The Association of Friends and Sponsors of TU Dresden (GFF) was once again on the lookout for examples of outstanding teaching. In the 2020/2021 academic year, the GFF called for concepts that stood out thanks to a high degree of creativity, interactivity, and the opportunity to participate. The nominations were submitted by individual students, groups of students, Faculty Student Councils, the Deans of the Faculties and the Chairpersons for the Schools. From the many nominations, the GFF Executive Board and the Vice-Rector Academic Affairs have chosen 11 winners in total.

© Sarah Müller-Sägebrecht

One of the winners is Sarah Müller-Sägebrecht, Research Associate at the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Faculty of Business and Economics. One of the many nomination letters for the Innovation and Product Management course stated, “This course enabled us students to go through the complete innovation process – from the brainstorming phase through to the final presentation – and turn an idea for a new service into reality. Our creativity was unrestricted, and by dividing into groups, everyone was able to apply their strengths. Thanks to regular feedback from the teachers, we were able to continually improve our idea. In comparison to other online classes that, unfortunately, were almost all very monotonous, this seminar really stood out and was just a lot of fun.”

Other teaching prizes were awarded to: Prof. John Grunewald and Dr. Peggy Freudenberg (Faculty of Architecture), Dr. Jens Brose (Faculty of Physics), Dr. Katja Richter (Faculty of Environmental Sciences), Prof. Dr. Ostap Okhrin and Dr. Iryna Okhrin (Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences), Dr. Christine Andrä (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science), Prof. Dr. Inez Weidinger (Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry), Privatdozent Dr. Norbert Koksch (Faculty of Mathematics), Prof. Dr. Sebastian Franz (Faculty of Mathematics), as well as Dr. rer. medic.

Robert Haase and Dr. Anna Poetsch (CMCB). The following teaching staff received honorable mentions: Dr. Ernst van der Maaten (Faculty of Environmental Sciences), Dr.-Ing. Alfred Kamusella (Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Prof. Stefan Odenbach (Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering), Dr. Falk Röder (Faculty of Physics) and Privatdozent Dr. Timo Siepmann (Faculty of Medicine).

The winning projects highlight the manifold technical opportunities for online teaching as well as the enthusiasm for experimentation and creativity of teaching staff at TU Dresden – both online and on site. They also demonstrate the unwavering commitment to offering students the services they need across Faculties and Central Units. Due to current restrictions, the announcement of this year’s teaching prizes was made by the Vice-Rector Academic Affairs during the Senate meeting on January 12, 2022.

Since 1995, the GFF has awarded prizes to teaching staff for outstanding education and training courses. Find out more about the winners and their courses here.