The Faculty of Health, Science and Technology

News

• 2026-09-10

  Research Reveals Where the Internet Really Slows Down

  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.

• 2026-09-09

  SOLVE Receives Continued Support to Develop Solar Energy Systems

  Karlstad University has been awarded SEK 11.5 million from the Swedish Energy Agency and Region Värmland as the SOLVE research centre enters a new five-year phase. The investment will contribute to the development of future solar energy systems and support Sweden’s transition towards a more sustainable energy system.

  SOLVE brings together universities, businesses and public-sector organisations in research aimed at enabling a faster expansion of solar energy in Sweden. The total budget for SOLVE’s upcoming five-year period amounts to SEK 139.4 million. At Karlstad University, the research focuses on areas including new solar cell technologies, energy communities where several households share locally generated solar electricity, and agrivoltaics, where agricultural production is combined with electricity generation from solar panels.

• 2026-09-08

  Collaboration in Focus as the Knowledge Foundation Visits Karlstad University

  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.

• 2026-09-03

  The Internet's Phone Directory Reveals More Than You Think

  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.

• 2026-09-02

  Urban living-condition challenges extend far beyond megacities

  When urban challenges are discussed on the global stage, the spotlight often falls on megacities such as Mumbai, Lagos and Nairobi. However, a new study led by researchers at Karlstad University reveals that a substantial share of people living in disadvantaged urban environments are found in much smaller cities.

  "The most important finding is that more than one-third of the people we identified live in small and medium-sized cities," says Sai Ganesh Veeravalli, PhD student in Risk and Environmental Studies/Geomatics at Karlstad University and lead author of the study.

• 2026-09-01

  Mathematics paving the way for smarter designs

  I juni disputerade Mario Setta vid Karlstads universitet med sin doktorsavhandling i matematik: Boundary-Aware and Multiscale Methods for Topology Optimization. Hans forskning handlar om att utveckla och förbättra metoder för topologioptimering.

  What is topology and why did you choose this topic?

  "My thesis focuses on how topology optimization can be improved, that is how computers can be used to find an optimal shape for a structure so that it is as efficient as possible while using as little material as possible. Among other things, I investigated how to account for very small details and different material layers. This is becoming increasingly important as technical products become smaller and as advanced shapes can be manufactured using 3D printing, where objects are built layer by layer."