Two lecturers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have received the Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the Bavarian Ministry of Science, including Prof. Dr. Andreas Kist, Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Communication Disorders. Science Minister Markus Blume awards the prize in recognition of excellent teaching at universities across Bavaria.
Teaching students values
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kist from the Department of AIBE at the Faculty of Engineering focuses on methods of automatic signal processing, in other words processes that are able to recognize, analyze and interpret images, videos or audio content. Together with his team, he uses artificial intelligence, for instance, to analyze video material of patients with swallowing disorders. At work, Andreas Kist has focused on artificial intelligence since 2018, but his background is in science. He studied molecular medicine at FAU before completing a doctoral degree in neuroscience.
When describing his own career to date, Prof. Kist explains, “I haven’t studied engineering, I am really a scientist who has started to explore new avenues.” He is now based at the interface between biology, medicine and technology, holding, for instance, classes in cognitive neuroscience for AI developers. He also teaches his students the foundations of data science and AI. It is important for him that students learn through taking a practical and application-oriented approach. “The verb “to grasp” is a semantically wonderful word, as I can only understand something if I can actually grasp it.”
Each summer semester, the professor organizes a practice-oriented Tracking Olympiad. He challenges his students to program an algorithm they can use to track hexbugs, miniature robots that move randomly. The best team wins the Olympiad and receives the Tracking Cup. “Creativity knows no boundaries. After I have explained the basics, it is up to the students to work independently to develop solutions.” At the end of the day, the main aim is to teach students the importance of relevance. What impact does my research have on society? What can I achieve with my newly acquired abilities? “And relevance lies in practice,” says Prof. Kist.
In return, he expects his students to become actively involved. “A general sense of interest, a feeling that students are motivated, that they are here because they want to be here and because they want to learn. That’s important for me.”
Andreas Kist believes that he is bound by a higher duty: “The better I train the students, the more positive the impact will be on society. It is not only important that students learn how a neural network works.” For him, it is just as crucial that students are taught particular values: “Teaching values such as critical questioning, fact checking and taking an academic approach is my contribution towards actively combating populism and the trend in society to just stand up and say ‘I don’t believe that!’ even when the facts are clearly on the table.”
About the Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Every year, FAU nominates two members of its teaching staff for the Prize for Excellence in Teaching awarded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts. The Students’ Representatives select the candidates that the President of the University then nominates. The prize honors the work of the best teachers at state universities in Bavaria and is worth 5000 euros. Teaching staff who have demonstrated excellence in teaching for at least two academic years at a university in Bavaria are eligible to be nominated for the prize.
Further information
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kist
FAU Professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Communication Disorders
andreas.kist@fau.de
You can read the full article about the two recipients of the Bavarian Teaching Award at FAU here: www.fau.eu/2026/04/news/two-fau-researchers-receive-prize-for-excellent-teaching/