Henk Pijlman Innovation Award

Many Hanze students achieve remarkable things in the areas s of social and cultural involvement and innovation. As Hanze we are proud of these students and have therefore created two student awards: the Henk Pijlman Innovation Award and the Hannie Schaft Prize. Every second year the Henk Pijlman Innovation Award is given to a student of Hanze University of Applied Sciences for a final paper. In 2023, the Henk Pijlman Innovation Prize was awarded to Claudio Cavalieri.

This final paper is about practice-based research of a complex problem that has been tackled effectively and which has led to an innovative solution for the professional field. The Henk Pijlman Innovation Award is both an honorary prize and a monetary award of 2,000 euros accompanied by a unique object, designed by Kim van den Belt (Minerva Art Academy). The winners of the second and third prizes will each receive 500 euros.

Eligible for nomination are assignments completed by Hanze students which:

• have effectively addressed a complex problem with ground-breaking research
• offer an innovative solution for and with the professional field
• demonstrate commitment to Hanze's social missions
• are feasible/applicable
• are linguistically correct with good presentation/attention to detail
• have a well-structured argument, reasoning, and persuasiveness
• have been assessed with a minimum grade of 8 or equivalent.

The jury

• Ms Dina Boonstra, Director of NV NOM, Chair of the Supervisory Board of Hanze University of Applied Sciences and chair of the jury.
• Mr Jan Hugo Nuijt, Director of Marketing & Communication, Hanze University of Applied Sciences  (representing the social mission ‘Strengthening a liveable and sustainable Netherlands’).
• Ms Lieke Dalstra, (representing the social mission ‘Transition to a healthy and active society’).
• Ms Kuneke Schraagen, Dean of the Institute of Communication, Media & IT (representing the social mission ‘Digital Transformation’).
• Mr Carlo Ezinga, Director of Coöperatieve Rabobank (representing the social mission ‘Energy Transition and Circularity’).  

Winner Henk Pijlman Innovation Award 2023

Claudio Cavalieri, a Sensor Technology student (Institute of Engineering), focused his research, ‘Sensor Application For The Fermolyzer: To Calculate Ammonium Ion Concentration by Measuring Ammonia Gas, pH, & Temperature’, on the problem of ammonium contamination in agriculture. The regulation of ammonia pollution has led to a deep and prolonged conflict between Dutch farmers and the Dutch government. Claudio concentrated on finding an efficient and reliable way to convert ammonium into clean nitrogen and hydrogen, the chemical components of green fuels. He created a ‘Fermolyzer’ prototype that combines advanced mathematics, programming, and sensor technology to measure the amount of ammonia that can be released from a quantity of ammonium hydroxide and applies a mathematical formula to calculate the amount of ammonium. The jury praised Claudio's breakthrough and this very important first step in this research.  

Watch the video below in which Claudio explains more about his research