Goodbye, 2022, and Hello To 2023: From Virtual to Physical
Goodbye, 2022, and Hello To 2023: From Virtual to Physical
I get to teach and research the topic that I love, and each year have the privilege to teach some of the best students you will find anywhere. And, so, what can I say about 2022? Well, it started with this:
and this:
and ended with this:
Along the way, my teaching has been helped by a few Bob and Alice mugs:
In Feb 2022, we were all back in person with my first live talk in a few years, and off to my 2nd favouriate city:
And, then, just after my birthday:
And, our ransomware work — with Simon Davis and Rich Macfarlane — goes from strength to strength, with a presentation at the CyNam Tech Showcase:
A true highlight of the year was definitely when Marty Hellman came along in April to talk to our students [here]:
And it was part of the Applied Cryptography module for our MSc students, and I was so happy to be back lecturing live again:
And, I went back to pen and paper again to do some doodling for students:
And, for the Applied Cryptography module, we had the mighty Torben talk to our students:
and Bruce Schneier:
And our decade long strive to build citizen-focused systems was future enhanced with the publication of our GLASS model:
And, for the Applied Cryptography class, I did some pen and paper doodle, but had the help of Crypto Kitty:
Another great change was the move back to physical Open Days:
and with the help of our always wonderful ENUSEC:
And, Simon did some great work, with a best paper award:
And here is some of the ransomware team:
One of the great highlights of the year was our REF 2021 results:
As you can see we gained a 38% world-leading (4*) overall assessment and achieved 100% score for world-leading impact. And, the spin-outs of Zonefox, Symphonic and Cyacomb helped in two of the impact case studies. This assessment puts us in 3rd place in Scotland in terms of Computer Science research, in terms of world-class research, and growing fast. The submission of 39.4 FTE showed that we are inclusive with our research, and did not just focus on staff who had the strongest profile.
In May, too, we were back again physically with an event focused on Cyber Security for Fintechs:
And, it showcased our amazing forthcoming spin-out (True Deploy), and highlighted the work of Pavlos, Nanik and Nick:
And, all organised by one of our “finds of the year” — Nanik:
And then in June, it was more of GLASS:
And, also in June, I was off to Cardiff for a keynote at a Cybersecurity conference:
And the graduations in July meant we were back with physical events:
And then in August, we hosted another conference (CiiSec 2022):
And my Semester 1 module meant a few more mugs to award as prizes:
And:
And had Crypto Kitty to help:
And, we have a new EU grant (TRUSTEE), and held the first planary in Edinburgh (it’s all about homomorphic encryption, so perfect for me):
And, another highlight was the PhD graduation of the students from our lab (Pavlos and Will):
And, then, we were back with guest lectures from great people like Tahir ElGamal:
And, our innovation work goes from strength to strength:
In November, I had a keynote at IEEE Blockchain:
And we started our AWS Academy:
And we also had Crowdstrike coming to talk to our students:
And, then in December, it was successes for Pavlos at the Cyber awards:
and for the GLASS project:
and here’s the GLASS team:
In Dec 2022, we also heard about our new partnership with MIRACL, and focusing on areas of Zero Knowledge Proofs and Homomorphic encryption:
And, the post-quantum cryptography methods were published by NIST:
The year also ended with our vision of an EU without digital barriers for its citizens [here]:
And, a successful Viva defence from another of those who started their PhD work within the creation of our Blockpass ID Lab (Nilu):
And, another of our initial PhD students in the lab (Mwarwan) also passed his PhD Viva and should now graduate, soon.
And so…
2022 saw a change from virtual to physical, and it is a change for the better. For 2023, I think Cyacomb (our third spin-out) we take one step closer to being a world leader, and that True Deploy will follow in their steps. I think we are also building an amazing team at Edinburgh Napier University, so come and be a part of it.
We need to build more bridges and fewer walls. Be kind!