The TU Wien was honoured with two awards at the Houska Prize 2025. In the university category, two of the three awards went to TU Wien. We congratulate the project leaders and teams on this great achievement!

Second place went to the project „Innovative Control and Monitoring of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles“ under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. DI Dr Christoph Hametner (Institute of Mechanics and Mechatronics, Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), third place went to ‘ELAN - Development of laser architectures for next-gen applications’, project leader Univ. Prof. Dr Andrius Baltuška (Institute of Photonics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology). First place this year went to TU Graz, meaning that all three awards went to TU Austria, opens an external URL in a new window universities.

Innovative Control and Monitoring of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

The project “Innovative Control and Monitoring of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles” deals with the development of a state-of-the-art, modular and predictive control and monitoring system for fuel cell hybrid vehicles. Driven by the increasing demand for sustainable drive solutions in heavy goods transport, the actual operating status of the fuel cells and batteries is monitored in real time through the use of intelligent energy management systems (EMS). With the help of precise sensors and networked vehicle technologies (V2V and V2I), current driving conditions, traffic and weather data are recorded and integrated into predictive control algorithms. This innovative approach makes it possible to optimally distribute the energy flow, minimise hydrogen consumption and at the same time reduce wear and tear on key components.

Building on many years of collaboration between the Institute of Mechanics and Mechatronics at TU Wien and AVL List GmbH, a hierarchically structured control system is being developed in the project. While individual components such as fuel cell control and battery management are precisely controlled at the lower level, the EMS takes over overall coordination at a higher level. This dual structure not only improves operating efficiency, but also extends the service life of the systems by recognising potential problems at an early stage. In this way, the project is making a significant contribution to sustainable mobility by creating the technical basis for efficient, environmentally friendly and future-proof drive solutions.

ELAN

The ‘ELAN’ project aims to develop a new generation of high-power femtosecond lasers that set new standards in both industrial production and cutting-edge research. By using an innovative laser material (Yb:CALGO) and a specially developed amplifier architecture, extremely short, high-energy light pulses could be realised - with unprecedented stability and scalability. This technology is particularly valuable for precise applications such as semiconductor processing, but also for fundamental experiments on light-matter interaction.

The result is a powerful, compact and versatile laser system with industrial relevance and scientific potential. In addition to classic applications, it enables the generation of UV light using third harmonics and targeted pulse control, among other things. Commercialisation is being carried out by the spin-off Amplight KG, which is working with international partners and is heading towards the production of the first prototype. This not only creates high technology ‘Made in Austria’, but also a solid foundation for new jobs and a strategically important infrastructure in a key area of technology development.

Houska-Prize

The Houska Prize, established by the B&C Private Foundation, is the most highly endowed private research prize in Austria and was awarded for the 20^th time in 2025. With total prize money of 760,000 euros, the foundation honours outstanding achievements in application-oriented research. A total of 52 projects were submitted in the current round, 15 of which were nominated for the shortlist.