In addition to excellent research, a key element of CISPA's mission is the transfer of scientific knowledge between CISPA researchers and the public. „We need society to be more aware of the challenges of the digital world and the importance of secure and trustworthy technologies“, says CISPA-CEO Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Backes in his foreword to the zine. For this reason, CISPA begins raising awareness about data privacy and web security already among children and teenagers.
At CISPA, activities in the field of knowledge transfer are gathered under the heading of "Science Outreach". Andrea Ruffing, Head of Science Outreach at CISPA, explains her team’s mission thus: „Making areas of academic research more accessible and fostering an interest in research topics.“ Ruffing‘s team not only organizes the Cysec Lab for a broad audience including schoolchildren and the general public. They also run citizen-science projects and put on offers for young scientists such as the Summer School.
Science communication is the hobby horse of award-winning researcher and CISPA-Faculty Professor Dr. Andreas Zeller, as he tells us in the interview. „Looking for ways to achieve the broadest and greatest possible impact matters to me. With every new research topic I turn to, I immediately start to think about ways of presenting the work I’ve done in as concise a form as possible”, Zeller says. How he does this, in-between writing academic papers, publishing books and maintaining a successful Twitter presence, is one of the topics discussed in the interview.
In up to four issues a year, the CISPA Zine introduces departments and research areas at CISPA Helmholtz-Center for Cybersecurity. The playful design, unusual folding and integrated poster in combination with short and succinct text formats are the trademarks of this publication. The next issue will appear in the fall. Here, you can read the Zine online.
