At this year’s Christmas party of the entire Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences in the steel world of Voestalpine in Linz, after a break due to the pandemic, people finally celebrated again and looked back on the past year. In the course of this celebration, PhD students and young researchers were honored for their achievements in the past months and years. We, as the research group AIST, are very pleased to have been represented among the award winners again this year. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our two award winners Oliver Krauss (dissertation and researcher award) and Emmanuel Helm (researcher award) for their well-deserved prizes.