Honoured Theses

The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) awards prizes for excellence (Würdigungspreis) to theses of Austrian higher education institutions. Two students of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Paul Kaufmann and Armin Kirchknopf, were among the winners this year.

Framing in Climate Politics

Paul Kaufmann dedicated his master thesis for the study programme Digital Marketing & Communication to the topic of framing in Austrian climate politics. Kaufmann analysed and evaluated press releases and election programmes to find out how they impact the perception of climate change and the acceptance of political measures. The thesis was supervised by Academic Director Harald Wimmer. Kaufmann works in the corporate communications department of an Austrian chemical company.

“I am honoured to receive this prize for my thesis. In addition to my passion for the topic of my master thesis, I owe this success in particular to the support of my family who deserve a big thank you at this point”, says Kaufmann.

Fake News Detector

For his master thesis "Automated Identification of Information Disorder in Social Media from Multimodal Data" in the master degree programme Interactive Technologies, Armin Kirchknopf developed a method for the automatic detection of fake news on social media. This fake news detector uses artificial intelligence techniques to organise messages by evaluating texts, images and other information from social media. The thesis was supervised by UAS researcher Matthias Zeppelzauer. Kirchknopf works as Junior Researcher at the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies and is part of the start-up Circly GmbH which uses artificial intelligence to support companies in planning manufacturing and trade.

“Fake news are a constant problem in our rapidly changing society. These days, nobody can check facts in detail and therefore AI-assisted systems can make a valuable contribution to fighting false information. I want to thank my colleagues at the St. Pölten UAS, my wife and my family who made my thesis and therefore this award possible in the first place”, says Kirchknopf.

“I congratulate Paul Kaufmann and Armin Kirchknopf on their awards. These prizes honour the excellent scientific quality of their theses on current and highly relevant social topics and they also demonstrate the quality of education at our university of applied sciences”, says Alois Frotschnig, Chairperson of the UAS Board.

Würdigungspreis – State Prize for the Best Master or Diploma Theses

Each year since 1990, the Science Ministry has awarded a prize in the amount of EUR 3,000 to the best diploma and master theses of Austrian higher education institutions. This year, the award holders included 35 university graduates, 15 graduates of universities of applied sciences, and two graduates of teacher training colleges. The Würdigungspreis is financed by funds from the federal aid for students.

• More about the thesis of Paul Kaufmann (in German)
• More about the thesis of Armin Kirchknopf
• Kirchknopf’s start-up Circly