Bartłomiej Baut and Daria Pietraszko won the competition for the best thesis in the academic year 2024/2025, organised by the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers. Four other graduates from our Faculty were also awarded with special distinctions. They will receive their awards during the upcoming Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!

The Wrocław branch of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers annually honours the best diploma theses written by graduates from the first and second cycle studies at the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology. This year, the first prize in the category of engineering theses went to Bartłomiej Baut, and in the category of master's theses – to Daria Pietraszko.

Signatures in the Air

The winning work by Bartłomiej Baut is titled “Signatures in the Air as a New Method of Authenticating Individuals and Securing Data in the Digital World”, and its supervisor is Dr. Wojciech Wodo from the Department of Fundamentals of Computer Science.

– I am pleased that my thesis has once again been recognized in such an important competition and I would like to thank Dr. Wojciech Wodo for his continuous scientific guidance and the opportunity to develop under his guidance – comments Bartłomiej Baut on his victory.

His engineering thesis also won this year's edition of the nationwide competition organised by the Polish Information Technology Society for the best engineering theses and projects in computer science. More about this success can be found here.

The thesis has focused on the development of an original biometric system for verifying user identity based on a dynamic signature performed in the air. The proposed solution allows the user to be recognised by means of an analysis of finger movement recorded by a camera and thus provides an alternative to commonly used biometric methods such as facial or fingerprint recognition.

– The system tracks the movement of your finger in space – recording its position coordinates (X and Y) and time. It then uses the information to extract certain dynamic and static features of the signature, creating its unique profile, which – like walking or speaking – differs for each individual – explains our current second-cycle student of Cybersecurity.

Signing in the air could be used to confirm the receipt of a delivery from a courier or postman, or in parcel vending machines. Behavioural biometrics could also serve as a second factor of authentication for accessing email or banking applications on a smartphone.

Virtual machine introspection

Daria Pietraszko's master's thesis had already achieved success earlier. “The Development of a Solution Based on Virtual Machine Introspection for Detecting Rootkit-Type Malware” was awarded in the National Intercollegiate Young Masters Competition in the category – best work in cybersecurity. We wrote about it here.

– Just like in the case of the Young Masters Competition, this is an honour for me. I am very pleased that my work has received so much attention – says our graduate, who plans to start doctoral studies at our Faculty.

Daria Pietraszko works with malware both professionally and as a hobby. In her opinion, rootkits are its most advanced form.