On January 14, 2025, several final theses at the Chair of Computing in Engineering were honored by the RG-Bau at the RKW Competence Center as part of the “Built on IT - Construction Professions with a Future” competition.

The RKW Competence Center has been honoring innovative and practical digital solutions for young construction professionals for over 20 years as part of the “Built on IT - Construction Professions with a Future” competition. This year, the jury was once again impressed by the diversity of the work submitted - from the digitalization of individual processes and the use of AI on construction sites to solutions for a sustainable transformation of the industry. This year's award ceremony with around 150 guests took place at BAU in Munich, the world's largest trade fair for architecture, materials and systems.

Prizes were awarded for the best work in the fields of architecture, construction management, civil engineering, crafts and technology by Dipl.-Vw. Ullrike Blankenfeld from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) and business economist Ingo Reifgerste, Chairman of the Board of RKW e.V., Chairman of the Advisory Board of RG-Bau and Managing Partner of Schleiff Bauflächentechnik GmbH & Co. KG. In addition, the “Special Start-up Prize” and the “Special Prize of Ed. Züblin AG” were awarded this year.

Civil Engineering category

In the Civil Engineering category, Lisa von Rössing, a graduate of the Computational Engineering course, took third place with her Master's thesis on “Learning more from less data: Digitizing Construction Plans with Few-Shot Detection”. Lisa von Rössing has been working as a research assistant at the Chair of Computer Science in Civil Engineering since September 2024. Her current research project focuses on the visual detection of damage using AI.

Another winner in the civil engineering category is Lukas Guntermann. He took first place with his thesis “Development of an optimization method for the structural identification of bridge structures”, which he completed as part of his Master's degree at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Lukas Guntermann joined the team at the Chair of Computer Science in Civil Engineering in September 2024. The aim of his research is to combine the areas of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and sustainability. The aim is to use BIM models to determine which components can be reused in new projects, taking the approach of conserving resources in the construction industry.

Craft and Technology category

Adam Globisch took second place in the crafts and technology category with his work “NextGen construction site: virtual construction site simulation for practice-oriented civil engineering training”. The Applied Computer Science student created a virtual construction site environment in which various practical civil engineering processes were incorporated as different levels. In future, his supervisor Daniel Napps, research assistant at the Chair of Computing in Engineering, will use this for courses and other purposes. In Munich, Daniel Napps accepted the prize on behalf of Adam Globisch.