"It is often assumed that art and science are mutually exclusive disciplines," says Frank Ferchau, Managing Partner of FERCHAU Engineering GmbH. This misconception forms the backdrop to the company's art competition: "In fact, our ART OF ENGINEERING contest has already shown that finding links between these two areas unlocks huge potential for innovation. The artists, engineers and IT specialists who take part are building bridges between art and technology, and this really inspires them to think outside the box. This is what makes the competition so exciting and worthwhile." With prize money of EUR 20,000 up for grabs, the tagline for this year's interdisciplinary ART OF ENGINEERING competition is "binär.bewegt - Symbiosen von IT und Mobilität" (binary.powered - IT and mobility in symbiosis). This is the fifth time that FERCHAU Engineering GmbH has run the contest, encouraging artists, engineers and IT specialists to get creative and forge links between art and technology.

The competition opened for online submissions (ferchau.com/go/aoe) on 1 September 2017 and will close on 7 January 2018. Company, group and individual entries are being accepted, and students, recent graduates and professionals at any stage in their careers are welcome to take part. The judging process will run until 15 February 2018, with a panel of 11 high-profile figures in business, research, education and art assessing all the submissions and selecting 15 finalists to present their work to the judges on 28 February 2018. Selections will be made on the basis of the artworks’ content, technical and artistic qualities, originality, relevance, innovation and execution.

FERCHAU, a family-run company based in Gummersbach, will present the first prize of EUR 10,000 at the official awards ceremony at HANNOVER MESSE 2018. The second-prize and third-prize winners will receive EUR 7,000 and EUR 3,000, respectively. The ART OF ENGINEERING competition aims to promote the creativity and innovation shown by German engineers and build up Germany’s status as a hub of culture and technology. Above all, it is designed to reach out to the next generation of specialists by supporting them and showcasing new approaches to spark their interest in technical careers. ART OF ENGINEERING partners include the Fraunhofer Society, VDI Verlag, the International Bionics Center, the Museum for Applied Arts in Frankfurt, the Berlin Technical University, the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and the UNICUM online portal and magazine for university students.