"It's enormously exciting to be at the forefront of research"

Professor Pöpper, what are you currently researching?
My research group is working on information security, especially on the security of networks and systems. These include 4G and 5G mobile networks as well as aviation and GPS systems. For example, we are investigating how drones can notice when they are under attack and, as a result, their calculated GPS location or their time synchronisation is no longer accurate. We are also interested in aspects of privacy, including digital forgetting: how do you deal with data that is only supposed to be publicly accessible for a certain period of time?

Does your knowledge of how (un)safe such systems are influence your own behaviour?
I don't have any concerns about flying – there, optimism prevails that nothing will happen. But I don't like to disclose information about myself because I know that such information can also be used against me. For example, I'm cautious when it comes to social networks.

What do you like most about your job as a professor?
I can decide for myself what I work on, as well as how and with whom. You rarely get to enjoy such freedom outside the university environment. It's enormously exciting to work with many young, motivated people from different cultures, to be challenged intellectually every day and to be at the forefront of research. I also enjoy teaching, especially here at NYUAD, where smaller classes allow for more interactive lectures.

Researching, leading a group, teaching students: that sounds like a lot of work. How is your work-life balance?
Being a professor is certainly not a nine-to-five job with fixed working hours, where you always come home at the same time in the evening and put your feet up. Nevertheless, work-life balance is essential. University research is a marathon that you can only endure if you create a counterbalance. For me, that counterbalance is my family.

Why did you study computer science?
I liked brain teasers and riddles even as a child. I wanted to study something that challenged me intellectually, where I could understand connections, solve problems and implement ideas, and not just learn facts by heart. That's what excites me about computer science to this day. ETH Zurich, with its good reputation, was an obvious choice.

Was studying difficult for you?
I had no prior programming experience and knew relatively little about computers – I didn't even have an email address until about two months before I started my studies. So it wasn't always easy at first. But I kept at it and, at some point, I got into the flow of programming, where you forget the time around you. That motivated me, made it really fun, and I mastered the rest of my studies without any major problems.

When did you first develop an interest in your field of information security?
Even before I started university, my maths teacher gave me a book on cryptography, which I found fascinating. At ETH Zurich, I loved Professor Ueli Maurer's crypto lectures. Then, just before I graduated, Professor David Basin joined ETH Zurich. One of his postdocs gave a lecture on information security – that's how I got to know my future field.

Before you started your doctorate at ETH Zurich, you worked at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris for two years. Why did you come back to the university?
Working as a software developer at ESA combined computer science with my second passion, spaceflight. I liked it, but after a while I wanted to dive deeper into computer science. The doctorate was a good opportunity to deepen my understanding of the subject and to specialise. So I returned to ETH Zurich, to the System Security group run by Professor Srdjan Capkun, who had just joined ETH. I was his second doctoral student.

How did you come to co-lead the “Frauenförderung” (now the Network of Women in Computer Science, CSNOW) during your doctorate?
As a schoolgirl, I attended the taster week for girls, which still exists today. There, I programmed for the first time, got to know ETH and had a taste of university life. That helped me a lot. That's why I wanted to contribute to organising the taster week during my doctorate. It was also important to me to give female students and doctoral candidates opportunities for exchange and to create a sense of community within the department.

Why should we support women?
Why not? Women make up 50 percent of the population, but only a fraction of computer science students. Why is that? There is nothing about computer science that is particularly masculine. Computer science develops solutions that are used by all populations. That's why it's important that everyone participates. Also, more new and interesting ideas emerge in a diverse environment than in a homogeneous one, because everyone comes into contact with new perspectives.

You live and work in what is considered a conservative country. What is the status of women in computer science at NYUAD?
That doesn't necessarily match my perception. In most areas, I experience the United Arab Emirates as decidedly liberal and progressive. The percentage of women among students majoring in computer science at NYUAD is much higher than in Switzerland or Germany – almost 50/50. For me, NYUAD combines the best of both worlds: the research environment of a US university and the multicultural environment of the Emirates, where many nationalities come together. Eighty-five percent of our students are international.

What do you want to teach your students besides the actual subject matter?
Quite a lot! This includes a structured approach, teamwork and creativity. I'm currently teaching discrete mathematics. It sounds dry at first, but it has a lot of elegant components where you need to recognise patterns and understand connections, even in everyday life. I want to show my students the elegance and beauty of computer science. But also teach the perseverance to keep at it when things might get more difficult.

Did you also learn that in your studies at ETH Zurich?
Yes, ETH gave me a lot and I still feel very connected to it. The structured way of working and sticking to it were essential for the first- and second-year exams. I also benefitted from my industrial internship at Ergon Informatik AG and from my semester abroad at Lund University in Sweden. Getting to know other environments and other countries has always been an integral part of studying for me. In this respect, computer science has a huge advantage: it is universal. You develop skills that you can use anywhere in the world.

What else distinguishes computer science from other natural and technical sciences?
Natural sciences and mathematics try to describe and understand the world, while in computer science, we create and shape the digital world around us. That's what connects it to other engineering sciences. However, unlike other technical disciplines, the creations of computer science are often not immediately tangible. In the field of computer graphics, you might have beautiful visualisations as results of your research, but in my field, information security, a lot of things are not directly visible.

What advice would you give to a female secondary school student who is not yet sure whether she should study computer science?
Attend the taster week! And then talk to someone who is studying or has studied computer science themselves. I had contact with a female student from a more advanced semester before I started studying, who gave me tips and answered my questions. And, of course, don't let yourself be intimidated by anyone’s opinion; instead try it out for yourself. If it's a good fit on the whole, you will be able to cope with the challenges.