Anton Firc Reaches the Final of the Antonín Svoboda Award

Dr Anton Firc from the Security@FIT research group is one of the most highly recognised young researchers at the Faculty of Information Technology. For his research focusing on the broader cybersecurity framework of voice deepfakes, he has previously received, among other honours, third place in the Joseph Fourier Prize. He has now added to his achievements by reaching the final of the 19th Antonín Svoboda Award. This traditional competition recognises the best dissertations in the fields of cybernetics, computer science, applied mathematics and related disciplines that were defended at Czech universities in the previous year. Firc successfully defended his dissertation, entitled „Artificial Intelligence in Computer Security“, in October 2025; his supervisor was Associate Professor Kamil Malinka. The competition is organised by the Czech Society for Cybernetics and Informatics (CSKI), which also appoints the evaluation committee.

A total of eight doctoral graduates were selected for the final of this year’s 19th edition of the Antonín Svoboda Award. “Even in the context of other awards, I see this above all as confirmation that we are succeeding in conducting research at a top level and that it stands up to comparison with the best dissertations in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it is a source of motivation for me and for the entire group, because it shows that the direction we are taking makes sense not only to us, but also to the professional community,” Firc comments on the broader significance of being selected as a finalist.

More information about this year’s edition of the Award can be found HERE.