18.05.2010
Pioneering system for demand-driven control of lighting
Thorsten Wegener is showing his VDMA award (© Biberach University of Applied Sciences, idw-online.de)
Thorsten Wegener from the Biberach University of Applied Sciences has won the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) 2010 Building Automation Management (AMG) prize for his Bachelor thesis on automatically controlled, demand-driven lighting. Wegener has come up with a way of using innovative radio technology to link up devices produced by various manufacturers in a shared communication system to construct a pioneering system for the demand-driven control of building light and shade. The lighting or shading system constantly responds to actual measured luminosity levels and the number of people in a room. Wegener's work demonstrated that it is financially attractive to install this kind of control system in existing buildings, particularly during extension or refurbishment projects.
The prize winner has graduated with a Bachelor degree in "building air conditioning" at the Biberach University of Applied Sciences and is going on to specialise in this field in a Master's degree course in instrumentation and control technology and building automation. The VDMA jury awards prizes for the "best four engineering degree theses" in Germany every year. The award ceremony was held in Frankfurt am Main.
The Biberach University of Applied Sciences has recently been awarded top marks in the latest university rankings undertaken by the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) for both civil engineering and project management as well as architecture and building services automation faculties. Biberach has been selected as one of the best institutions of higher education in Germany in both subject areas several times over. The fact that the Biberach University of Applied Sciences has managed to position itself so high up the higher education league tables, despite being one of the smaller universities of its kind in Germany, is evidence of Biberach's very special strengths, comments Professor Norbert Büchter, pro-rector for degree courses and international matters. The university currently has around 1660 registered students.
