On the afternoon of November 6, 2026, the 41st AIK Symposium took place at the Novotel Karlsruhe City. This year, the symposium was organized by the Security-Usability-Society (SECUSO) research group in cooperation with the “human-centered systems lab” (h-lab) research group and was titled "Menschzentrierte Informatikforschung" (Human-Centered Computer Science Research). The symposium is held once a year by the Association for Applied Computer Science Karlsruhe e.V. (AIK). Interesting presentations from both academic and industry perspectives, such as “Rethinking Thinking with AI Systems” and insights from more than 10 years of applied user research in the medical field, formed the main part of the program. In addition, Mario Gemov and Christian Mack were awared the best bachelor’s and master’s theses. All information about the speakers, as well as interesting facts about the Institute for Applied Computer Science and Formal Description Methods (AIFB) at KIT, is available in the programm.

Melanie Volkamer was elected Dean of Academic Affairs for the bachelor’s and master’s programs in Business Informatics by the Faculty Council of the KIT Department of Business and Economics. Her term of office started from October 15, 2026. The responsibilities of a dean of academic affairs include, among other things, communicating with the student council / the student forum, and promoting the degree programs, particularly the English-language master’s program.

On November 2, 2026, Anne Hennig successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Longitudinal Evaluation of Security Vulnerability Notifications: Rethinking Large-Scale Approaches.” The thesis focused on how to increase the effectiveness of vulnerability notifications. It provides recommendations for notification campaigns based on a comprehensive systematization of vulnerability notification experiments and four experiments conducted by the author. We extend our warmest congratulations to Anne!

On October 9, the initiative karlsruhe.digital, a partner of the “Wir forschen digital” citizen panel, presented the Karlsruhe Manifesto on Digital Sovereignty. To accompany this event, “Wir forschen digital” is conducting an online survey asking: What does digital sovereignty mean to you personally? The survey is still open—take part now and share your perspective with us! Since this is a “Wir forschen digital-ON TOUR” study, you can participate without registering for the panel. The survey takes about five minutes to complete.