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Every year, the international IT SPY competition selects the best theses in the field of computer science and information technology from leading Czech and Slovak universities. Last academic year alone, 1,400 theses of this type were defended in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is therefore no surprise that interest in participating in this year's 16th edition of the event has grown again.

Theses from our faculty traditionally participate in the final round and rank among the top entries in the competition. The deadline for applications was September 12 this year, and this week, a panel of experts selected eight theses to advance to the finals of the competition. Our faculty also has a representative in the finals. It is David Mihola, currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, with his thesis "Smart Camera for Tracking Objects of Interest." David summarized his work for us as follows: „My thesis shows that even on a small, battery-powered device, it is now possible to solve demanding artificial intelligence tasks – specifically, vehicle detection and license plate reading. This paves the way not only for independently functioning smart sensors, but also for devices to become part of larger systems, such as smart city infrastructure.“

The final projects are evaluated by a professional jury composed of representatives from academia (Ing. Radek Kočí, Ph.D., is a member of the jury on behalf of FIT) and the IT industry. The title of Best IT Thesis of 2025 and other awards will be announced at a gala evening on November 19 in Prague.

The overall winner of the IT SPY competition will receive a prize of €2,000 from Profinit, which they can use, for example, to further develop their thesis project. The supervisor of the winning thesis will receive €200 as a thank you for the good preparation of their student. Other nominated theses will be included in the gallery of the best theses.

Yesterday, October 16, 2025, online voting in the Public Choice Award category began on the competition website. You can vote until November 17. Support David Mihola this way too!

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The Werner von Siemens Award is now a fixture among activities aimed at promoting technical and scientific fields in our country. Now in its 28th year, the competition for students, scientists, and educators is currently accepting nominations. The 2025 awards ceremony will take place in March 2026.

Nominations for educators and individual works can be submitted at www.cenasiemens.cz until November 30, 2025.

The competition has the following categories:

1. Most significant result of basic research
2. Best educator
3. Best thesis (top three places + thesis supervisor)
4. Best dissertation (top three places + supervisor)
5. Special award for outstanding quality of female scientific work
6. Best graduate thesis (diploma/dissertation) dealing with topics related to the Industry 4.0 concept
7. Best graduate thesis (master's/doctoral) dealing with smart infrastructure and energy

There is no limit to the number of theses that individual supervisors and advisors can submit. The competition also rewards recommendations for future winning theses.

This year's Werner von Siemens Award will distribute one million Czech crowns among the winners. In terms of its scope, financial rewards, and history, the Werner von Siemens Award is one of the most significant independent initiatives of its kind in the Czech Republic: in its 28-year history, the competition has already registered 490 winners, with a total of 17.4 million crowns paid out in rewards.

Researchers from FIT BUT are among the regular winners. Last year, we achieved great success when Prof. Jiří Jaroš received the award for Best Teacher of the Year. In addition, our faculty also won third place in the category of Best Diploma Thesis on the topic of Industry 4.0 for 2024, thanks to Michal Rozsíval.

Good practice in teaching information technology includes inviting lectures by experts from industry. This gives students the opportunity to learn directly from people who are shaping the direction of development in the field and inspiring the community with their practical experience. This approach has been used at FIT for many years. Selected examples from among many include the courses Binary Code Analysis (IAN), IBM zSeries Server Administration (IIZ), and User Interface Design (ITU). Jan Pluskal also applies a similar approach in his courses at the Department of Information Systems.

The C# Seminar (ICS) and Programming in .NET and C# (IW5) courses feature several external lecturers. "Like the ICS course, the IW5 course is taught in collaboration with leading experts from the field who are actively involved in teaching. Our lecturers are top experts in the field of software development who have long been involved in modern technologies and regularly share their experience with the community. Many of them lead large teams of developers in companies engaged in custom software development, which gives students deep insight into technologies as well as real-world project management and teamwork." The lecturers are also recognized figures in the .NET community, appearing at conferences such as WUGDays, Update Conference, and MeetUpdate, organizing professional events, and many of them have been repeatedly awarded the prestigious MVP (Most Valuable Professional) title by Microsoft.

One of these experts is Roman Jašek, who completed his introductory lecture in the IW5 course three weeks ago and will again contribute to the course with topics such as Blazor, Azure, and NET Multi-platform App UI. "I have several lectures as part of the course. Students who attend them will learn how to create a web application, what parts it consists of, how communication works between the part that is displayed to the user in the browser and the part that runs in the background. At the same time, they will learn how a comprehensive solution for managing and logging users into a web application works and what standards are used in web application development."

Jašek admits that teaching is a challenge for him. It consists of explaining principles he knows from practice in a way that is understandable to people who do not yet have experience with them. He sees the advantage of "people from the field" in that they can bring their practical experience from long-term work with the technology—they encounter situations that cannot be fully covered in school. At the same time, they can provide insight into current developments in a specific area. "I believe this can be beneficial for students when deciding which direction to focus on and, therefore, when choosing their future career."

One of the topics Jašek discussed with students is the use of artificial intelligence in student projects. He naturally uses AI in his daily work, so he expects students to work with it as well. "On the other hand, I told the students that AI is good to use, but at the same time, they shouldn't abuse it. If it solves the entire task for them without them understanding what it is creating, it is counterproductive. In that case, they miss out on the opportunity to learn something new... and AI can actually replace them." Artificial intelligence that frees up your hands (e.g., by performing repetitive tasks) so that you can focus on the creative parts that move you forward will increase your productivity.

In addition to Jašek, Martin Dybal, Maroš Janota, and others are involved in teaching the subject. The use of experts from industrial practice certainly has its place in university IT studies. This is also demonstrated by the studies at our faculty.