Ondřej Lengál and Kamil Malinka received their appointment decrees as associate professors. Congratulations!

The ceremonial confirmation of the fact, known for some time now, that the Faculty of Information Technology has two new associate professors in its ranks, took place on Wednesday, November 26, in the auditorium of the BUT Rector's Office in Brno. Ondřej Lengál and Kamil Malinka, both from the Department of Intelligent Systems, have added the new academic title to their names.

Kamil Malinka's habilitation lecture, "Protection mechanisms against deepfake-based attacks," delivered in June of this year, summarizes Malinka's long-term research activities, which he also develops within the Security@FIT research group. Malinka focuses on the broader context of cybersecurity in AI. His research is not limited to technical solutions – he is also interested in behavioral aspects, such as user behavior when using selected security tools or the education of future IT professionals. He is also interested in the impact of deepfakes on voice and facial biometrics. According to Malinka, the effectiveness of cybersecurity procedures and tools depends heavily on users' understanding of them (or understanding of the consequences of not following them) and on users' willingness to continue to follow them. Malinka himself classifies his research project under the category of usable security and the most general question of "How to design security measures so that they cannot be misused?" When asked where he ranks the title of associate professor in his professional career, he replies: "Associate professorship is a pragmatic personal goal that I value. I have taken over the Security research group, and I need the appropriate academic title to lead the team. Of course, it also gives me the opportunity to continue my research." As for his professional future, Malinka mentions his desire to broaden the scope of AI security. He cites the example of large language models, which pose a number of relatively new security challenges, including prompt injection attacks, data poisoning, and jailbreaking. Taking a longer and bolder view, Malinka mentions the fundamental importance of post-quantum cryptography and the security aspects of hybrid quantum and neural networks as research topics. The number of topics in the field of cyber security will only continue to grow.

The second new associate professor at the Faculty of Information Technology is Ondřej Lengál. His habilitation thesis is entitled "Awesome Automata: Algorithms and Applications," clearly referring to his research focus. Lengál works in a field that many believe will see significant developments in the near future. He is an expert in quantum computing, or, as he himself specifies, in verification within quantum computing with the aim of ensuring that these calculations, and by extension programs, do not contain errors. The main goal of his professional efforts is therefore to provide a framework for the automated formal verification of the correctness of quantum programs, which uses automata and logic for the compact representation of complex sets of quantum states with several dimensions of infinity. As Lengál points out, the creation of quantum programs is an extremely demanding discipline, and verification is a desirable part of the development process and a prerequisite for achieving the necessary accuracy and safety of their operation. Quantum programs are inherently probabilistic—at any given moment of their execution, they are in a superposition of states. The various possible states of the program then have different degrees of probability. This makes it easier for programmers to make mistakes. On the other hand, quantum computers are a real promise. Optimistic scenarios predict a quantum boom within the next 10 years. They are expected to be able to effectively solve problems that are very difficult to solve with classical computers. Quantum algorithms promise significantly higher computing speeds, an example of which is factorization in cryptography. After all, breaking the current RSA encryption of web traffic in connection with the advent of quanta is often mentioned as a key cybersecurity challenge in the coming years. And it is also a professional challenge that Lengál wants to devote himself to in the coming years.

In the future, the greatest benefit of quantum computers could lie in the simulation of quantum systems in drug development, materials research, and experiments in the fields of physics and chemistry in general. For now, this is just a promise. The state known as quantum supremacy, when we will have a real-world case that has been solved much faster with the help of quantum computing than with classical computers, is currently the most discussed goal. Whether we view the current state of quantum computing with hope or slight concern, it is clear that educating future talent for this field will also be a priority for FIT. Ondřej Lengál also sees the importance of his recent associate professorship in this context: "Quantum experts will be needed. That's why I'm happy about my associate professorship, which will allow me to continue my research and educate new talent."

Congratulations, and we look forward to new successes in research and education at FIT.