UTFacultiesEEMCSDisciplines & departmentsDACSNewsExciting insights in this year’s Best Papers

Exciting insights in this year’s Best Papers

17 students from TCS and BIT completed their BS graduation projects in the Network Security and Network Systems Track

The Network Security and Network Systems track, chosen by Bachelor students for their graduation projects (https://sites.google.com/utwente.nl/37th-twente-student-conference/programme-and-proceedings?authuser=0), produced two exciting Best Papers this year. Roman Khavrona investigated how Internet routing changed in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what consequences this had. Edgars Gaisiņš did another measurement project: he used data from UT’s WiFi access points to understand if students and employees have made a partial return to campus after more than two years enduring the Covid pandemic.

In collaboration with SCS researchers, members of our group supervised 17 students for BS graduation projects on topics related to network security and network systems. The topics covered many aspects of communication systems: from IoT security to edge computing, from tools for monitoring online activities of young children to identifying changes in Internet operations due to the war in Ukraine.

Two studies were selected as best paper and runner-up:

Best paper: Roman Khavrona - Analysing Internet route changes related to the Russia-Ukraine war using BGP historical data supervised by Roland van  Rijswijk-Deij
https://essay.utwente.nl/91755/
Using Border Gateway Protocol historical datasets, this paper investigates the changes in the Internet routes in the time leading up to the war and during the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. The data suggests that there was a visible impact on Ukraine’s Internet routes and especially to those destinations located in cities close to Russia, either due to the physical infrastructure damage or cyberattacks. The study also observes that the Internet routes to the systems located in Russia were affected, possibly due to the international sanctions and cyberattacks.

Runner-up: Edgars Gaisiņš - Are We All Back on Campus? supervised by Anna Sperotto
https://essay.utwente.nl/91766/
This paper seeks an answer to whether we are all back on campus by analyzing the data from Wi-Fi access points at the University of Twente campus and comparing the observed occupancy with that of pre-pandemic days (in different areas, e.g., offices, educational spaces, student housing). Moreover, the occupancy changes are put into perspective according to the Covid restrictions asserted in the Netherlands (e.g., mask mandate, hard lock-down), and thereby at the University of Twente. The study suggests that we are not all back on campus, yet; at least the number of Wi-Fi connected devices are still below the number of devices connected during the pre-pandemic days! 

We congratulate all our students on successfully completing their BS research projects!