The diploma thesis of Kamil Przeniosło, a graduate of our Faculty, was awarded in the national Young Masters Competition 2022. The awards were presented during the 27th ICT Forum.

Kamil Przeniosło graduated from the field of applied computer science with a specialization in software engineering, and he prepared his master's thesis "Comparison of Java and Kotlin Languages With Respect to Selected Quality Features" under the supervision of Bogumiła Hnatkowska Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Computer Science. In his work, focused on determining whether the Kotlin language and its ecosystem are mature enough to replace Java as the leading language for backend projects.

– Both of the languages belong to the family of JVM (Java Virtual Machine) languages and are compatible with each other. However, Kotlin was released 20 years later than Java and its market share in the aforementioned type of projects is many times smaller – says Kamil Przeniosło. – Therefore, it was necessary to present a reliable and broad argumentation to confirm that Kotlin is ready to become the successor of Java. For this purpose, in my research I identified the key qualitative features of server programming languages and than assessed and compared Java and Kotlin in terms of the identified features – he further explains.

Practical research

Kamil Przeniosło emphasizes that he wanted his research to be more practical than innovative. Therefore, he considered choosing a topic that would be closely related to his professional interests, but at the same time would allow him to make a real research contribution.

– During my studies, I associated my future professional career with Java and backend applications. However, as part of the Android programming course, I had my first contact with Kotlin – soon after that, I made this language my language of choice for regular day to day work. As it soon turned out, I was not alone in my enthusiasm. Only three years after its official release, Kotlin was named by Google the leading language of the Android platform, replacing Java, which has held this position since its implementation.

As a result, Kotlin is currently used in nearly 88 percent of the 500 most popular mobile apps in the US. However, this trend hasn't yet reached the computer platform. – In my opinion this is unjustified. Hence the idea for a work that would help promote Kotlin to decision makers choosing technologies for their projects – explains the laureate.

While writing the thesis, it was quite a challenge to develop a small number of clear research questions that would bring great value from the perspective of the defined problem. But the greatest difficulty was to answer these questions, that is to carry out a systematic literature review. Our graduate decided to choose the form of a review, because he wanted his results to be credible and persuasive.

– A literature review has a systematic methodology which introduces many formalities and requires a lot of discipline, but it has a positive impact on the quality and repeatability of the research. It was not easy, either, to find and select works which would allow the most important qualitative features of programming languages to be identified – explains Kamil Przeniosło. – I also wanted to take into account the analyses, opinions and conclusions of as many researchers as possible, because these features are not easily measurable and thus are often perceived subjectively. I believe that this aspect of the work was worth spending a lot of time on, because I have not come across any scientific article that would attempt a large scale aggregation of this type of opinions – he emphasizes.

The ICT Forum is one of the largest and most prestigious events of this type in Poland. It is devoted to addressing key issues in the practical applications of information technology in the administration and economy of Poland.

The event is held under the patronage of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the National Bank of Poland, the rector of the University of Warsaw and the president of Polish Information Technology Society.

The Young Masters Competition 2022 accompanying the event was organized as part of the session of the Young Masters Forum "Economic aspects of computerization of the state, digital modernization of Poland".