Teaching

• Module: Operating Systems (CO-562)
• Semester: Fall 2021
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• Office Hours: Monday, 11:15-12:30 (Research I, Room 87)
• TA (Group A): Biehl, Jose Ignacio
• TA (Group B): Karki, Aabishkar
• TA (Group C): Merkaj, Edli
• Class: Tuesday, 15:45-17:00 (RLH-172 CNLH)
• Class: Tuesday, 17:15-18:30 (RLH-172 CNLH)
• Class: Thursday, 15:45-17:00 (RLH-172 CNLH)
• Tutorial: Monday, 20:45-22:15 (TAs, Teams)
• 1st Module Exam: Thursday, 2021-12-16, 16:00-18:00 (SCC Halls 1+2)
• 2nd Module Exam: Thursday, 2022-01-27, 14:00-16:00 (ICC-West Wing Conference Hall)

This module introduces concepts and principles used by operating systems to provide programming abstractions that enable an efficient and robust execution of application programs. Students will gain an understanding of how an operating system kernel manages hardware components and how it provides abstractions such as processes, threads, virtual memory, file systems, and inter-process communication facilities. Students learn the principles of event-driven and concurrent programming and the mechanisms that are necessary to solve synchronization and coordination problems, thereby avoiding race conditions, deadlocks, and resource starvation. The Linux kernel and runtime system will be used throughout the course to illustrate how key ideas and concepts have been implemented and how application programs can use them.

• Course: Secure and Dependable Systems (CO-566)
• Semester: Spring 2021
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• Office Hours: Monday, 11:15-12:30, R.1-87
• TA: Rafey, Rafey Abdur
• Class: Tuesday, 15:45-17:00, R.3-51 Lecture Hall
• Class: Wednesday, 14:15-15:30, RLH-172 Conrad Naber Lecture Hall
• 1st Module Exam: Tuesday, 2021-05-18, 16:00-18:00, ICC-West Wing Conference Hall
• 2nd Module Exam: Tuesday, 2021-08-24, 14:00-16:00, R.1-53 Lecture Hall

This module introduces students to the fundamentals of computer security and techniques used to build and analyze dependable systems. This is an important topic given that computer systems are increasingly embedded in everyday objects (such as light bulbs) and taking over important control functions (such as driving cars). Furthermore, computer systems control complex communication systems that form critical infrastructure of the modern globalized world. Proper protection of information requires an applied understanding of cryptography and how cryptographic primitives are used to secure data and information exchanges. The aim of this module is to make students aware of what types of security vulnerabilities may arise in computing systems and how to prevent, identify, and fix them.

• Course: Project Computer Science (CA10-320305)
• Course: Thesis Computer Science (CA10-320306)
• Semester: Fall 2020
• Semester: Spring 2021
• Instructor: Peter Baumann
• Instructor: Andreas Birk
• Instructor: Horst Karl Hahn
• Instructor: Sergey Kosov
• Instructor: Kinga Lipskoch
• Instructor: Francesco Maurelli
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• Instructor: Peter Zaspel
• Prerequisites: Two CS core modules passed

We expect that our students take the initiative and drive the process. How self-organized students work is part of the assessment. In terms of effort, please note that 1 CP equals ~25 hours.

• Module: Introduction to Computer Science (CH-232)
• Semester: Fall 2020
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• TA: Chhetri, Maulik
• TA: Gjoni, Petri
• TA: Karki, Aabishkar
• TA: Paudel, Subigya
• TA: Pham, Tuan
• TA: Sota, Henri
• Class: Tuesday, 11:15-12:30 (ICC East Wing)
• Class: Friday, 08:15-09:30 (ICC East Wing)
• Class: Friday, 09:45-11:00 (ICC East Wing)
• Tutorial: Tuesday, 19:30-21:30 (Group A, Petri)
• Tutorial: Tuesday, 19:00-21:00 (Group B, Henri)
• Tutorial: Wednesday, 19:00-21:00 (Group C, Maulik)
• Tutorial: Monday, 19:00-21:00 (Group D, Subigya)
• Tutorial: Tuesday, 19:00-21:00 (Group E, Tuan)
• Tutorial: Wednesday, 20:00-22:00 (Group F, Aabishkar)
• 1st Module Exam: Friday, 2020-12-18, 09:00-11:00 (SCC Hall 1-3)
• 2nd Module Exam: Wednesday, 2021-01-27, 17:00-19:00 (ICC East Wing)
• Office Hours: Monday, 11:15-12:30 (Research I, Room 87)

The module introduces fundamental concepts and techniques of computer science in a bottom-up manner. Based on clear mathematical foundations (which are developed as needed), the course discusses abstract and concrete notions of computing machines, information, and algorithms, focusing on the question of representation versus meaning in Computer Science.

The module introduces basic concepts of discrete mathematics with a focus on inductively defined structures, to develop a theoretical notion of computation. Students will learn the basics of the functional programming language Haskell because it treats computation as the evaluation of pure and typically inductively defined functions. The module covers a basic subset of Haskell that includes types, recursion, tuples, lists, strings, higher-order functions, and finally monads. Back on the theoretical side, the module covers the syntax and semantics of Boolean expressions and it explains how Boolean algebra relates to logic gates and digital circuits. On the technical side, the course introduces the representation of basic data types such as numbers, characters, and strings as well as the von Neuman computer architecture. On the algorithmic side, the course introduces the notion of correctness and elementary concepts of complexity theory (big O notation).

• Module: Operating Systems (CO-562)
• Semester: Fall 2020
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• TA: Balani, Eglis
• TA: Kabadzhov, Ivan
• TA: Turcuman, Horia
• Class: Tuesday, 15:45-17:00 (East Wing)
• Class: Tuesday, 17:15-18:30 (East Wing)
• Class: Thursday, 15:45-17:00 (East Wing)
• Tutorial: Monday, 19:00-20:30 (Horia, group C)
• Tutorial: Tuesday, 20:30-22:00 (Ivan, group B)
• Tutorial: Wednesday, 19:00-20:30 (Eglis, group A)
• 1st Module Exam: Wednesday, 2020-12-09, 12:30-14:30 (SCC Hall 1-2)
• 2nd Module Exam: Monday, 2021-01-25, 11:00-13:00 (Research I, Lecture Hall)
• Office: Monday, 11:15-12:30 (Research I, Room 87)

This module introduces concepts and principles used by operating systems to provide programming abstractions that enable an efficient and robust execution of application programs. Students will gain an understanding of how an operating system kernel manages hardware components and how it provides abstractions such as processes, threads, virtual memory, file systems, and inter-process communication facilities. Students learn the principles of event-driven and concurrent programming and the mechanisms that are necessary to solve synchronization and coordination problems, thereby avoiding race conditions, deadlocks, and resource starvation. The Linux kernel and runtime system will be used throughout the course to illustrate how key ideas and concepts have been implemented and how application programs can use them.

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as ARM's Trustzone or Intel's Enclave are secure areas inside a main processor. The idea is that data and applications contained in TEEs is protected with respect to confidentiality and integrity. Systems execute a trusted operating system inside the TEE and they may load trusted applications into the TEE. The goal of this project is investigate the state of the art in TEEs and their open source software systems and to prototype novel trusted applications that may help to secure networked embedded devices.

This work requires strong interest in working with low-level C code in embedded systems. It also requires a certain portion of creativity and the willingness to work with fast developing new technology.

• Demystifying Arm TrustZone: A Comprehensive Survey

• Course: Project Computer Science (CA10-320305)
• Course: Thesis Computer Science (CA10-320306)
• Semester: Fall 2019
• Semester: Spring 2020
• Instructor: Peter Baumann
• Instructor: Andreas Birk
• Instructor: Horst Karl Hahn
• Instructor: Sergey Kosov
• Instructor: Kinga Lipskoch
• Instructor: Francesco Maurelli
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• Instructor: Peter Zaspel
• Prerequisites: Two CS core modules passed

We expect that our students take the initiative and drive the process. How self-organized students work is part of the assessment. In terms of effort, please note that 1 CP equals ~25 hours.

• Course: Secure and Dependable Systems (CO21-320203)
• Semester: Spring 2020
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• TA: Huynh, Dung Tri
• TA: Mana, Irsida
• Class: Thursday, 14:15-15:30, R.1-53 Lecture Hall
• Class: Friday, 11:15-12:30, RLH-274 Seminar Room
• Office Hours: Monday, 11:15-12:30 (Research I, Room 87)
• Final Exam: Thursday, 2020-05-28 12:30-14:30 (SCC - Hall 4)
• Makeup Exam: Monday, 2020-08-31 17:00-19:00 (R.1-53 Lecture Hall)

This course introduces formal methods for analyzing and assuring safety and security of software systems. The course starts off with a clarification of concepts such as dependability, quality, safety, and security of software systems, and how to achieve them in the software development process. We introduce the foundations of cryptography as a basis for security mechanisms. The main part of the course introduces different paradigms of safety/security analysis such as formal testing (code coverage), static program analysis (control/data flow analysis and abstract interpretation), model checking (computational tree logic), and program verification (Hoare calculus, dynamic logic). The formal techniques will be used for analyzing both safety and security properties of programs. Where possible, students will be given hands-on micro-projects in state-of-the-art tools (e.g., Isabelle for program verification).

• Module: Introduction to Computer Science (CH-232)
• Semester: Fall 2019
• Instructor: Jürgen Schönwälder
• TA: Balani, Eglis
• TA: Blaceri, Romelda
• TA: Chen, Tianyao
• TA: Kabadzhov, Ivan
• TA: Shandro, Jovan
• Class: Tuesday, 11:15-12:30 (CNLH)
• Class: Friday, 08:15-09:30 (CNLH)
• Class: Friday, 09:45-11:00 (CNLH)
• 1st Module Exam: Saturday 2019-12-14 09:00-11:00 (SCC Hall 3+4)
• 2nd Module Exam: Saturday 2020-01-25 08:00-10:00 (ICC East Wing)
• Office Hours: Monday, 11:15-12:30 (Research I, Room 87)

The module introduces fundamental concepts and techniques of computer science in a bottom-up manner. Based on clear mathematical foundations (which are developed as needed), the course discusses abstract and concrete notions of computing machines, information, and algorithms, focusing on the question of representation versus meaning in Computer Science.

The module introduces basic concepts of discrete mathematics with a focus on inductively defined structures, to develop a theoretical notion of computation. Students will learn the basics of the functional programming language Haskell because it treats computation as the evaluation of pure and typically inductively defined functions. The module covers a basic subset of Haskell that includes types, recursion, tuples, lists, strings, higher-order functions, and finally monads. Back on the theoretical side, the module covers the syntax and semantics of Boolean expressions and it explains how Boolean algebra relates to logic gates and digital circuits. On the technical side, the course introduces the representation of basic data types such as numbers, characters, and strings as well as the von Neuman computer architecture. On the algorithmic side, the course introduces the notion of correctness and elementary concepts of complexity theory (big O notation).