Hoang Khanh Linh Vu receives the award for her bachelor’s thesis on overcoming language barriers. Drawing on her personal experience, she aims to offer new perspectives on the topic and highlight the challenges involved. In her thesis, the award winner focuses on the language barriers faced by Vietnamese immigrants, as she herself came to Germany at the age of six and was confronted with the difficulties of learning a new language. “Today I can say that I have found my own path between the two cultures,” says the graduate of the International Communication and Translation program.

Hiba Albarazi is delighted to receive the award for the best master’s thesis. The psychology graduate examines the processes behind letting go of unattainable goals and explores how this relates to well-being and quality of life. Albarazi remains committed to her research interests and the University of Hildesheim and is continuing on to a Ph.D.: “For me, this is an example of effective goal pursuit.”

The award for the best dissertation goes to Dr. Vijaya Krishna Yalavarthi. The dissertation examines irregular, incompletely observed time-series data—an area that has been underrepresented in research to date. “In many critical fields of application, such as medicine, where patient data is rarely collected at regular intervals, there is a lack of efficient solutions for analyzing and predicting this data,” explains Yalavarthi. The award winner took a fresh approach to the topic and developed models for practical application. 

At the award ceremony held at Hildesheim City Hall in the presence of Mayor Dr. Ingo Meyer and University President Prof. Dr. May-Britt Kallenrode, the focus was not only on honoring the award recipients but also, above all, on the quality of their research topics. “The young people being honored here for their work demonstrate the high standard of university research in Hildesheim,” emphasizes the chair of the selection committee, Prof. Dr. Bettina Kluge. Dr. Iris Klaßen-Lippmann, Executive Director of the Hildesheim University Society (Universitätsgesellschaft Hildesheim e.V.), is pleased with the social relevance of the work. “All award recipients bring their own experiences—and thus a personal element—to their research.” In doing so, she underscores the fundamental purpose of the awards and the motivation of the University Society’s board to establish them. 

Background

The Hildesheim University Society (Universitätsgesellschaft Hildesheim e.V.) awards three prizes annually to support early-career researchers at the University of Hildesheim. One prize is awarded for a bachelor’s thesis, one for a master’s thesis, and one for a dissertation. Nominations for the award recipients come from the university’s faculty and are selected by the Senate Commission for Funding Matters, which is chaired by Prof. Dr. Bettina Kluge.