"Because of the pandemic, this was the first time that I could teach my seminar face-to-face,” Singh says. "In the previous semester, the seminar was held online and I had to speak to an empty room, so to say." Yet it's the personal interaction and exchange with the students that she enjoys most. Her seminar "Wireless and Mobile Security" is aimed at bachelor's students in computer science and focusses on scientific research as well as on academic skills. Among other things, students learn how to read research papers and to present scientific results. Lukas Abelt, a representative of the Students’ Council, highlights both relevance and innovation in the classroom as criteria for the award: “Lecturers have to be excited about their teaching.”
For Singh, good teaching pivots around good communication. In her seminar, each student is asked to give two presentations: For the first presentation, students receive detailed individual feedback. This enables them to improve their performance in the second round. "I want to help my students to develop their skills. That’s why good feedback is so important. I tell my students what they do very well already but also where I see their potential for improvement.” Singh is particularly pleased that she has inspired some of her students to do further research on the contents of her course. Her seminar focusses on security vulnerabilities of wireless systems such as WiFi, Bluetooth and LTE/5G, which are used to transmit sensitive data.
Mridula Singh joined CISPA as Tenure-Track Faculty member in October 2022. She earned her PhD in computer science from ETH Zurich and her master’s degree in computer science from IIIT-Delhi. Her research centers on wireless and system security, with a special focus on the security of autonomous cyber-physical systems, such as safety and driver assistance systems.
