Lower Austrian Science Awards

Last Tuesday evening, the province of Lower Austrian gave away its ‘Wissenschaftspreise’ (Science Awards) 2025 – two of them were awarded to two employees of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences: Djordje Slijepčević, Deputy Head of the Research Group Media Computing, won the award ‘Wissenschaft Zukunft Preis’ for his dissertation in the field of Gait Analysis and Machine Learning. Thomas Delissen, Deputy Academic Director of the study programme Data Intelligence, received the award for innovative teaching in higher education for developing an escape room scenario for one of his courses.

With the Science Awards, Lower Austria honours outstanding researchers whose work significantly contributes to the province’s scientific independence. It is used to recognise people who are committed to progress achieved through research and development.

‘Wissenschaft Zukunft Preis’ for Djordje Slijepčević

The ‘Wissenschaft Zukunft Preis’ of the Gesellschaft für Forschungsförderung NÖ is awarded to top scientific performances of young academics that are at the beginning of their scientific career.

Djordje Slijepčević received the prize for his dissertation “Human Gait Analysis: Machine Learning-Based Classification of Gait Disorders” written at TU Wien in cooperation with the St. Pölten UAS.

Clinical gait analysis is a central method for the assessment of human gait that forms the basis for precise diagnosis and effective treatment plans. In his dissertation, Slijepčević explores explainability approaches to machine learning methods in clinical gait analysis to make decision-making processes transparent and comprehensible.

All research projects carried out within the framework of the dissertation took place at the St. Pölten UAS: at the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies (IC\M/T) in collaboration with the Center for Digital Health and Social Innovation (CDHSI). Head of Research Group Matthias Zeppelzauer was Slijepčević’s PhD supervisor on the part of the St. Pölten UAS.

The doctoral thesis was realised in cooperation with the AUVA rehabilitation centre “Weißer Hof” in Lower Austria as well as with the Orthopaedic Hospital Vienna-Speising. It also includes the publication of a large dataset (GaitRec) that can serve as the basis for the development of new methods and for the standardised evaluation of the performance of machine learning approaches.

Prize for Innovative Teaching in Higher Education Goes to Thomas Delissen

This award is used to honour particularly innovative teaching designs in courses. It is awarded to persons who have played a leading role in the development of teaching designs for their institution.

In his course, Thomas Delissen combines an immersive escape room scenario with data-assisted group work, thus turning data-driven storytelling into something that can be creatively experienced. In an immersive educational escape room (“Zombie Room”) and a data visualisation exercise, the students can train the practical application of the competencies they have acquired.

In the Zombie Room, the students team up to solve tasks in the context of a fictitious zombie epidemic whose course changes depending on the students’ decisions. Delissen tells his story through video clips and a simulation. Then the students create a website with appropriate data visualisations in which they present the course of the epidemic from their perspective.

Thanks to innovative and practically relevant teaching, the students of the St. Pölten UAS receive a diverse offer that meets the needs of our modern working world. Student-centred teaching and learning is an essential component of this. Innovative learning formats and teaching methods such as that developed by Thomas Delissen in the bachelor degree programme Data Science and Artificial Intelligence create room for individual further development and sustainable learning – for an education at the highest level.

Strong Research and Teaching at Universities of Applied Sciences

“We cordially congratulate Djordje Slijepčević and Thomas Delissen on this great and well-deserved recognition. It goes to show our institution’s research power and teaching quality, and what can be achieved through strong personal commitment. Achievements such as those of Djordje Slijepčević and Thomas Delissen distinguish the St. Pölten UAS, highlight its significance for the research community, and strengthen our science location and our teaching excellence”, says UAS CEOs Johann Haag and Hannes Raffaseder.

Giving the UAS Sector the Right to Award PhDs

The Austrian Fachhochschulkonferenz (FHK) demands that the UAS sector be granted the right to award PhDs in Austria – a demand which the St. Pölten UAS supports. The research area Media Computing that Djordje Slijepčević works for is perfectly established at the St. Pölten UAS and has been strongly expanded over the past years. For the St. Pölten UAS, it is important to receive the opportunity to offer independent doctoral programmes in this field. Universities of applied sciences maintain close networks with companies and regional structures. Doctoral students advance key technologies and innovations that are then integrated into the economy, industry, and SMEs. Regions profit from stronger business retention, while companies benefit from practically relevant research.

• Website Djordje Slijepčević
• Website Thomas Delissen
• Read more about the dissertation of Djordje Slijepčević
• Read more about the award-winning course of Thomas Delissen (in German)
• Lower Austrian Science Awards (in German)