The Bachelor's Programme in Computer Science awards yearly bachelor's theses with outstanding quality. The award committee, consisting of the program director Kjell Lemström, the head of the Department of Computer Science Jussi Kangasharju, university lecturer Antti Laaksonen , and thesis course coordinators Tiina Niklander and Emilia Oikarinen, carefully reviewed the 12 nominees selected based on the recommendations of thesis instructors and decided award four theses this year.
The theses were of very high quality and covered various areas of computer science as well as multiple application domains. The committee selected the awarded works by emphasizing the evaluation criteria of the bachelor's theses, the skillful examination of the topic, fluent writing, and a polished presentation.
Sami Moisio, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science, presented the winners with their awards at a session on April 21, 2026, entitled Tutustu tulevaisuuteesi (‘Explore your future’), during which also the departmental research groups and master’s programmes introduced themselves to students.
Awarded bachelor's theses
Sebastian Beijar: Intrinsic Motivation for Efficient Exploration in Sparse Reward Reinforcement Learning
Beijar's English-language thesis deals with the situation where reinforcement learning algorithms perform poorly due to infrequent rewards. A mechanism called intrinsic motivation aims to solve this by simulating the agent's curiosity. Beijar has chosen this challenging topic himself and shows excellent familiarity with the topic in his thesis. The text is precise, and the thesis forms a concise whole.
Teemu Koukkari: Pienimmän kieliopin ongelman approksimaatioalgoritmit (“Approximation algorithms for the minimal grammar problem”)
Koukkari's thesis examines approximation algorithms for solving the minimal grammar problem. The topic of the thesis is well-defined and the treatment excellent and takes into account the target group. The elements supporting the text have been utilized in an excellent manner, and the presentation of the thesis is polished and elegant.
Jonatan Noponen: Border Gateway Protocol ja sen haavoittuvuudet (“Border Gateway Protocol and its vulnerabilities”)
In her thesis, Noponen discusses the vulnerabilities of the Internet's external routing protocol BGP and the solutions presented to them. The thesis has an exceptionally wide range of sources. The text is aimed at the agreed target audience, and the presentation is excellently finished. Overall, an excellent thesis in which the selected issues have been carefully discussed, and the conclusions are clear and relevant.
Salla Rautiainen: Itseluottamuskuilu, johtajuus ja sukupuolten moninaisuus ohjelmistotuotannossa (“Self-Confidence Gap, Leadership, and Gender Diversity in Software Engineering”)
Rautiainen's thesis is an excellent interdisciplinary review of the impact of gender and the realization of gender equality in software engineering. The thesis addresses a complex topic through a wide range of sources, utilizing research from the fields of computer science, psychology, and management theory. In particular, management theories and work life studies from IT are discussed and combined insightfully. The thesis is polished in terms of language and finishing and forms an exemplary thesis as a whole.