According to Eduard Petlenkov, supervisor of the two winning works, professor at the Department of Computer Systems and head of the Center for Intelligent Systems, both works are very important from the point of view of business and industry, as they help solve real-life problems and bring products to a new level.

Sergei Yegorov's first-prized competition entry “Middleware framework for Digital Twin entities communication" deals with digital twin technology, which is a fast-growing development trend in the automotive industry and promises to create an accurate and productive environment for simulation, testing and predictive maintenance. The author of the work writes that autonomous vehicles are special cases - a large number of sensors allows generating enough data to create an accurate and complex environment for testing and analyzing autonomous vehicles. The thesis offers a middleware framework for information exchange between digital twin entities and explains how digital twin entities are linked together. The supervisors of the work were Anton Rassõlkin and professor Eduard Petlenkov.

As a result of the competition work of Molika Meas, who received the second prize, "XAI-based fault detection, diagnosis and monitoring method for air handling unit", a new methodology and algorithms were developed for the Estonian start-up company R8 Technologies, which helped to bring their software tool - R8 Digital Operator to a new level. This tool uses artificial intelligence to ensure the best indoor climate in commercial buildings at the lowest cost by collecting data in real-time (24/7) and learning the dynamics of the building to optimize its energy behavior. The supervisors of the work were professor Yuri Belikov and Ahmet Köse.

The third prize went to Fred-Georg Pääro's competition work "Production monitoring system for small and medium-sized enterprises", the aim of which was to develop a production system that monitors production efficiency, equipment usage and personnel contribution. Although many similar systems have entered the market in recent years, they have shortcomings that indicate the need for further development. According to Pääro, the analysis of existing systems showed clear patterns, where the main problems are high management requirements, expensive service-type solutions and technical aspects resulting from the use of non-industrial hardware. The supervisors of the work were Kristjan Pütsep and professor Eduard Petlenkov.

At the master's level, the competition work of Ekaterina Zhuchko (Tallinn University of Technology and University of Tartu), a student of the Department of Software Science, "Formal Analysis of Non-Malleability for Commitment Schemes in EasyCrypt" was also noted. The supervisors were Denis Firsov and Sven Laur.

In the category of students of applied higher education and bachelor's studies, the second prize was awarded to Andri Busch's competition work "Improving Short-term Power Markets Trading Strategy for Wind Power Producer". In the field of medical and health sciences, Birgit Aasmäe's competition work "Factors Influencing Participation in Shared Decision Making In The Oncological Setting" was noted. In the category of doctoral students, Juhan Reimand, PhD student of the Institute of Health Technologies, received the second prize for his competition work "Discordance between amyloid-Ⱦ PET and CSF biomarkers: Clinical and pathophysiological consequences".

The competition for student research papers is organized by the Estonian Science Council in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research.