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For the 16th time, the city of Brno has awarded young scientists from Brno universities. At a festive meeting on Wednesday 19 March at Brno's New Town Hall, they received cheques for the further development of their research. Among the 25 awardees are Michala Hečka and David Chocholatý from the Department of Intelligent Systems.

Improving software with logic is Michal Hečka's motto. Logic and its use in formal verification, which he is involved in, is an area of theoretical computer science with important practical implications. "When the cost of computer error is high, we turn to formal verification to mathematically prove that the software behaves as we expect. However, the foundations of formal verification logic and decision procedures are fraught with scalability problems, causing huge increases in computation time and inefficiencies in the algorithms used for real-world applications. My project addresses these problems with the aim of paving the way to safe and robust software," explains Michal, adding: "I see living in safety and comfort as a privilege and believe that I should spend my time responsibly by using my curiosity and thirst for knowledge to try to move our society forward."

David Chocholatý focuses on developing methods for systematically discovering bugs in web applications. Together with his colleagues, he uses tools from automata theory, which is also part of theoretical computer science. "Our approach is the fastest in the world, which gives us a unique opportunity to overcome current obstacles and uncover many vulnerabilities. In addition, the project will also help in the areas of verification of control systems for the aerospace industry or in setting access rights to cloud solutions," David explains his research, adding his motivation, "Curiosity and the desire to understand the world around us is what advances us as humanity, and I am happy to be part of this progress."

On Wednesday, March 19, the Werner von Siemens Prize for 2024 was awarded. This was the twenty-seventh time that the Czech Siemens has recognized talented students, young scientists and teachers. The best teacher for 2024 is Jiří Jaroš from our faculty. He was nominated for the Werner von Siemens Award for his outstanding contribution to science, education, innovation and the development of Brno University of Technology.

Associate Professor Jaroš is a renowned figure in the field of supercomputing, and his career includes cutting-edge research, excellent teaching and an active role in academic leadership. He is the co-founder of the k-Wave project, which has become the global standard in medical ultrasound modelling for academia and industry over the past fifteen years. The software currently has more than 25,000 users and supports the development of personalized medicine. However, Jiří Jaroš is also, and perhaps above all, an innovative educator who continuously enriches his courses with the latest findings from research and practice. He is not afraid to introduce new methods into his teaching and motivates his students by participating in international projects. It was he who made national supercomputers available to all students of the faculty, thus enabling them to work with cutting-edge technologies.

Thanks to Michal Rozsíval, the Faculty of Information Technology also won the third place in the category of the best diploma thesis on Industry 4.0. His diploma thesis entitled "Simulated insertion of errors in network communication" was created under the supervision of Dr. Aleš Smrčka.

We congratulate all the winners and wish them much success in the future.