Carmen Sánchez Zas awarded with the prize to the best Ph.D. thesis work in the fields of defense and security

On June 6th, 2025, was held the ceremony for the XLV COIT-AEIT Awards for Excellence in Telecommunication Engineering, recognising the outstanding work and talent of students and researchers who have contributed knowledge, innovation and technological solutions to the field of telecommunications engineering, and represent a firm commitment to promoting scientific and technical development in this strategic sector.

Prizes were divided into three categories: Doctoral Thesis, Master’s Thesis and Academic career in telecommunications engineering.

In the first one, a Ph.D researcher from RSTI Group, Carmen Sánchez Zas, was awarded the ISDEFE prize for the best doctoral thesis in the fields of defense and security, with the aim of improving security in sensitive environments. The submitted PhD thesis “Propuesta de un modelo de caracterización de ciberataques para entornos de conciencia cibersituacional”, tutored by Victor Villagrá and Xavier Larriva, presents a model that leverages current cybersecurity standards to characterize cyberattacks and uses this information to enhance risk management processes and decision support in mitigation selection within a cybersituational awareness environment. 

These awards, in addition to recognizing the work of the winners, emphasize the importance of telecommunications and encourage STEM vocations, as well as innovation and technological development. The ceremony took place at the Instituto de Ingeniería de España, where they brought together experts in the field and other collaborators of the awards. The event had the participation and assistance of Ericsson, CBNK, Fundación Mutualidad de la Ingeniería, Hisdesat, Hispasat, Huawei, In-nova, Isdefe, Real Academia de Ingeniería and Reintel. 

Also from the Polytechnic University of Madrid María Guijarro Maortua received the HISDESAT Award for the best Master’s Thesis in Government Satellite Services, for her work “Analysis, Design, Manufacture and Measurement of Metasurfaces for Low Observability in X-Band”.

Finally, our colleague Sonia Solera gave a speech on behalf of the GT Horizonte STEM and GT Jóvenes of Official College of Telecommunications Engineers as a former award winner, where she shared her experience and encouraged young people to become leaders of technological change.