Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 TEK Prizes

Confetti rain, flowers, and big smiles have hit five offices at the Faculty of Engineering in Odense and Sønderborg recently, when this year's winners of the TEK awards have been surprised with their award.

For the first time this year, a new TAP-prize is also awarded. The recipients of the TAP-prize are Frank Hviid, Ruben Møllebjerg, Glen Lindholm, and Klavs Ordon, who make up the IT department with the correct name "SDU IT, Servicedesk Øst".

- The department is always easy to get in touch with. They move quickly when an individual user needs help with the computer in the office or when screens in meeting rooms are teasing us. In addition, Frank, Ruben, Glen, and Klavs also share a good and teasing mood, which slips into their daily work. The four love each other and enjoy their work. Jokes flow in a gentle stream between them. As a user, you need to be alert and ready for quick remarks when seeking IT support, it says in the nomination.

While the TAP award is the latest honor in the series, the four other awards are repetitions from previous years - and here, the international profile of TEK strikes through, as all four winners have an international background.

The Italian connection

The first man on the podium is associate professor Roberto Naboni, who replaced Italy with Denmark in 2018. Naboni stands behind the CREATE initiative and is honored for his ability to communicate his work and his research from SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering, where he works with Computational Design and Digital Fabrication.

- Roberto is driven by curiosity and a passion for pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the design and production of the sustainable construction methods of the future. He is passionate about communicating his ideas and is often invited as a lecturer around the world, where he is known for his extremely creative and original work, states the nomination.

Through CREATE-lab, Naboni has created an extremely dynamic platform that attracts lots of attention. In recent years, Roberto has made CREATE an evident and active forum for exploring new architectural ideas and processes at the crossroads of computer science, advanced production and unique material technologies.

10 years as a driving force

While Naboni has replaced Italy with Odense, associate Professor Roana de Oliveira Hansen from Brazil has her Danish work address at SDU NanoSYD at the Mads Clausen Institute in Sønderborg.

She receives the Innovation Award for her decade-long effort at the department, where she has created connections with companies, universities, and other partners locally and internationally. This is emphasized in her nomination:

- Roana has for many years been one of the driving forces in the implementation of innovative new sensors, especially to detect and ensure the quality of meat and drinking water, both nationally and internationally. Such sensors are of great importance for quality and safety to reduce food waste.

Empathic teacher

Back on Campusvej in Odense, another Italian has been honored with this year's teaching award. Massimiliano Errico is praised for his diligent efforts with activating and present teaching. Errico Massimiliano has been a teacher at IGT for the past six years and since 2017 also been head of education.

The students describe Massimiliano as an academically demanding but also highly inspiring and empathetic teacher. He challenges them academically but retains a realistic ambition for how much new knowledge they can acquire at once.

- He creates a safe learning space and gives them successful experiences where they experience that things go up in a higher unit and get motivation for further learning, notes the students.

Inspiring Dylan

The last prize winner in this year's series of five TEK winners, who will all compete for this year's prizes at SDU, is American Dylan Cawthorne. He receives the Inspiration Award for his colossal work effort and his way of being. The 40-year-old associate professor with roots in the Alaskan wilderness has spent ten years in Denmark and taught for several years at SDU in drone technology.

- Dylan focuses significantly on ethics, human and societal values in the work of developing new technologies. He inspires people around him to see their professionalism in a new and broader perspective and to exploit their competencies in new ways. However, the American drone builder has many other projects in the drawer. He is the man behind Repair Cafe Odense, builds furniture, sews clothes, does film projects, and installs solar cells in his own home, says the nomination. 

Check out the videos here for a complete celebration of this year's recipients of the TEK Prizes.