The diploma thesis written by Adrian Skrobas won the 5th edition of the prestigious Marian Rejewski award for the best scientific work on cybersecurity and cryptology. The student from our Faculty won in the first category – for the best engineering, bachelor's and master's thesis in the round edition of the competition held by the Minister of National Defense. Congratulations!

Adrian Skrobas completed his Cybersecurity first-cycle studies and is now continuing his academic career in master's studies. His engineering thesis "Face vitality detection in 3D space obtained from a depth map using machine learning techniques to prevent identity theft" was written under the supervision of Dr. Wojciech Wodo from the Department of Fundamentals of Computer Science.

– – In my work, I focused on the growing threat related to issues such as identity theft and presentation attacks. A long and tedious process of reviewing the latest solutions in the field of biometrics and security has led to the development of a solution that addresses the flaws and vulnerabilities of many modern facial biometric systems by supporting the verification process with depth measurement. The revolutionary advantage of this solution consists in its scalability and high availability – we are talking about the use of the popular iPhone and its sensor system, and not about expensive and hard-to-access professional measurement equipmen – explains the student.

The proposed solution may be a significant step towards creating more secure and accessible biometric systems. Potential applications include areas such as banking, public security, military and general identity protection.

– For the purposes of this work, I created a unique data set consisting of depth and visible light data, and containing over 2,000 samples presenting authentic people and adversaries, collected during various interactions and using the most popular tools used for identity theft, the so-called presentation attack instruments. Based on the data, I presented a wide range of models for detecting presentation attacks, both simple and very advanced, and some of the conducted experiments validating these variants achieved an efficiency of up to 99%. It is worth mentioning that I also assessed these experiments as per ISO 30107-3 standard widely used in biometrics – which showed zero error rates for some protocols – he adds.

Adrian Skrobas won in the first category – for the best engineering, bachelor's and master's thesis of the round edition of the competition organized by the Department of Cybersecurity of the Ministry of National Defence. The awards were given to a total of six diploma theses defended at Polish universities and concerning cybersecurity and cryptology. The total value of the prizes for the winners was PLN 56,000.

The competition was held in two categories: for the best engineering, bachelor's and master's theses (won by our student) and for the best doctoral thesis. The jury was composed of specialists holding the highest positions in the structures of the Armed Forces. They evaluated, among others: the substance of the works, the innovativeness of the topic and, above all, the importance for the country's defence.

– This is the greatest distinction for me and a grand culmination of my research work on the innovative technique of vitality verification in my engineering work, supplemented with a wonderful ceremony in the company of many inspiring and distinguished people who hold the highest positions in the structures of the Armed Forces. It was an honour to meet in person and have a short conversation with the Director of the Cybersecurity Department, Dominik Rozdziałowski, and the Commander of the Cyberspace Defence Forces, Maj. Gen. Karol Molenda. It's wonderful that the topic of cybersecurity in our country is becoming more and more popular, and such initiatives lead to its further popularization – comments the student.

His diploma thesis was also appreciated by the Association of Polish Electricians. The winner received the award from representatives of the Wrocław branch of the association during the ceremonial awarding of diplomas to the graduates of our Faculty. 

– I am very proud of my student and I am happy about this success, because it is a significant distinction on the national level in the field of IT security. There are several aspects that make a great thesis. Commitment, hard work and a bit of luck. I can say that all three occurred in this case. We met with Adrian regularly and discussed each of the experiments, their results and formulated the next steps, i.e. the action plan – this took place in approximately two-week cycles. The chosen topic was interesting and important from the market perspective, which additionally increased our motivation – because we were working on something that could help others. The luck component is needed in order not to get stuck in a dead end, and this was also the case here – comments the thesis supervisor, Dr. Wojciech Wodo from the Department of Fundamentals of Computer Science.