In addition to her excellent academic achievements, Ostfalia student Mia Funding Sörensen is actively involved in numerous projects at the university. She has now been honoured with the Zonta Club Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel’s University of Applied Sciences Award for her efforts. Mia Funding Sörensen began her degree in Electrical and Information Technology at Ostfalia in the winter semester of 2020 and graduated at the top of her year with a Bachelor’s degree. She is currently in her fourth semester of the Master’s programme in ‘Intelligent Systems’. For several semesters, she has been involved in the ‘RoboCup’ student working group, which develops humanoid robots capable of playing football autonomously. She has taken part in national and international competitions and workshops, and last year represented the team as team leader at the international RoboCup in Salvador.
As part of the ‘Smart Home Forensic’ research project, which is being carried out in close cooperation with the Lower Saxony Police, she is working on how data from smart home systems can be used in a legally compliant manner to investigate burglaries.
To this end, she has developed a project demonstrator, which she has already used to represent the university and the project at trade fairs and in television features. She is also involved in the Studies Committee of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, as well as in the ‘Technical Computer Science’ Appointments Committee.
Fabiola Scholz, who presented the award on behalf of the Zonta Club Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel, emphasised the award winner’s role as a role model for female students in engineering. She is herself an alumna of the faculty and still remembers well how she began her studies in electrical engineering in 1980 at what was then the University of Applied Sciences: “At my first-semester welcome, Professor Eberhard presented me with a yellow rose for a very simple reason: At the time, I was the only woman studying electrical engineering at this university. That rose was a gesture of recognition, but it also showed just how extraordinary a woman’s path in engineering still was back then.”
Today, Fabiola Scholz is personally committed to encouraging young women to choose technical degree programmes, take on responsibility and aim for leadership roles.
At this year’s faculty welcome event for first-year students, she recognised Mia Funding Sörensen’s outstanding achievements in her studies and research, as well as her commitment to projects and the university community, and presented her with the Zonta certificate, prize money of 1,500 euros and – in keeping with tradition and the club’s symbol – a bouquet of yellow roses. The prize money was provided by the “Verein der Freunde International e.V.”
Background:
Zonta International is a global network of professional women which, since 1919, has been working in more than 60 countries to promote human rights, education and the elimination of discrimination. The Union of German Zonta Clubs promotes and supports women and girls at local, national and international levels through programmes, projects, awards and scholarships. The Zonta International Foundation for Women has been funding international projects and awards since 1984, raising funds from donors and sponsors.