PQ-NEXT Core: Bringing PQ-NEXT into higher education- the case of HSRM
What drives PQ-NEXT from within? This time, we sat down with our academic partners to discuss their role and contributions to the PQ-NEXT project.
Let’s meet and greet the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and Arts. We will discover the university, the background, the team and the journey that led them in PQ-NEXT.
The RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and Arts is a university in the city of Wiesbaden, the capital of the German state of Hesse. We have a strong research focus on smart cities, metropolitan networks, and the application of quantum technology in smart city infrastructures. For example, one of the pioneering QKD networks in Germany is currently being operated over a distance of around 7 km between RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and the Hessische Zentrale für Datenverarbeitung, the Hessian full-stack IT provider for public institutions.
Due to the interplay between public service infrastructures, smart cities, post-quantum cryptography, and specialised network expertise, we are the ideal partner to address the synergies between applied research and practical teaching within the PQ-NEXT project. Our long-term collaboration with various project partners has led to several ideas, which we hope to further develop and mature during the project.
The RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and Arts and its role within PQ-NEXT
As mentioned above, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences is a public university of applied sciences with a strong research focus and independent doctoral rights in fields such as computer science, mobility and logistics, and social sciences, among others. Within PQ-NEXT, we plan to work on migration strategies from traditional cryptography to post-quantum infrastructures. By involving two PhD students, we aim to make substantial contributions to the infrastructure migration kit in Work Package 2, thereby creating a practical tool for public institutions to support the migration of their networks and data centres toward resilient post-quantum cryptography.
How does your work in PQ-NEXT influence your teaching activities and curriculum development?
The university already offers many relevant courses, such as telecommunications networks, post-quantum cryptography, cybersecurity, digital government, and information and communication technology for smart cities. The participation in PQ-NEXT will help us to enhance excellence in teaching by creating a bridge between cutting-edge research and practical teaching for the engineers and computer scientists of the future. We plan to supervise bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD theses throughout the project, as well as offer practical student projects to complement our existing curriculum.
What skills should today’s students develop to be ready for the post-quantum era?
Depending on their specific role, students would need skills in cryptography, public key infrastructures, network protocols and telecommunication infrastructures, data centres and cloud computing, as well as cybersecurity, risk management, and structured vulnerability analysis and penetration testing.
How can students participate in quantum-safe cybersecurity research at your institution, and, in particular, in the PQ-NEXT project?
Students will be involved in projects, as well as in bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD theses, with the additional opportunity to work on cutting-edge research as junior researchers in the participating research groups.
How does collaboration with industry partners within PQ-NEXT enrich academic research?
Collaboration with industry partners will help us align the applied aspects of our research more closely with practical needs and increase the relevance of our activities in the fields of smart cities and metropolitan network architecture. It will also support the transfer between fundamental research, applied teaching, and the use of future technologies within industries and companies in the RheinMain region of Germany.
What excites you most about the future impact of PQ-NEXT?
We are convinced that the PQ-NEXT research will have a major impact on the future of networks and data centres across Europe. The shift to new cryptographic schemes is inevitable, and the transition needs to be carefully prepared and systematically executed. This is exactly the area in which our PQ-NEXT research will support the future transition of our infrastructure.