Katrin Kern was presented with a first-place award on recognition of her Master's thesis titled "JavaWiz - A Visualization Tool for Software Development Education". The award winners were selected by higher-level school students from schools throughout Upper Austria.

Some 400 higher level school students not only attended the presentations and awards ceremony, they also used their cell phones to vote for a winner, selecting Katrin Kern for the first-place award in recognition of her presentation titled "Coding ohne Kopfweh – Java verstehen mit Animationen". The award winner remarked: "My Master's thesis focuses on learning how to program easier by using effective visualizations. I am not only delighted to have won the award, I am also pleased that the JavaWiz tool I developed as part of my thesis is already being used in programming education at the JKU and elsewhere."

Additional finalists:

Patrick Bonten, „AI Unplugged – Erstellung von Gitarren-Tabulaturen durch neuronale Netze“

Patrick Bonten's paper titled "Guitar Tablature Detection using Recurrent Neural Networks" demonstrates an intriguing use of artificial intelligence for stringed instruments. His program can immediately detect the notes and tablatures currently being played on the basis of an input signal (such as a guitar).

Florian Stögmüller, „Finde den Fehler – Vergleichende Tests zur Überprüfung einer Grafikbibliothek“

Stögmüller's Master's thesis introduces a method to automate graphics library testing in embedded systems. As a substitute to a test oracle, it compares several test models against each other.

Outstanding Quality and Diversity
The award is open to graduates enrolled in the JKU Master's degree program in Computer Science who have successfully completed the program during the previous academic year and earned a “1” on their thesis. A jury of experts nominated the top three students to take part in the finals. Jury chairman a.Univ. Prof. Paul Grünbacher remarked: "The demand for qualified computer scientists is high in many areas. I am pleased that so many young people came to the JKU. The award-winning presentations demonstrate a high level of diversity and excellence in our computer science program. I would like to congratulate the finalists on their outstanding work as well as their ability to present their topics in a very creative, engaging, and easy-to-understand format."

About the Award and its Namesake
Endowed with €1,500 in prize money, the computer science award is sponsored primarily by Primetals Technologies, the Austrian Computer Society, and the Austrian Society for Computer Science. Named after Prof. Adolf Adam (1918-2004), the award is presented to an Austrian statistician and computer scientist. Prof. Adam was appointed to the University of Social and Economic Sciences in Linz in 1966 and created the Linz Information Science Program (LIP), paving the way to establish computer science as a recognized academic degree program. Linz was the first Austrian university to create a degree program in computer science program in 1969. Prof. Adam is also credited with leading the initiative to rename the university Johannes Kepler University Linz in 1971.

About Katrin Kern
Katrin Kern (26) lives in Linz and works at the JKU’s Institute for System Software. Her hobbies include playing the guitar and weight training.