Faculty news

The corridors of Vilnius University, the secrets of Lithuanian nobles, and intriguing tasks – you can immerse yourself in all this in the computer adventure game Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, created by Lithuanians.

The game's content, scope, and graphics are no inferior to the popular global computer games—assistant of Vilnius University Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (VU MIF) dr. Žilvinas Ledas, former lecturer Šarūnas Ledas, graduates Laurynas Žuromskas, Zorian Ivanec, and Justinas Malijonis contributed to the creation of Crowns and Pawns.

The title Crown and Infantry reveals that players are invited to immerse themselves in historical adventures. One of its creators, head of Tag of Joy, and MIF assistant, Dr Žilvinas Ledas, emphasizes that compatriots have created many games in Lithuania, but this is the first on such a historical theme.

Developed for five years, the game became available to the public on May 6 and involved several thousand players from around the world in just a couple of weeks. The primary mission of the game is to perform tasks while travelling around the world and interpret and search for lost Lithuanian artefacts. The content is reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code—players move into a historical world surrounded by mysticism and detectives.

You can learn more about the game here.

2022-05-13

Vilnius University (VU) and UAB Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics invite future first-year students of the VU Center for Life Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics to submit applications for company scholarships.

Favorite students selected to prepare a Master's final thesis at the Company will receive a Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics nominal scholarship of 1.800 Eur per single academic year. VU students who prepare the final thesis at the Company for two academic years and if study results do not worsen are entitled to a second-year scholarship, therefore total scholarship would amount to 3.600 Eur.

Applicants’ Bachelor's final thesis (or exams) and Main study field subjects weighted average grades must be no less than 8 to qualify for the Scholarship competition.

This nominal scholarship does not impact students’ chances of receiving other scholarships from the State, Vilnius University, “Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics” or others. 

The first-year Master's students must submit applications for the competition by July 31, 2022 

Students must submit the following documents:

• Curriculum vitae (CV);
• Motivational letter, also indicating preferred Research groups;
• Copy of Bachelor studies diploma and its supplement;
• Copy of Secondary school graduation diploma;
• Copy of other achievements, such as scientific and/or social activities (e.g. participation in scientific competitions, tournaments and others);
• Recommendation from VU Faculty or Employer would be an additional benefit.

Application documents should be submitted to the VU Study administration department via e-mail:  and “Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics” UAB via e-mail:  titled “Thermo Fisher Scientific nominal scholarship”.

Questions regarding this competition should be addressed to “Thermo Fisher Scientific” representative – Edvin Stankevič, , or VU representative – Jurgita Alonderyte-Venckiene e-mail: .

Get acquainted with the conditions and terms of the nominal scholarship for VU master's students. 

2022-05-09

Documents required for selection:

1. Application online; Application is open until May 31st. 
2. Transcript of Records (in English), (Master's students provide copy of BA diploma in English or with certified translation);
3. Prepare a preliminary study plan for at least 4 institutions (for each institution complete a separate Learning Agreement sheet, all programs confirmed by the Faculty Coordinator).

International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP) is a student exchange program that boasts a partnership of more than 300 higher education institutions in over 50 countries worldwide.

Who can participate in ISEP exchange?

VU full-time students (bachelor's and master's, preference for graduate students);

Have completed 2 first cycle semesters at the time of application;

It is recommended that graduate students at VU have completed the first semester before the start of their exchange.

Please note: All communication is made through Vilnius University ISEP Coordinator only. Student requests sent directly to ISEP will not be answered.

Details of the program, selection process and criteria, registration procedure and deadlines

2022-05-09

The annual hit to the global economy from cybercrime was estimated at more than $6 trillion in 2021. If that were a nation, then the country of cybercrime would be the world's third-largest economy after the United States and China, notes Cybercrime Magazine. Contributions from the EEA and Norway Grants have created a team to investigate human behaviour in cybersecurity and formulate methodologies to fight back. The project Advancing Human Performance in Cybersecurity (ADVANCES) has a spin that will change the way cybercrime is battled.

Most people don’t think twice about locking the door. It is just a safety habit. Part of a common sense routine that starts and ends the day.

Yet in all economic sectors, there is a vulnerable human factor that needs protection. Predators aren’t always easy to spot. In the case of cybercrime, any employee — from CEO to warehouse manager — can fall into a trap and dangerously expose the company or organization’s vital information. It is as easy as answering a call, revealing what seem to be standard facts, not protecting passwords or even assisting a needy colleague remotely by phone. All of this and more can leave the cyber door ajar for intruders. The answer to cybercrime is cybersecurity — a set of principles working as resilience against incidents in cyberspace.

ADVANCES is a unique project to face cybersecurity challenges to protect against intruders and also help understand that very same intruder on a human level. It combines computer science, psychology and human genomics to develop a comprehensive, science-based interdisciplinary framework.

Research exists on the behaviour of cybersecurity specialists. Computer scientists have also been discussing the education of cybersecurity specialists. However, combining these approaches with a component of genetics has not been undertaken before,’ says Agnė Brilingaitė, project leader for ADVANCES. Brilingaité has been working in cybersecurity for five years, participating in international cyber defence exercises. Like all users, in cyberspace, she faces various cybersecurity attacks regularly.

Perpetrators are stealthily trained to find weak points and gain entry to protected areas. ‘We haven’t developed the best practice for how to watch out for these new attack advances,’ says project partner Aušrius Juozapavičius. But security defenders have a better chance by understanding ‘human behavioural characteristics that are not only defined by genes but also by the environment around the person,’ says Brilingaitė.

Beefing up cybersecurity doesn’t take superpowers. But it does take the kind of grit that is made by people of all disciplines — programmers, developers, technicians, women and men alike. ‘What we would like to encourage is not only the study of informatics but specifically cybersecurity,’ says Linas Bukauskas from the Vilnius University Mathematics Faculty.

An inclusive attack plan against cybercrime needs to stretch across countries and borders to be effective. The establishment of an international cross-disciplinary research team will address the urgent need for a scientific understanding of human limitations and capabilities in the cyber kill chain.

‘Most STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions are still suffering from a lack of women in their ranks, even after decades of equal gender rights initiatives,’ writes cybersecurity education website https://cybersecurityguide.org/about-us/">Cybersecurity Guide. However, the https://www.researchgate.net/project/ADVANCES-Advancing-Human-Performance-in-Cybersecurity">ADVANCES project has set the goal for a 50/50 gender split. ‘Women make 7-11 % of the cyber workforce in Lithuania. In the neighbouring countries, the situation is similar. We need to make an effort to attract female students to the cybersecurity area by showing them role models and helping them choose their career paths – there are many vacancies to be filled,’ says Brilingaitė.  

Through nourishing gender balance and encouraging informatics enthusiasts from all fields to participate — law, research, management, for example — the team will carve out scientific methodologies applicable to understanding, and inevitably, tackle cybercrime as a united force.

Project participants are currently working on the educational methodology and planning several test runs in 2022. ‘High walls, big fences, and firearms cannot help against cyber attacks,’ says Brilingaitė.

Safeguarding the current, and future cybersecurity workforce depends on what is being done now – together.  This project is an example of international research, bringing together researchers from Vilnius University, General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy in Lithuania, University of Liechtenstein, Norwegian University for Technology and Science and Østfold University College in Norway, Tallinn University of Technology from Estonia,  and Latvian Riga Technical University and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. Follow their progress on ResearchGate.

The project Advancing Human Performance in Cybersecurity (ADVANCES) benefits from a nearly €1 million grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants under the Baltic Research Programme. The aim of the programme is to consolidate the research potential of the Baltic States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, strengthen regional cooperation in research relevant to the countries of the region, and fill the gap between the national research funding and the European Union Structural Assistance.

Source of the article: EFTA, https://eeagrants.org

2022-04-27

Artificial Intelligence often alarms and creates uneasiness in the society because of competition for human brain and taken job vacancies in the future – for many these images still seems like a part from science-fiction movies. Researchers from the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Vilnius University (VU MIF) aim to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in solving one of the most frequent causes of death in Lithuania – heart and cardiovascular diseases.

The key in the fight against disease is a continuous prevention. Unfortunately, statistics reveal that deaths from circulatory system diseases at home have risen by 90 percent in recent years. The involvement of business is very important for the achievement of science: the researchers of the Image and Signal Analysis Group of the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies (DMSTI) of VU MIF have started cooperation with the company "Zivė". The aim of this collaboration is to develop an information system for long-term monitoring of cardiac activity based on Artificial Intelligence. From 2018 until 2020, the company has developed an electrocardiogram device that is worn on the human chest and can be used at home: at rest, in sports or performing any other daily activity. Heart rate can be monitored all 24 hours by connecting the device to a smartphone or tablet - the app displays real-time heart rate data in real time.

The goal is to make the technological innovation being developed not only accessible but also user-friendly. This is followed by a long process of work, which requires considerable mental and financial resources - methods based on Artificial Intelligence, due to the abundance of computations, require highly efficient computational infrastructure, so the company „Zivė “chose the updated in 2021 equipment and available at VU MIF. Bringing business and science together for a common purpose can help create innovative products much faster. According to Povilas Treigys, vice-dean of VU MIF and head of the project researches team: „This is the responsible approach of the partners to the medical technologies being developed, bringing together both business, scientists and the latest high-performance computing technologies for heart diagnostics, especially diseases are one of the top five causes of death. On the other hand, this type of collaboration is an example of success, with qualified research and a technical base to offer high-quality products.”

Jolita Bernatavičienė, a researcher at the DMSTI Image and Signal Analysis Group, emphasizes that this project is an opportunity to contribute to the development of historical electrocardiogram data analysis tools for company ‘s "Zivė “devices: „For data analysis different methods of data engineering are being applied to identify significant signs of heart attacks, and to develop deep learning algorithms for the evaluation of electrocardiogram recordings. “

In the future, successful cooperation will allow to generate and solve new scientific tasks for the benefit of the company, generate scientific topics for bachelor's and master's theses, and the developed solutions will find their practical application in the company's new products.

2022-04-21

The Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Vilnius University introduces its Endowment Subfund and invites the public, faculty partners as well as alumni community to contribute to the training and education of future specialists in mathematics, data science, computer sciences, computer engineering and teachers in mathematics and informatics by donating online.

VU Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics Endowment Subfund is a sustainable and intelligent finance management model, where the received funds are invested in various asset classes and the return on investment is allocated annually to the needs of the faculty.

The Subfund’s return on investment will be used for scholarships for the most talented students. We aim to ensure that faculty students can devote all their time and energy to studying and developing practical and scientific skills. The Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics believes that together we can ensure more accessible studies in especially important modern fields. In the future, the return on investments of the Subfund will also enable the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics to attract talented young researchers and lecturers.

More information about VU Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics subfund can be found here.

2022-04-19

The Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) invites startup teams and those with innovative ideas to register to the “TechHub” pre-accelerator. During 12-week program selected startups will participate in a three-month training course, develop their ideas and present them to investors. The sixth cohort of the program will begin in May and it is expected to be the last one so far.

“The pre-accelerator has been running for a year and a half. We are glad that during this period we have established many useful partnerships and constantly feel the support from the Lithuanian innovation ecosystem. The graduates of the program together have already attracted more than 4 million Eur of investments and this is just the beginning of their journey,” says Gintarė Narakienė, “TechHub” project manager, about the results of the program.

“TechHub” is the most intensive startup training program in Lithuania. 90 startups have already completed the program, 25 are currently participating. In total, the pre-accelerator brought together about 300 innovators, assisted by 10 program mentors from Lithuania and abroad, and a large number of partners, innovation experts and investors.

The program contains a total of twelve training topics. Startups will refine the target customer, perform market and competitor analysis, create market entry strategy, learn about business and product development, positioning, intellectual property and gain other skills necessary to turn their ideas into s business.

Startups in various fields can take part in the program, but ideas than could help Ukraine and its people is more welcome than ever. “During the “TechHub hack for Ukraine“ that we organized a couple of weeks ago, several tools to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian aid and information dissemination were developed. All teams were invited to participate in the pre-accelerator. We very much hope that we will see even more innovations in this field during this cohort,” says G. Narakienė.

Each participating team will have an individual mentor throughout the entire pre-accelerator. “This is the greatest uniqueness of our program. Consistent work with the mentor helps to solve emerging problems and gain useful knowledge. Also, mentors can provide additional resources or contacts,”– says G. Narakienė.

Successful graduates will have the opportunity to present themselves to the investors at the final “Demo Day” event. In addition, the best performing teams will be awarded valuable prizes - tickets to accelerators abroad and trips to meetings with partners or events in the EU countries. 15 winners from previous cohorts have already used this opportunity.

Startups (small companies with high and innovation-based business development potential, operating for up to 5 years) as well as teams with an innovative idea intending to register a company during the pre-accelerator can apply for participation.

Registration is open until April 17th. The pre-accelerator will start on May 16th. Depending on the epidemiological situation, the program might be conducted remotely. Program language – English. Learn more about the program during the info day event on April 12th.

You can find the registration form here.

2022-04-04

Ministry of Education, Science and Sport invites the most talented students of Lithuanian higher education institutions to apply for Nominal Scholarships of the Presidents of the Republic of Lithuania Antanas Smetona, Kazys Grinius, Aleksandras Stulginskis, Jonas Žemaitis, Algirdas Brazauskas (hereinafter – the Scholarship).

The scholarship is awarded to talented, outstanding students of undergraduate, graduate and integrated studies for excellent studies results and participating in scientific research and social activities.

The scholarship is awarded for one academic year:

• The Scholarship of 200 Eur per month for III-IV year students of undergraduate and integrated studies;
• The Scholarship of 280 Eur per month for the second-year graduate students and V-VI year students of integrated studies.

You can apply for the Scholarship is you are currently studying at:

• II and III year of undergraduate studies;
• II-V year of integrated studies (except for the final integrated course);
• 1st year of graduate studies.

Students who qualify for the Scholarship until April 11th must must fill in the “Free Form Application” in the Study information system of Vilnius University and submit the following documents:

• the completed application form for candidates, for receiving Nominal scholarships of the Presidents of the Republic of Lithuania, for study results, scientific and / or artistic activities;
• copies of published research papers, papers delivered at conferences or other documents proving scientific and social activity.

The Academic Core Unit, taking into account excellent study results, scientific activity results, student’s participation in competitions, expeditions, research practice projects, published scientific and other papers, will select candidates and submit all relevant documents to the Department of Study Administration until April 15th. The commission formed by the University will draw up the list of candidates for Vilnius University until April 22nd. Selected candidates will be informed by email provided by Vilnius University until April 25th.

From April 25th until May 1st Candidates selected by University will be required to submit their applications and documents in digital format at the address specified by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. During registration, you will need to fill out an electronic application and upload the following documents in PDF or ZIP files:

• Transcript of academic record of the last two semesters;
• an evaluation of studies, scientific and / or artistic activities, signed by the head of the Academic Core Unit;
• copies of research papers, reports, certificates.

Should you have any questions, please contact your Academic Core Unit or Asta Vaitkeviciene, Coordinator of Financial Support for Students at the Department of Study Administration by email .

2022-04-01