For the development of assistance systems for people with disabilities, Sandra Drolshagen has been awarded the "Helene Lange Prize. Women in the digital world". The physicist is doing her doctorate at the university and is a research assistant at the OFFIS - Institute for Computing Science.
Vera Weidemann, Chairwoman of the EWE Foundation, presented the prize, which is endowed with 15,000 euros, to the 29-year-old physicist at a ceremony. "Sandra Drolshagen particularly impressed the jury with her research and the development of a robotic assistance system for people with disabilities in the real environment of workshops. She has not only achieved outstanding technical results in the field of robotics, but has also addressed the important question of how it is possible to support people with disabilities in their everyday lives, significantly simplify their integration into the labour market and thus improve their participation," said Weidemann.
Drolshagen has not only made an important contribution to digital research and development, but also to better inclusion, because she has shown how collaborative robots can support people with cognitive and motor disabilities, continued Weidemann, who is the Board Member for Human Resources and Legal Affairs at EWE AG.
The jury selected Sandra Drolshagen from a total of seven applications from Lower Saxony and Bremen. Yelyzaveta Blikharska from the Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Karen Albers from the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, who is now doing her doctorate at the University of Bremen, were also nominated.
Jury member Prof. Dr Susanne Boll, Professor of Media Informatics and Multimedia Systems at the university and OFFIS board member, said: "The research areas of the three nominees range from the development of robotic assistance systems for people with disabilities to orientation aids for visually impaired people on city maps and research into special eye-tracking methods in various real-life contexts. This shows that digitalisation is not aloof, but can be interdisciplinary, networked and application-oriented."
Christine Wolff, Mayor of the City of Oldenburg, adds: "Women in science and business still find it difficult to rise to management positions with the same profile requirements as their male colleagues. Here in Oldenburg, we would like to use the award to increase the visibility of talented young women, specifically support them in their further development and draw attention to the excellent work and career opportunities in business, science and administration." The city of Oldenburg and the OFFIS computer science institute are co-operation partners of the prize.
The jury for the Helene Lange Prize is all-female and interdisciplinary and, in addition to Weidemann and Boll, consists of Christiane Cordes, Head of the City of Oldenburg's Department of Culture and Sport, Prof. Dr Astrid Nieße, Professor of Digitalised Energy Systems at the University of Oldenburg, Petra Dekker from the roofing company of the same name and Chairwoman of the Entrepreneurial Women in the Skilled Crafts, Dr Stephanie Abke, Managing Director of the EWE Foundation, and Ulla Bergen, Deputy Chairwoman of the EWE Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Bärbel Hische, a visual artist from the Oldenburg Münsterland region, designed the physical prize and the nominees were each presented with a certificate. Two thirds of the prize money is intended to support further research.
