In their academic work or when dealing with contact groups at the university, they have intentionally taken aspects such as age, gender or disability into account and were presented with awards for gender and diversity at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). Elma Sadaj, Robert Gaugl, Sadegh Arefnezhad, Sascha Rossmann and the team "GenIAL" recently accepted "Mind the Gap" prizes of 1,000 euros each. The Office for Gender Equality and Equal Opportunity had announced the diversity awards on the occasion of International Women's Day in order to support the debate on diversity in the technical and scientific environment.
Mind the Gap: Prizewinners 2019
Elma Sadaj – student of Production Science and Management (master's)
Sadaj developed a learning factory for logistics services which included participants of different ages and sexes in a participatory way. Her thesis should contribute to a more practice-oriented training and further education of customers and employees in the logistics sector.
Robert Gaugl – university assistant at the Institute of Electricity Economics and Energy Innovation (IEE)
Gaugl earned merit for the gender-neutral formulation of the contents of the Institute's website and was committed to barrier-free access to the IEE website, especially for people with visual impairments.
Sadegh Arefnezhad – project assistant at the Institute of Automotive Engineering
In a publication on his doctoral thesis, the doctoral student described his "WACHsens" study, the aim of which is to identify the fatigue levels of motorists. For the study, 90 subjects were intentionally selected according to gender and age. Ultimately, the research work should serve to extend the binary scale "tired / awake". .
Sascha Rossmann – student of physics and staff member at the Registration Office
Stimulated by his work at the Students Union and the Registration Office, Rossmann looked at the influence of origin, gender and family on mental health and academic success. He developed a workshop concept to train students as contact persons.
Project Team "GenIAL" – a team at the Institute of Mechanics, Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Business Informatics
Reinhard Braunstingl and his team consisting of Ioana Koglbauer, Birgit Mösl, Harald Schaffernak and Wolfgang Vorraber identified gender-specific weaknesses and strengths in flight training. In a subsequent project, the researchers will design gender-conscious teaching methods using augmented reality technologies.
