Media Release

Frankfurt, Feb 9: Royce Lanson Pinto, a graduate of the master's programme in high integrity systems from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Frankfurt UAS), was on February 4 awarded the Hans Messer prize, 2015 by the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) in recognition of his outstanding grades and work.

Royce shared the award with Christian Drumm, a graduate of the bachelor's programme in public and non-profit management, also from the same university. The prize is endowed with 6,000 euros and was equally divided between the two winners.

Royce is the son of Hagbert Lancy Wolston Pinto and Joanna Leena Pinto, originally from Loretto, Bantwal. He currently resides at Mannheim, Germany.

As part of his master's thesis at the software company SAP SE, Royce Pinto developed a new encryption option for short message services (instant messaging applications) and tested this on a new short message service of the SAP. Royce went from the question of how IM communication could be better ensured if neither the communication channel (the internet) nor the server used to send the messages is not completely safe from outside influences. To this end, he considered four conditions - secure authentication, confidentiality of communications, encryption even when intercepting the message and binding nature of the message based digital signatures - which must be met for a secure communication, and put these in a separate software solution. The technology developed by Royce was tested with the IM service- SAP Wire, which offers an uncomplicated user access with maximum security of communications.

"The combination of knowledge and practice is one of the core themes of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Therefore, I am particularly pleased that the IHK Frankfurt honours outstanding dissertations which are developed in cooperation with companies. The important thing about those papers is that science is carried into practice, and practical challenges. This is instructive for both sides. The University of Applied Sciences is important to us in bringing economics and applied science close. We congratulate both the winners on the part of the university management on their award," said Prof Dr Frank E P Dievernich, president of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.

Royce's master's thesis was supervised by Prof Dr Christian Baun and Prof Dr Matthias Deegener of Frankfurt UAS and Dr Michael Spahn, senior researcher at SAP Research CEC Darmstadt in Darmstadt.

The prize is awarded in honor of longtime IHK-president and honorary president Dr Hans Messer. The award was presented during the 19th Hans Messer Lecture.