The Youth Forum is a lecture series for young engineers that takes place as part of the STUVA conference. Young engineers from all fields of tunnel construction and tunnel operation up to the age of 35 may apply for a presentation on new developments in their field. Topics from research as well as from practice are welcome. From the applications about 5 lectures for the lecture series "Youth Forum" are selected in a preliminary decision. The winners of the preliminary decision then have the chance to present their topic at the STUVA conference and to win the STUVA Young Talent Award. The winners of the past years won trips to tunnel construction sites in Dubai, China, Toronto and Doha.

At this year's STUVA conference, three RUB doctoral students participated in the Young Forum as speakers. Christoph Schulte-Schrepping opened the lecture series with the presentation of an innovative material concept for annular gap grout in mechanised tunnelling (SFB 837, subproject B3). Alena Conrads then presented a new methodology for robust maintenance planning for cutting tools in shield tunnelling (SFB 837, subproject C3). The third in the series, Ivan Popovic, presented a new separation method for used bentonite suspensions, the electrocoagulation. After four interesting lectures, the audience chose the winner of the STUVA Young Talent Award, which was conferred in the evening as part of the festive programme.
The STUVA Young Talent Award, which is associated with a trip to the construction site Alto Maipo in Chile, was awarded to Ivan Popovic. Alena Conrads was awarded second place. She also received the "InnoTrans Career Award" from InnoTrans Berlin, which consists of a trip and an invitation to Innotrans 2020 in Berlin.