01
November
2022
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07:46
Europe/Amsterdam

IU Alumni Awards 2022: These are the winners

Erfurt, 1 November 2022: IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU), the largest university in Germany, is presenting the IU Alumni Awards for the third time for exceptional careers, entrepreneurial success, sustainability, and digital education projects of former students in the following categories: 

 

Category: Professional Success  
IU Alumni Award winner 2022: Dr. Monika Suryavanshi 

The winner in the Professional Success category is an IU alumna with an international background who has made it to the top management of a pan-European provider of inpatient and outpatient care.  

After a successful career as a medical doctor and managing various medical facilities in her home country of India, Dr. Monika Suryavanshi set herself the goal of working abroad in a management position and gaining international work experience. After completing her master's degree in International Healthcare Management at IU, she completed a management trainee programme at Helios Kliniken, followed by a permanent position as Executive Assistant for the Management Board with a focus on strategic development, process optimisation and innovative business models. Since the beginning of May 2022, she has headed the Helios Healthcare Architects division as Executive Director.  

"Dr. Monika Suryavanshi had the courage to venture onto the international professional stage after a successful career in her home country and has managed to work her way up from the bottom to a top position in an internationally operating company in the healthcare industry," said the jury's statement.  

 

Category: Entrepreneurship  
IU Alumni Award winner 2022: Christoph Kohler 

The 2022 Alumni Award in the Entrepreneurship category is won by an IU alumnus whose business idea promotes an innovative data management and business intelligence tool for the aviation industry. 

WINGX, a consulting and data analysis company founded by Christoph Kohler in 2010, receives this year's Entrepreneurial Alumni Award. "With its business intelligence tool, WINGX has created an important and promising information platform for the aviation industry through its expertise in data management and analysis," is how the jury explained its decision.  

For its data and business intelligence-based business model (SaaS subscription), WINGX has already been able to find more than 150 business partners from 55 countries in the industry and successfully assert itself on the market. The company's goal for the future is to become the leading B2B hub for information on the business and wider aviation market. 

 

Category: Sustainability 
IU Alumni Award winner 2022: Lars Holger Engelhard 

This year's Sustainability Alumni Award goes to an IU alumnus who, with his company, has set himself the goal of revolutionising shipping and significantly reducing its emissions.  

As founder and CEO of Unleash Future Boats GmbH, Lars Holger Engelhard and his team are pursuing the goal of reducing the share of CO2 emissions from European shipping from 3.7% to 0.0%. To achieve this, he is focusing on the development of emission-free, autonomous ships with electric drives and fuel cells. These modular propulsion kits are provided by Green Boats Engineering, a spin-off from Unleash Future Boats, as a retrofit solution for conventional ships. For this solution, Green Boats Engineering received the "German Award for Sustainability Projects" from the German Institute for Service Quality, the DUP UNTERNEHMER magazine and NTV in 2022. In addition, Unleash Future Boats was awarded the Innovation Prize Reallabore 2022 by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) and the Vision Award 2022. The German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) and the relevant authorities approved Lars and his team to build the largest digital test field on the federal waterway Schlei. This won him the European Space Agency ESA as a partner.  

"With his project to make shipping emission-free, Lars Holger Engelhard and his team are making an important contribution to increasing the sustainability of shipping in Europe," said the jury. 

 

Category: Digital Education Development 
IU Alumni Award winner 2022: Christiane Lieb 

The Digital Education Development Alumni Award is given to an IU alumna for her scholarly engagement in a dissertation on improving digital education. 

After completing her master's degree at IU, Christiane Lieb is a researcher dedicated to exploring the potential and meaningful scope of a didactic intervention as an electronic learning tool. The focus of the study is on technological feasibility and acceptance to make learners experts in dealing with digital working, teaching, and learning conditions in the long term through appropriate communication skills.  

"Especially in view of the increasing digitalisation of education, we would like to honour Christiane Lieb's research project focusing on digitally supported didactic intervention," said the jury's statement. 

 

Special Mention 
IU Alumni Award for Laura Spies 

For the first time, the IU is awarding the Special Mention award to an alumna for her career in a field of work with a high social impact: this award goes to Laura Spies, who at the age of 27, just two months after being hired as deputy director and shortly before completing her master's degree, was assigned the facility management of the Arche Noah daycare centre of the Evangelical Church Community Dossenheim. "With the Special Mention award, we would like to honour Laura Spies' swift career and her professional commitment in a field that is extremely important for society," said the jury. 

 

Award ceremony in early 2023 

The Alumni Awards will be presented at the next virtual Alumni Event in early 2023. As a prize, the winners can choose a further training course from the wide range of courses offered by the IU Academy with a duration of up to four months full-time or eight months part-time. 

 

About the IU Alumni Awards 

Since 2020, IU International University of Applied Sciences has been honouring special successes and projects of its graduates with the IU Alumni Awards. The members of the jury in 2022 were: Prof. Dr. Holger Sommerfeldt (Rector of IU), Prof. Dr. Anastasia Hermann (Member of the Rectorate) and Nina Versfeldt (Director Brand Marketing at IU). More information on the IU Alumni Awards and all winners can be found at: www.iu.de/infos/alumni/alumni-award/  

 

ABOUT IU INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

With over 85,000 students, IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) is the largest university in Germany. The private, state-recognised higher education institution offers more than 200 bachelor's and master's degree programmes under its roof, available in German or English. Students can shape their studies their way through the help of a digitally supported learning environment with various study models, such as dual study, distance learning and myStudies – which combines online and on-campus studies. In addition, IU facilitates continuing education and promotes the idea of lifelong learning. In alignment with the university’s mission, it aims to provide access to personalised education to as many people worldwide as possible. IU began operations in 2000 and is now represented in more than 30 German cities. It cooperates with over 10,000 companies and actively supports them in employee development. Its partners include Deutsche Bahn, Motel One, Telekom, Vodafone und VW Financial Services. Further information at: www.iu.org