The winners of this year`s youth science competition "Jugend forscht" have been presented with their awards at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany in the presence of federal education minister Edelgard Bulmahn. Under this year`s motto "Suddenly everything`s relative" a total of 213 finalists presented 113 projects to expert jurors from the fields of industry and higher education.

For their entry "Hydraulic bending machines for middle pieces" the apprentice industrial mechanics of ThyssenKrupp subsidiary Rothe Erde, Sascha Renkamp, Giuseppe Nicolaci and Bernd Mergen, were awarded the special prize of Gesamtmetall, the employers` association for the metal and electrical industry, in the working world category. They came up with a simpler and more ergonomic machine for producing transport stands for the large-diameter antifriction bearings manufactured by Rothe Erde. The team won the regional heat organized by ThyssenKrupp in Dortmund to qualify for the state competition and from there for the national finals.

In the regional heats organized by ThyssenKrupp, Felix Kahlhöfer from Theodor-Fliedner-Gymnasium, Düsseldorf, Meike Spiess, Benedikt Lorbach and Moritz Plötzing from St.-Michael-Gymnasium, Bad Münstereifel and Hoesch Hohenlimburg GmbH`s entry entitled "Assembly aid for hose clamps" made it through to the national competition. Projects from the Düsseldorf competition were very successful in Saarbrücken. 18-year-old Felix Kahlhöfer impressed the judges with his work "Critical behavior and attractors of the chaotic bouncing ball" for which he was awarded the prize of German President Johannes Rau for the most unusual work in the national competition. The German research association prize went to a team of young scientists from Bad Münstereifel for their "Nanotubes" project.

With its support for various regional heats of "Jugend forscht" over the years, ThyssenKrupp aims to help foster young scientists in Germany. Germany as a center of innovation is also the subject of a wide-ranging information and dialogue program entitled "Discovering future technology" which ThyssenKrupp is launching in the second half of this year. The program will culminate in an ideas park to be staged from September 2 to 4, 2004 outside the Arena AufSchalke which will be attended by the successful entrants of the "Jugend forscht" competition.

"Jugend forscht" youth science competition at ThyssenKrupp:
http://www.thyssenkrupp.de/index.html?lang=eng&id=presse/jugend-forscht.html

Contact:

ThyssenKrupp AG
Klaus Pepperhoff
Zentralbereich Corporate Communications, Strategy and Executive Affairs
Tel.: +49 (0) 211 36007
Fax: +49 (0) 211 36041
E-Mail: presse@tk.thyssenkrupp.com