• 2/5/2025
  • Reading time 3 min.

TUM launches new program with support from Google

More cybersecurity specialists in Germany

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is launching a new Cybersecurity Program which will offer over 200 students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn more about the field of cybersecurity. Through the program, the students will also get an understanding of how the cybersecurity skills they learn in the classroom can be applied in real-life situations to help defend local organisations at risk from cyberattacks. To realise these goals, TUM is receiving up to 1 million US dollars in support from Google.org - as the only German university.

Over 200 students from different backgrounds are to be trained in the field of cyber security. iStockphoto.com / LuckyBusiness
Over 200 students from different backgrounds are to be trained in the field of cyber security.

The new Cybersecurity Program will support more than 250 local companies and non-profit organisations that are typically vulnerable to cyber attacks. Targeted organisations comprise leading companies from the TUM Partners of Excellence, and deep-tech SMEs of the TUM ecosystem in the context of the incubator TUM Venture Labs and the innovation and business creation center UnternehmerTUM. These SMEs, which are focused on their specific technological and business innovations in their specific domains, will benefit from support in also meeting ambitious cybersecurity and cyber resilience goals.

Program combines theoretical knowledge with practical applications

"With the Cybersecurity Program we will create an environment which allows students to apply theoretical knowledge, work in interdisciplinary teams, and which addresses practical needs of the industry,” said Georg Carle, Principal Investigator and Professor for Network Architectures and Services at TUM. “It will serve as a platform where academic and industrial partners can collaborate to create diverse cyber security scenarios."

“We are facing a shortage of cybersecurity professionals at a time when new technologies, like AI, are presenting both opportunities and threats to the field,” said Dr. Wieland Holfelder, Vice President Engineering, Regional CTO for Google Cloud Security and Sovereignty & Site Lead Google Munich. “This model is a win-win. Students learn hands-on cybersecurity skills and vulnerable community organizations are defended from cyber attacks. We’re proud to support TUM and other universities across EMEA to help build a strong, diverse and AI savvy cybersecurity workforce.”

The program will begin in the spring of this year and the curriculum will blend classroom learning with hands-on, real-world applications, and build on the concept of Project Weeks, a course format in which students work on company-specific challenges. Students from a variety of different disciplines will be provided an immersive experience, combining theory with practice through gamified learning and hacking competitions, offering students a fun, interactive way to learn cybersecurity concepts. Additionally, capstone projects with our partners provide invaluable, practical experience, e.g. in dealing with Internet measurement data to analyse security properties of IT infrastructure operated by local organisations. Other capstone projects will include electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) technologies such as domain-specific applications with strong authentication, electronic signatures and electronic seals that use hardware security tokens and the German identity card as trust anchors. 

TUM selected as the only German university

Virtual Routes (formerly the European Cyber Conflict Research Incubator) selected the universities for Google.org funding from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and will be running the Google.org Cybersecurity Seminar program. TUM is the only university in Germany, and one of 23 universities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, receiving grant funding as well as programmatic support from Virtual Routes.

Technical University of Munich

Corporate Communications Center

Contacts to this article:

Prof. Dr. Georg Carle 
Technical University of Munich 
Chair of Network Architectures and Services
carlespam prevention@tum.de
www.tum.de

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