"A few years ago, we started giving security training for consultants and penetration testers in companies and at industry conferences. But we quickly realized that we could turn this into a wonderful lecture with academic teaching methods and practice-oriented topics," says lecturer Christian Mainka, CASA PI and Doctor for Network and Data Security at the Horst-Görtz-Institute for IT Security, Faculty of Computer Science of the Ruhr-University Bochum, explaining the idea behind Message Level Security. The aim of the course is to teach systematic security analyses and the safe use of hacking tools. After successfully completing the course, students will be able to carry out independent IT security analyses and practical cyber attacks on the technologies covered and transfer their knowledge to other technologies. In addition, research skills will be improved and a comprehensive understanding of data formats on the web, authentication and authorization protocols and document formats will be developed. In addition to detailed lecture slides and short videos on specific topics, an e-hacking platform specially developed for the course is also used to enable students to test cyber attacks in a secure environment. "It was clear to us that practical topics such as pentesting can only be learned by trying them out. On the platform, students can playfully practise attack techniques in an isolated environment," explains Mainka. The freely available platform is also used by other universities. To ensure that the course is up to date, the lecturers update the content annually with the latest research findings from top international IT security conferences.
With their teaching concept, Mainka and Mladenov prevailed in a multi-stage selection process. All students were initially asked to submit suggestions for nominations via an online form. A student jury reviewed the proposals, evaluated them and nominated five courses for the award. In addition to the award-winning course, these were Computer Science 1 (Prof. Tobias Glasmachers), ARM Processors for Embedded Cryptography (Dr. Max Hoffmann), Introduction to Cryptography (Prof. Christof Paar) and Microarchitectural Attacks and Defenses (Prof. Yuval Yarom). All nominees submitted their teaching concept to the jury using key questions. Based on the concept and a round of feedback from the student body, the jury finally selected the winners. "Although Message Level Security is a comparatively small course in the elective catalog of the Master’s in IT Security, the student feedback was overwhelming. The module stood out thanks to the good combination of the e-hacking platform and approachable lecturers. There is also a special focus on the further development of the module so that the learning experience improves every year," reports jury member Eleodie Krusche. "We are very happy that our teaching is so well received by the students," says a delighted Mladenov. "Good and practical teaching has always been very important to us. We were therefore really happy to receive the Excellent Teaching Award."
The Excellent Teaching Award was awarded for the first time this year and recognizes outstanding achievements in teaching at the Faculty of Computer Science. In addition to a certificate, the winners received a traveling trophy at the annual academic celebration. Starting in the winter semester, students can submit proposals for the Excellent Teaching Award 2025.
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