2004 Award Winners
Recognition for pioneering achievement in technology transfer
Special Prize Winner Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Kuntz
The jury for the Löhn Prize recognised the outstanding achievements and contributions of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Kuntz with a special award. He founded the first Steinbeis Transfer Centre (STZ) and headed the STZ for Microelectronics and Systems Engineering in Furtwangen, as well as the STZ for Medical Electronics in Freiburg. Through his personal career and the development of his transfer centres, Walter Kuntz illustrated two key elements of successful Steinbeis technology transfer – the compatibility and practical value of research and teaching with transfer entrepreneurship, and the ability to adapt to the increasing complexity of technologies, ranging from electronics through microelectronics to nanotechnology. Successful ‘technology transfer à la Steinbeis’ requires ‘minds’ capable of and willing to engage in technology transfer. In this regard, Walter Kuntz was an absolute pioneer – right from the very beginnings of the new Steinbeis Foundation in 1983. He developed his extraordinary skills in technology transfer whilst still working as a ‘pure’ scientist. For him, scientific publications and patents were not the sole focus of his work. Above all, the practical application of scientific findings – both in practice-oriented training and in industrial applications – was a key component of Walter Kuntz’s work. With the ‘Transfer Centre for Microelectronics’, he founded the Steinbeis Foundation’s first specialist transfer centre, which he led with great success. In 1988, he set another milestone by founding a transfer centre in Freiburg specialising in the field of medical electronics.
The Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Microelectronics and Systems Engineering in Furtwangen carries out projects in the fields of microelectronic circuits, data transmission, miniaturisation, programming, and safety and reliability engineering.
At the Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Medical Electronics, projects were carried out that focused on electronics and software tailored to the specific requirements of the medical sector. These include, for example:
- Applications for the automated production of inlays, crowns and bridges in dentistry,
- heart rate telemetry,
- applications for the automated manufacture of contact lenses,
- a surgical cordless drill,
- a high-frequency surgical device with microcontrollers,
- data analysis in ultrasound sonography.