COMPUTER SCIENCE

When a video call stutters, an online game lags, or a webpage feels slow, internet speed is not always the problem. More often, the issue is network delays, known as latency. In his doctoral thesis, Simon Sundberg investigates how such delays arise and develops new methods for measuring them.

Most people associate network performance with bandwidth, that is, the amount of data that can be transferred per second. However, for many of today’s digital services, latency is just as important.

“If you are downloading a large film, bandwidth is usually the main factor determining how long it takes. But for interactive services such as video calls, online gaming and virtual reality, latency has a much greater impact on the user experience,” says Simon Sundberg.

On 7 September, representatives from the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) visited Karlstad University to gain deeper insight into how the university collaborates with industry in research and education. During the visit, several projects were presented in which the university and companies work together to develop new knowledge and strengthen Sweden’s competitiveness.

Throughout the day, the representatives from the Knowledge Foundation met researchers and academic staff from the Pro2Be research environment and the Department of Computer Science. The aim was to gain a better understanding of how the university works with research, education and skills development in partnership with companies and organisations.

When you enter a web address into your browser and arrive at the correct website a second later, a process takes place that most people never notice. Behind the scenes, one of the internet's most important systems is at work: DNS, the Domain Name System. In his doctoral thesis, computer scientist Jonathan Magnusson investigates how effectively today's DNS infrastructure protects users' privacy and what shortcomings still remain.

DNS is often described as the internet's address book. The system translates domain names, such as kau.se, into the IP addresses that computers use to communicate with one another. Without DNS, the internet would be far more difficult to use. At the same time, every DNS lookup involves information about the websites a user wants to visit being passed through several different servers.

What if your heat pump knew when you were about to take a shower or use large amounts of hot water? It could then produce hot water at the right time instead of heating unnecessarily. This idea lies at the heart of the research conducted by industrial PhD student Manal Rahal at Thermia, where machine learning is being used to make heat pumps smarter and more energy efficient.

Today, many heat pumps are controlled using fixed rules and pre-set threshold values. The problem is that they do not take into account the fact that household hot water consumption varies over time. A family that showers early in the morning has different needs from a household where most people shower late in the evening. When a heat pump fails to understand these patterns, it can result either in unnecessary energy consumption or an insufficient supply of hot water when it is needed most.

It has now been decided which innovators will represent Värmland at the national SKAPA Award ceremony in Stockholm in November. Birgitta Persdotter, a researcher in social work and creator of Vaves®, has been named the winner of the 2026 SKAPA Award Värmland. Amal Nammouchi, a former doctoral student at Karlstad University and founder of Wattzo, has been awarded the 2026 SKAPA Talent Award Värmland.

The SKAPA Award is Sweden’s largest innovation award and recognizes innovators who develop new solutions with the potential to create societal benefits, promote sustainable development and drive future growth.

Vaves® is a research-based method and digital platform that strengthens social services’ ability to carry out systematic follow-up, analysis and knowledge development through collaboration between municipalities and academia. For Birgitta Persdotter, the award is an important recognition of her continued work:

Recently, two successful trials were conducted within the 6G-PATH research project, where nursing students and ambulance personnel tested a new form of remote healthcare education.

The aim was to investigate how next-generation communication technologies such as 5G, future 6G networks, edge computing, and cloud services can be used to create realistic and accessible learning environments for healthcare professionals.