CYRENZH Summer School 2025
Human Factors in Cybersecurity and Privacy: Interdisciplinary Research Methods
Human factors in cybersecurity and privacy are an emerging field for research and industry and due to the increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, their importance is growing. To enhance cybersecurity through fostering cyberresilience, recent approaches in research ask for novel methods to account for enabling approaches that view human factors and technology as partners.
Thus, aiming to provide detailed knowledge and hands-on experience, the participants of the CYRENZH Summer School 2025 are going to understand in-depth and apply interdisciplinary research methods (e.g. mixed-methods approaches, the use of AI in research) from the field of Social Sciences, but also with inputs from Computer Science. Further, this summer school is supplemented with an emphasis on transdisciplinary topics such as communication skills, ethical considerations, and collaborations with industry.
The CYRENZH Summer School 2025 welcomes participants from diverse backgrounds interested in understanding and applying different research methods/approaches for interdisciplinary research focused on human factors in cybersecurity. We prepared an interactive course, where participants can apply the learnings directly to improve their own research projects / proposals. And with the visit to IBM Research, participants are able to get an exclusive insight into Security Research.
This summer school is sponsored by IBM Research, Rüschlikon.
Place, Date, Participation Fee, Registration
The CYRENZH Summer School will take place from 7 – 11 July 2025 at Digital Society Initiative (DSI) in Zurich.
Application / registration deadline: 30 April 2025
Participation Fee: CHF 500.00
The participation fee includes lunches on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, the summer school joint dinner on Wednesday, the apéro riche on Friday and the visit to IBM Rüschlikon, social activities on Wednesday, as well as an official certificate of attendance (not included is your accommodation and travel expenses to and from Zurich).
Registration: If you wish to register, please send an email (including your CV and a brief letter of motivation attached in one PDF file) to .
Target Group
Participants should have a background and interest in cybersecurity / privacy / Human-Computer-Interaction / or related fields, but do not have to be necessarily experts in human factors:
- Graduate students (i.e. PhD-Students, Master Students, or Early Career Researchers) with an own research project ongoing (e.g. PhD-Thesis or M.Sc.-Thesis) or currently writing a research proposal.
- Practitioners working in the industry but interested in the topic of human factors in cybersecurity and privacy.
Learning Outcomes / ECTS
At the end of the CYRENZH Summer School 2025 participants…
- … can apply the interdisciplinary methods (mixed-methods; AI; extended reality) to cybersecurity related research questions (i.e. to their own research projects or proposals).
- … can critically reflect and discuss ethical considerations of their own research on human factors in cybersecurity.
- … can communicate complex research findings (e.g., of their own research) or proposals to a lay audience.
As an output, and to receive a certificate of 3 ECTS, the participants first are asked to submit a short report, or presentation how their own research project / proposal benefits from the learnings during the summer school. Second, participants will review the contribution of other participants.
Programme (Programme is subject to change)
| Time | Topic | Didactical principles | Learning Outcome / Content | Lecturer |
| MONDAY | ||||
| 9-11 | Getting to know each other | Presentation Symposium | Overview over the week & getting brief overview of a) different methods and b) teaser of all the things in the next days Speed dating with coffee and croissants: Communicating own research to a lay audience without a poster / keynote | Dr. Benjamin Ambuehl |
| 11-12.30 | Introduction to researching human factors in cybersecurity and privacy | Lecture | Problematization of human factors in cybersecurity & privacy: Problems? Research questions? Which disciplines are involved? | Prof. Dr. Nico Ebert / Prof. Dr. Verena Zimmermann |
| 14-15 | Introduction to interdisciplinary research methods in cybersecurity | Focal-presentation Individual-exercise | Why are interdisciplinary methods necessary and what is the taxonomy of methods? Mixed-methods studies as an example to triangulate research findings from different disciplines. Participants know how to classify methods and identify methods that they have already used. | Dr. Benjamin Ambuehl |
| 15-17 | Qualitative research methods in cybersecurity | Focal-presentation Group-exercise | What are mixed-methods approaches? How do study designs using mixed-methods look like? Participants can extend their own research projects to design a mixed-methods study. | Dr. Benjamin Ambuehl |
| TUESDAY | ||||
| 09-12.30 | Large scale online experiments to research in usable security and privacy. | Lecture Interaction | Collecting and analyzing quantitative data from large groups of Internet users using online panels (e.g., Prolific) and interactive stimuli (e.g., website mockups). | Prof. Dr. Nico Ebert |
| 14-17 | AI / LLM as research method: enhancing cybersecurity and for identifying risks | Lecture Interaction | Application of AI / LLM as research approaches in computer science | Dr. Guerkan Guer and Dr. Ariane Trammel |
| WEDNESDAY | ||||
| 9-12.30 | A/VR as a research method in experiments on usable security | Lecture Interaction | Spatial Computing (VR/AR/MR) for researching usable security | Prof. Dr. Verena Zimmermann / TBA |
| 12.30-18 | Social activity | Hike to Üetliberg OR Visit to the Zoo OR Visit to the Badi OR Museum OR … | ||
| 19-22 | Dinner | ALL | ||
| THURSDAY | ||||
| 9-12 | Research communication: Methods of story telling in cybersecurity | Lecture Interaction | Formulating research messages specifically to a target audience | Eva Wolfangel, Dr. Melanie Knieps & Dr. Leyla Ciragan |
| 13-18 | Industry visit (IBM Rüschlikon) | 3x 30’ keynotes 30’ panel | e.g. research-industry collaboration in research projects on quantum computing Team working on security threats of AI systems (topics, threats, etc.) | IBM Rüschlikon Kathrin Grosse (AI Security) |
| FRIDAY | ||||
| 9-12.30 | Ethical considerations in cybersecurity research | Lecture Interaction | Analyzing cybersecurity issues from an ethical and legal standpoint, evaluating the impact on privacy, societal norms, human rights, … Interactive exercise Drafting informed consent | PD Dr. Markus Christen |
| 12.30-14.00 | Apéro riche & Closing | Dr. Benjamin Ambuehl | ||
Lecturers
- Dr. Benjamin Ambuehl (Zurich University of Applied Sciences & University of Zurich)
(CYRENZH Core Team Member) - PD Dr. Markus Christen (University of Zurich)
(CYRENZH Affiliate) - Dr. Leyla Ciragan (University of Zurich, Digital Society Initiative)
(CYRENZH Core Team Member) - Prof. Dr. Nico Ebert (Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Management and Law)
(CYRENZH Core Team Member) - Dr. Guerkan Guer (Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering)
(CYRENZH Affiliate) - Dr. Melanie Knieps (University of Zurich, Digital Society Initiative)
(CYRENZH Core Team Member) - Dr. Ariane Trammell (Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering)
(CYRENZH Affiliate) - Eva Wolfangel
(Freie Journalistin) - Prof. Dr. Verena Zimmermann (ETH Zurich, Professorship for Security, Privacy & Society)
(CYRENZH Affiliate)