbank Dresden Cultural Foundation honour outstanding dissertations by young scientists from all faculties and scientific institutions of the Dresden University of Technology.

The university prizes have been awarded for 25 years. The Commerzbank Foundation and the Commerzbank Dresden Cultural Foundation thus contribute to the targeted promotion of young academics and to enhancing the quality of teaching and research. The Dr Walter Seipp Prize comes from the Commerzbank Foundation's fund of the same name, which was set up in 1990 by Dr Walter Seipp, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank from 1981 to 1991 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board until 1999.

More information:
https://tu-dresden.de/forschung-transfer/services-fuer-forschende/preise-fuer-forschende/universitaetspreise/commerzbank-preise