MAI graduate Marius Oechslein receives Innovation Award from the Schaeffler FAG Foundation
Marius Oechslein, a graduate of the Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence (MAI) at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS), has received the Schaeffler FAG Foundation’s Innovation Award for the best master’s thesis.
Through its Innovation Award, the foundation recognises outstanding academic theses that develop innovative approaches and methods for industry and technology and provide new impetus for industrial practice.
The award-winning thesis, entitled LLM-based Multi-modal Data Harmonization in the R&D of Rolling Element Bearings, was completed at the Center for Artificial Intelligence (CAIRO) at THWS. It was supervised by Prof. Dr. Ivan Yamshchikov, Director of CAIRO and Professor in the Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence. Daniel Merk, Andrei Degtiarev and Stephan Denker supported the project on behalf of Schaeffler.
The close collaboration between CAIRO and Schaeffler reflects the research centre’s strong focus on real-world applications: scientific excellence is combined with concrete challenges from industrial practice. This gives students the opportunity to apply state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methods to real-world problems and to develop innovative solutions together with industry partners.
Prof. Dr. Ivan Yamshchikov, Head of CAIRO, explains:
“We are truly honoured that graduates of our Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence are contributing to the digital transformation of global industry leaders such as Schaeffler.
Establishing the Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence and CAIRO was an experiment for the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS). Is it possible to build an AI research institute at a university of applied sciences that combines excellent research with a clear focus on industry? Thanks to the Bavarian High-Tech Agenda, we had the opportunity to find out.
Every time we receive news like this, I am genuinely proud of the work we are doing at THWS—and of seeing how our graduates are helping to make Bavarian and German industry even more competitive.”
About CAIRO
The Center for Artificial Intelligence (CAIRO) is the interdisciplinary AI research institute of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS). CAIRO combines excellent research with a strong focus on industrial applications and is closely linked to THWS’s Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence (MAI). The development of the institute is funded as part of the Bavarian High-Tech Agenda.
