In 2018, the prize is awarded to Esben Østergaard. He received his PhD in robotics from The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute at SDU in 2004 and spent the following year as an assistant professor at the department.

It was during his time at SDU that he and a couple of fellow students developed the idea for Universal Robots, which was founded in 2005.

The company, which was sold to American company Teradyne in 2015 for DKK 1.9 billion, is now present in over 50 countries and has over 20 offices worldwide.

Esben Østergaard has played a crucial role in the establishment of the Funen robot cluster and holds a number of positions of trust in this context.

In June, he received the Joseph F. Engelberger Award - also known as the Nobel Prize in Robotics.