Women’s STEM Award

The international Women's STEM Award has honored excellent STEM theses for eight years in succession. Female STEM graduates from all over the world were invited to submit their bachelor or master thesis in categories such as "Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Cyber Security, Internet of Things and Networks of the Future". The best thesis was awarded 3,000 euros, and an additional 500 euros was offered for each growth field. We are particularly proud of our special prize, which we awarded in 2020 for Social Impact and in 2021 to support young women in emerging or developing countries.

Why did we create the Women's STEM Award?

In times of digital transformation and skills shortages, it is more important than ever to inspire women to pursue STEM qualifications. We are convinced that mixed teams in companies have a significant impact on innovative strength. Diversity helps us compete globally. That's why we have launched a number of initiatives for young STEM women, such as the Women's STEM Award, which we run together with the student magazine "audimax" and the "MINT-Zukunft schaffen" initiative. The goal here is to support young women in their STEM subjects and present them to a broad public, thereby motivating girls and young women to study STEM or pursue a career in the digital environment.

What have we achieved with the Women's STEM Award?

We look back on many unforgettable moments, proud winners and outstanding final theses. In the end, we were only able to award the best thesis in each category, but of course there were a lot of other impressive works. We have fond memories of the great young talents at the solemn award ceremony, who were spotlighted on this day and thus hopefully become role models in their field for many other young women. The fact that one or the other of the winners now works for us makes us particularly proud.

Here are some highlights from the last years:

A screen on which a woman is shown — Overall winner Hira Siddiqui (here at the virtual award ceremony) convinces the 2021 jury with her master thesis on Cloud Services in the security environment.

Around a table six women stand holding bouquets of flowers and certificates — Here's what the proud winners of the 2019 Women's STEM Awards look like. From left: Lotte Steenbrink, Theresa Tran, Katja Ludwig, Anastasia Zhukova, Jeannine Born and Ramona Kühn.

Two women are standing on a stage. They hold a bouquet of flowers and a check — Lisa Eckey (right) persuades the jury with her master thesis on "Smart Contracts" (category: Cyber Security) and proudly accepts the winner's check from board member and award patron Claudia Nemat.

A woman stands on a stage in the background a slide with the text: Innovation for a digital world — Moderation of the award ceremony 2016 under the motto "Innovation for a Digital World".

A woman holds a crystal winner's trophy in her hands. Exhibits from the Telekom Design Gallery can be seen in the background — Overall winner Anastasia Zhukova develops an Al-based tool that automatically identifies media bias and receives the award 2019 for her thesis.

A slide can be seen showing all 9 winners of the Women's STEM Award with photo and names. — Due to the pandemic, the award ceremony 2020 will be held virtually. Here are all the lucky winners.

In the center of the picture is a woman with file cards in her hands — Tijen Onaran, CEO of Global Digital Women, moderates the virtual Awards Ceremony 2021.Tijen Onaran, CEO of Global Digital Women, moderates the virtual Awards Ceremony 2021.

A screen with a woman. In the foreground is a crystal winner's trophy and a pink, white, pink tied bouquet of flowers — Special prize winner Chathurangi Ahangama sends a video message from Sri Lanka in 2021.

Further information on Women's STEM Award 2021

Claudia Nemat, Member of the Deutsche Telekom AG Board of Management, Technology and Innovation — Claudia Nemat, Board Member Deutsche Telekom AG, responsible for Technology and Innovation

Diversity in management teams has a major impact on the innovative power of business enterprises. Companies that foster a monoculture in today's fast-paced and innovative digital economy will be left by the wayside. Diversity means bringing together people of different nationalities, educational backgrounds and genders. We must also make sure that we provide more women with the expertise they need to play an active part in areas where they are still under-represented, for example, the STEM subjects. As patron of the award, Claudia Nemat supported the Women's STEM Award. Her appeal to all young women: "Be bold. Take the opportunity that STEM offers you – exciting careers and interesting development opportunities await you."

Claudia Nemat, Board member of the Deutsche Telekom AG responsible for Technology and Innovation

Cloud

Cloud technologies have become the new normal in many companies! We are looking for theses in which cloud plays a significant role as an enabler technology in the context of digital transformation. The use of Edge or the cloud layer Iaas, PaaS and SaaS in the development of completely new, disruptive business models or the optimization of existing business models (e.g. in the Corona crisis) are of high interest for us. We are looking forward to practical use cases based on cloud technologies from a wide variety of industries (e.g. automotive & manufacturing, logistics, banking & finance, health, retail, public sector etc.).

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things has long been more than just an abstract vision. Solutions from the Industrial Internet allow companies to automate workflows, optimize supply chains by using intelligent software, and deploy their machinery safely and efficiently. We look forward to hearing about how you tackle the topic!

Artificial Intelligence

Machine learning, thinking robots and intelligent navigation: in the growth field of Artificial Intelligence, we are looking for scenarios for, and analyses of, the use of artificial intelligence in every sphere of life. What might AI mean for medicine and care, and what might it bring to logistics or the automotive industry? What are the opportunities and risks? Surprise us with a piece of work that pushes the boundaries of possibility!

Cyber Security

Attacks on the information infrastructures in cyber space are becoming increasingly complex and professional. At the same time, companies, state and citizens grow ever more dependent on IT, and so the potential for damage increases accordingly. Cyber security extends the area of activity of traditional IT security to cover all of cyber space. This makes modern information and communication technology practically in its entirety part of cyber space.

Networks of the Future

Networks are the backbone of our connected society. However, rapidly growing data volumes and increasing complexity are a constant economic and operational challenge. The historical separation between Telecommunication and IT Technologies are blurring and open up a disruptive field of global technology innovation. In addition, innovation in applications provides new possibilities for industry and end customers. Whether with 5G or fiber-optic rollout, ICT-Convergence, Virtualization and Cloudification of Network Functions, AI-based and closed-loop Automation in Operations – crucial for our economic development are scaling, performant and intelligent networks. Inspire us with your ideas on networks of the future!