UtilityTwin wins Social Innovation Award from the Federal Ministry
We are pleased to announce that the UtilityTwin project has been awarded the 2nd Prize in the nationwide Student Prize for Social Innovations (StiPS), organized by the Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR) in cooperation with VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH. Adithya Ramachandran and Dr. Siming Bayer developed the project within the Data Processing for Utility Infrastructure research group at the Pattern Recognition Lab, FAU.
The StiPS Award aims to highlight social innovations emerging from universities. Additionally, these projects must contribute to sustainable societal transformation. Furthermore, the award recognizes initiatives that demonstrate strong social relevance or the potential for significant future impact. This year, the jury selected the UtilityTwin project from 177 submissions in the category “Sustainability and Climate Protection of the Future.”
At the StiPS competition, the UtilityTwin team showcased how the project transforms the utility industry. The approach focuses on unifying fragmented utility data, digitizing historical documents, correcting network inconsistencies, and enabling operators to access contextual information instantly. Through real-world pilot results in collaboration with Diehl Metering, the team highlighted how the platform meaningfully supports utility operations, reduces information gaps, and strengthens climate-resilient infrastructure which is a key criteria of the award.
Acknowledgements and Future Opportunities
We extend our gratitude to all collaborators whose expertise supported this success. In particular, we thank our industrial collaborators Diehl Metering, & Bronderslev Forsyning A/S. Also, we thank the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Landesentwicklung und Energie, and VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH for the funding and management.
Finally, for those interested in discovering similar opportunities in the space of sustainability, and digitalization, the official websites of Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR), Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Landesentwicklung und Energie, & VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH announce multiple calls for competitions and grants.