The Finnish Association for Artificial Intelligence has selected the doctoral dissertation “Ownership and Confidentiality in Machine Learning” by Sebastian Szyller as the recipient of the Finnish AI Dissertation Award 2023, awarded annually to an outstanding dissertation in artificial intelligence defended at a Finnish university. Sebastian’s thesis was completed at the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, under supervision of Professor N. Asokan.
Sebastian Szyller’s dissertation is situated at the intersection of machine learning and information security. In his dissertation, Szyller has identified new vulnerabilities and developed methods to mitigate these risks. Szyller’s work is significant because it not only focuses on the development of individual defense mechanisms, but also explores their interactions, which are essential for the security and reliability of AI systems. Szyller’s research has been recognized by both academia and industry.
Sebastian was honored at the AI Day 2024 on Monday, 21 October.
“It is a tremendous achievement. Finland is known for very strong AI research groups in multiple universities. For a student from a systems security group (https://ssg-research.github.io/) to beat out such outstanding competition to win the Finnish AI Society Dissertation Award is truly heartening,” says Asokan.
In March, Sebastian received the Aalto Doctoral Thesis award 2024. Aalto University rewards the most meritorious doctoral thesis by the annual Aalto University Doctoral Thesis Awards. The core criteria for the awards are academic quality, impact and originality.
In May, Sebastian won a Distinguished Paper Award at the IEEE Security and Privacy symposium, one of the top-4 security research conferences. It is the first time a Finland-based researcher has won an award at a security top-4 venue.
Congratulations!
