During the networking meeting of the Institute of Management Sciences on 19.6.2024, the presentation of the Diploma Thesis Award 2023 for outstanding achievements in the field of Management Sciences (Industrial Management) took place.

This prize has been sponsored by the Association for the Promotion of Research and Education in Industrial Management since 2013 and is awarded annually.

Wolfgang Dummer wrote his thesis on "A metaheuristic optimization procedure for training plans in physician training management", supervised by Prof. Fazel Ansari. The scheduling of postgraduate medical residents is a complex mathematical planning and optimization problem. In Austria, this problem is currently handled mainly manually and with the help of simple, unsuitable aids due to a lack of alternatives, which is associated with high personnel and time efforts. In the course of the thesis, a metaheuristic method, based on a genetic algorithm, was developed for the automated generation and optimization of training schedules for medical residents.
 

The Master thesis of Stefanie Eisl, supervised by Prof. Sebastian Schlund, is entitled “Critical evaluation of methods and approaches for the introduction of circular manufacturing at micro level with a focus on manufacturing companies in the mechanical engineering sector“.  Industrialization has globally led to an increase in material and energy demands, with significant repercussions for the ecosystem, which are intended to be mitigated through the decoupling of economic growth from material resource consumption, the principle of circular economy. However, the introduction of circular manufacturing currently poses a significant challenge for businesses, due to the lack of consensus on potential implementation strategies. The thesis, therefore, examined methods and approaches for implementing circular manufacturing (CM) in mechanical engineering, identifying 47 CM methods and approaches through a systematic literature review based on over 500 publications. To assess the circularity of these approaches, a framework for multicriteria decision-making was developed and validated with the help of expert interviews.
 

Matthias Hochsteiner's thesis “Target Scores: Factor Investing with Orthogonalized Mimicking Portfolios” was supervised by Prof. Thomas Dangl. In this thesis Hochsteiner investigates equity portfolio strategies in which selected firm attributes, also referred to as factors, are decisive for determining portfolio weights. Hochsteiner puts a main focus on the return characteristics of so-called factor-mimicking portfolios which are constructed in a way that they implement an orthogonality feature with respect to their exposure to the particular factors. The autor of this thesis finds an unexpected interdependence between factor exposure and portfolio returns. In fact, orthogonality in the space of firm characteristics seems to translate into uncorrelated returns.
 

“Weather-based prediction model for mapping the relationship between weather and wheel-rail contact” is the title of Sebastian Kreuter's diploma thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Fazel Ansari. Due to the long service life of rail vehicles, maintenance and repair are significant cost drivers, whereby the wheel-rail system, which is subject to wear and damage due to high dynamics and forces as well as external influences, is particularly important in terms of ride comfort and safety. The work therefore deals with the prediction of contact parameters between wheel and rail based on external influences, such as different weather conditions. For this purpose, various machine learning models were trained and evaluated, and finally a pipeline was developed to efficiently link and analyze the data and predict the parameters. The prediction of relevant contact parameters subsequently allows conclusions to be drawn about wear and the probability of damage and can subsequently be used to optimize maintenance intervals.
 

Thomas Kasper's diploma thesis was dedicated to the topic of “Effects of gender parity in companies with regard to CSR”. He was supervised by Prof. Sabine Köszegi. ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) measures sustainable management in companies, which is also represented by the concept of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). This diploma thesis comes to the conclusion that gender parity on the corporate board (C-Level, board of directors) has a positive effect on the ESG score. This positive correlation exists in 80% of the literature analyzed and is justified by theories (e.g. stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory or critical mass theory).

Erstellt von Susanna Hammer, 01.07.2024