The bachelor thesis by Martin Komarnicki, which I was happy to supervise last year, received the Friedrich-Dessauer Award for outstanding degree works (awarded by VDE Rhein-Main) in 2026. The official press release on the prize announcement summarizes the key points of the thesis very well:

Martin Komarnicki, graduate of Computer Science, receives the award for his Bachelor's Thesis "Intelligent Motion Analysis for Optimizing Dental Hygiene: An Artificial Intelligence-Based Application for Capturing Hand and Facial Points." The award ceremony will take place during the graduation celebration of the department "Computer Science and Engineering" in September 2026.

Use of AI for Optimizing Dental Hygiene

Especially for patients with limited manual dexterity or neurological conditions, thorough oral care often proves challenging. Nevertheless, consistent dental hygiene is very important. Modern technologies can optimize toothbrushing. An application designed to support and analyze brushing formed the framework for Martin Komarnicki's Bachelor Thesis.

In his thesis, he developed an AI-supported application that analyzes hand and facial movements during toothbrushing and thus can contribute to better dental hygiene. The basis of the work lies in modern machine learning (ML) procedures and image processing methods. Komarnicki examined various AI models to determine how reliably they can recognize hands, faces, and their movements. For this purpose, he created his own image dataset and compared the models regarding accuracy and computational effort. Additionally, he investigated how the results could be further optimized through improved image processing techniques.

"The technical ambition of the thesis is considered high. The field of machine learning and advanced image recognition methods stands out not only for its exceptional relevance within the research area of artificial intelligence, but also for its complexity from an engineering perspective," explained Prof. Dr. Thomas Gabel, Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics, who supervised the work. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates what potential intelligent technologies offer for supporting everyday life.

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