Author: Stephanie Thomson

Studying and working with lecturers and other students has been a great experience. The good relationships I developed with my lecturers really stood out and made my experience more memorable. It genuinely felt like they do what they do because they enjoy teaching, and they are good at it, which is truly motivating.

Tell us a bit about your project.
I had two different ideas for my final year project. One was an application for tracking online user activity based on browser fingerprints and integrating AI to create user profiles based on this – a similar concept to how personalised advertisements work – and the other one was creating a password manager application that uses passwordless authentication. I am interested in these topics because they both apply modern technologies to address cyber security problems without compromising privacy or usability.

The final product was influenced by both ideas. Choosing Password Spray attacks as the main aim of detection was a great challenge, as it already bypasses basic defence mechanisms, and even large companies like Microsoft are falling victim of it. The final product – if enhanced further – could either function as a vulnerability testing mechanism to audit the effectiveness of existing security protocols, or as an additional function embedded in an existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) or Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).

“The lecturers are great, all are passionate about their subjects and are easy to talk to. A key moment in my course was getting my final year project’s dynamic difficulty adjustments to work. I was aiming to create a game using procedural generation, with guidance from one of my lecturers, my idea was expanded to also create a system to change the difficulty of my game based on player performance.”

Tell us a bit about your project
I made a roguelike game using procedural generation and dynamic difficulty adjustments. When starting my project, I was aiming to create a game using procedural generation, a topic I am very interested in. However, with guidance from one of my lecturers, my idea was expanded to also create a system to change the difficulty of my game based on player performance.

When approaching the project, I initially researched papers on the topics and any surrounding areas, and planned out everything using Gantt charts and an agile approach. My supervisor and other lecturers provided ample support for the project offering advice or guidance throughout the process. Additionally, when testing my project I was able to use the university computer to test on other students on the course.