German High Tech Award

The German High Tech Champions (GHTC) contest is aimed at technology developers that develop application oriented products or processes within the framework of their work at a university or other research institute. GHTC’s goal is to internationally increase the visibility of successful technology developers and inventors at German universities and other research institutions. The German High Tech Champions campaign is being carried out by the Fraunhofer Society and is part of the joint project “International Research Marketing” in which the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Fraunhofer Society are all participating. The goal of the project is to market Germany as a research location nationally and internationally and strengthen its image in the international scientific community.

All measures taking place within the scope of the project are components of the initiative “Advertising for Germany as a Location for Innovation and Research” under the brand “Research in Germany”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Dr. Daniel Sonntag (IUI) won a German High Tech Award in 2011 for medical technology with a business case for RadSpeech, a semantic dialogue system for radiologists. The award ceremony and business case presentation will take place early December 2011 in the German Pavilion of the world’s largest convention for medical imaging, the RSNA in Chicago. There were several determining factors that led international reviewers to bestow this honor: the high marketability of mobile dialogue technology for medically relevant applications, and the maturity of DFKI technology in this segment which would enable it to exist on the international market. The marketability is confirmed by the U.S. market for mobile (medical) applications, which is quickly gaining significance. For example, in February of this year, the first iPad application for radiological patient diagnoses was approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Apple’s new Siri app is going to interest other target audiences in dialogue applications and DFKI’s dialogue technology, with real dialogue control, ties in seamlessly with the future market. With the German High Tech award, “RadSpeech” (see www.dfki.de/RadSpeech/) now has the possibility to be an international ambassador for German applied research. With this award, DFKI is, once again in 2011, a “selected place in the land of ideas.”