“I think good teaching is essential,” says Franziska Boenisch. “I only studied computer science because I had a great young computer science teacher in high school who introduced us to the subject with a lot of passion. I am therefore aware of my responsibility to the students and hope to be able to inspire them in the same way.” The machine learning expert seems to have succeeded, as her very first course at Saarland University, her seminar “Differential Privacy: Mathematical Foundations and Applications in Machine Learning”, was immediately recognized by the students with the coveted award. The open attitude that the participants showed her was a decisive factor in the success of the course, says Boenisch. But that alone does not make a Busy Beaver. “I try to make the students really think and draw connections between different concepts from my course or previous courses. To do this, I regularly ask open questions and give impulses to the group. I also take a lot of time for feedback. Part of my seminar is that each student gets 1:1 time. I sit down with them for half an hour before and after their presentations and discuss what I have noticed, what they can improve and what is already great,” says Boenisch.
In the “Basic Lectures” category, the prize goes to the “Foundations of Cybersecurity” lecture by Ben Stock. “I'm delighted with the recognition for my whole team - my tutors are third-semester students who are passing on their knowledge to the next generation. I'm only at the blackboard twice a week, the guys have a much more direct line to the students,” says the researcher. This is already the third Busy Beaver Award for him. His recipe for success? “I try to set tasks that are as practical as possible and incorporate gamification. My own experience with capture-the-flag competitions has shown me that you get really motivated by something like this and can learn a lot in practice. That's why I've also included an introduction to Python this year, so that students can get started with the application straight away.” He simply enjoys teaching, says Stock. “I studied normal computer science myself and the lecture on security sparked my interest in the field. This ultimately enabled me to pursue a career in IT security. If I can motivate even just one student a year in a similar direction through a good lecture, that's a huge gain for me.”
In the category “Core and advanced lectures”, the students awarded Sven Bugiel for his advanced lecture “Mobile Security”. “I generally enjoy teaching very much and I like being involved here despite the low teaching load we have as Faculty at CISPA. I'm therefore delighted that the course was so well received by the students this time!” He believes that a new teaching format that he tested last semester was the main reason for the students' enthusiasm. “It's called Flipped Classroom and we tried it out to enable students in Hanover to take part too. This change was the key to success this time, as it offered participants “flexible listening” and an interactive lecture. We had a very pleasant atmosphere and very committed participants, which of course makes it much easier for me and increases my own commitment.” Bugiel is especially happy that his students have reported back to him that they have already been able to apply the content of the course in their internships or jobs. Good teaching pays off for everyone.
