ERCIS Master Thesis Award 2021

Leonor Ribeiro, winner of the 2021 ERCIS Master Thesis AwardWe are happy to give the 1st ERCIS Master Thesis Award to

Leonor Ribeiro

of the 

Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho, Portugal

for the Master Thesis on the

GDPR Toolkit

The dissertation describes the development and validation of a tool that freely supplies organizations with the necessary resources for achieving compliance in the process of protecting personal data, by building a greater awareness of the GDPR’s implications and benefits, as well as how implementation does not have to be experienced as a nightmare but, contrarily, as a business opportunity.

The availability of tools that enable enterprises, especially small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME), to assure and verify GDPR compliance is of upmost importance as involves considerable resources and commitment. Considering that most European companies are SME, the dissertation can have significant impact in society.

The dissertation can also have impact to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels).

The committee's laudation:

“The thesis represents a strong and ample scientific body of work. It is worth emphasizing the breadth of research covered (literature review, research design, analysis of interviews, toolkit validation, among other aspects), indicating a wide coverage and mature understanding of field. Additionally, the reader has access to a wealth of extra 500+ pages with technical details in the appendix.”

Leonor's LinkedIn-Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonorribeiro/

Runner-Ups

We would also like to congratulate the runner-ups, who all proofed their skills and dedication, and are fine representatives of their respective institutions. In alphabetical order:

Alfonso Bravo Llanos

  • University of Seville, Spain
  • Title: "Definition of Design Patterns for Board-based collaborative work management tools"
  • LinkedIn

Sandro Franzoi

  • University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
  • Title: "Sustainability by Default? The Effect of the Status Quo Bias on Carbon Offsets in E-Commerce Checkout Processes"
  • LinkedIn

Sindre Gjesten and Snorre Birger Tunge

  • University of Agder, Norway
  • Title: "A User-centered system with blockchain in the Norwegian healthcare: From a security and privacy perspective"
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Jens Mechelhoff

  • University of Münster, Germany
  • Title: "An Analysis and Application of Theoretical Frameworks for Developing Digital Intelligence at a non-profit healthcare association – An Action Design Research Approach"
  • LinkedIn

Jose Fabio Ribeiro Bezerra

  • Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
  • Title: "Fake News Classification Using Style Analysis and Ensemble of Classifiers"
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter