Endowed Professorships at the Ruhr-University Bochum

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EUROBITS is the European Institute for IT-Security at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The underlying idea of this institution is the comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the complex matter IT-Security. It consists of:

			Horst Görtz Institute for IT-Security (HGI), 3 chairs
			Instiute for Security in E-Business (ISEB)
			GITS AG (continuing education )
			escrypt association (Embedded Security)

eurobits, the European Competence Centre for IT security, was founded in 1999. It proved to be one of Europe's leading centres for IT security. eurobits is characterised by its multidisciplinarity and it tightly combines research and implementation - or more precisely - university and economy. Because of its close connection to the Ruhr-University of Bochum, latest scientific findings are rapidly integrated into commercial products. The knowledge that was gained at university is then capitalized in spin-off companies. The Horst Goertz Institute for IT Security (HGI) and the Institute for Security in E-Business (ISEB) are the scientific part of eurobits. ISEB deals with economic issues only, while the HGI is engaged in IT security's technical side. Right from the start, the economic parts of eurobits were the companies escrypt GmbH, the isits AG (isits - International School of IT-Security and the Gits Project Corporation. Since then, the companies Sirrix AG and Zynamics GmbH joined eurobits as well because they saw the many advantages of this cooperation. Most of eurobits companies are resident at the Centre of IT Security (CITS), a building with 4,000 sqm offices, conference and lecture rooms. 10% of the CITS building costs were paid for by Horst Görtz, the other costs were paid for by the European Union. Beside the eurobits companies, there are other IT security companies in the CITS, each of the enjoying the benefits of being close to other companies working in the same field.

eurobits as well as the Centre for IT Security could only be founded because of very generous donations by the Horst Goertz Foundation.

Within eurobits, especially the Horst Goertz Institute was funded by the Horst Goertz Foundation. Two full professorships were donated by the foundation until 2005. Professor Dr.-Ing. Christof Paar (Communication Security) and Professor Dr. Hans Dobbertin (Cryptologie) were both appointed in autumn 2001. The foundation and initial costs of the Horst Goertz Institute were financed as well; The Horst Goertz Foundation helped ISEB by financing research projects. Also the degree programme “Master Applied IT Security” was developed with the aid of the Horst Goertz Foundation and is now offered both as an on-campus programme and as a distance study. Since 2007, the full professorship “Trusted Computing” by Professor Dr. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi is funded by the Foundation. He now holds it as part of his own the Trustes Computing Chair.

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