Foto: Lakeside Labs und KKThe two researchers in computer science and information technology, respectively, have been nominated for the 9th City of Vienna Hedy Lamarr Prize alongside five other female scientists. The prize recognises outstanding achievements by women in Austria in the field of information technology and will be presented on 18 November 2026 as part of the Digital Days at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology. One winner is selected each year. The prize is worth EUR 10,000.

Alice Tarzariol completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science at the University of Udine (Italy) and came to the University of Klagenfurt in 2019 to pursue her doctoral studies. Since completing her doctorate, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity. She currently leads the project “EX3: EXplain and EXploit Knowledge EXtracted to Improve ASP”, funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The project is based on “Answer Set Programming”, a form of logic programming that describes problems using rules and logical relationships. In other words, the system is told what conditions must be met, rather than how the solution should be calculated. The programme then searches for solutions that satisfy all the rules. Such systems are used, for example, to create staff rosters in hospitals, where many different rules have to be taken into account: What is the maximum daily working time for each professional group in the hospital? When are shift handovers required, and how can overlaps be arranged for certain professional groups? Conditions such as these are usually formulated by the experts who prepare the staff rosters, but who are not themselves programming specialists. The aim is to develop a system that not only finds solutions, but also helps experts to understand and formulate problem descriptions.
Samira Hayat completed her Bachelor’s degree in Electronics at the University of Engineering & Technology in Peshawar (Pakistan) before moving to Europe to pursue a Master’s degree in Electrical, Electronics & Communications Engineering at the University of Trento. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Klagenfurt in 2021, where she also worked, among other roles, as a university assistant and project researcher. Her doctoral research focused on advancing multi-drone networks for search and rescue operations. The paper “Survey on UAV networks for civil applications: A communications viewpoint.”, which she co-authored with Evsen Yanmaz and Raheeb Muzaffar during her doctoral studies, has been cited more than 1,700 times. Samira Hayat has been actively developing her own business ideas in the field of drones since 2018. She has worked for Lakeside Labs GmbH in Klagenfurt for 14 years; the University of Klagenfurt is a co-owner of the company. She currently works there as a Senior Researcher, focusing on wireless networks and drone path planning. She leads several projects, including FrostGuard, a project where the researchers combine physics and biology to help fight late spring frost, which is becoming more deadly due to climate change. During frost events, cold air settles on buds while warm air lies at a certain altitude above an inversion layer. The project uses the drone’s downwash to push warm air from above the inversion layer down to the buds, by following the vertical swarming patterns of dance flies. In 2022, Samira Hayat became the first researcher working in Austria to be included in the list of “Rising Stars in Computer Networking and Communications”. Furthermore, she actively advocates — including in her talks at TEDx and re:publica — for ethical principles in technology development and critically addresses the use of robotic solutions and artificial intelligence that harm society, such as drones and AI in wars and conflicts as well as for population surveillance; for this commitment, she was honored as a LEA – Let’s Empower Austria Role Model and nominated as a “Voice of New Era” at Female Factor.
The City of Vienna Hedy Lamarr Prize recognises female researchers in Austria for outstanding achievements in the field of information technology. It highlights and strengthens the role and importance of women in IT. The prize is named after Hedy Lamarr, the Vienna-born Hollywood actress and inventor.
The City of Vienna presents the Hedy Lamarr Prize each year in cooperation with DigitalCity.Wien and UIV Urban Innovation Vienna. The institutions entitled to submit nominations for the award are FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency), FWF (Austrian Science Fund), and WWTF (Vienna Science and Technology Fund).
Der Beitrag Samira Hayat and Alice Tarzariol nominated for Vienna’s Hedy Lamarr Prize erschien zuerst auf University of Klagenfurt.