Lecture: Digital cities - promise or threat for civil society

The guest speaker will be Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick from TU Darmstadt. He has been Professor of Computer Science there since 2009 and heads the "Secure Mobile Networking Lab". He and his team are currently working on issues of security, quality of service and reliability in wireless networks as well as privacy and security in the future internet.
Since 01.01.2020, Prof. Hollick has been coordinating the new LOEWE center emergenCITY - The Resilient Digital City.  The aim of this LOEWE center, in which the ITeG departments of Prof. Dr. Kurt Geihs and Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung from the University of Kassel are also actively involved, is to research interdisciplinary principles, methods and solutions that increase the resilience of future digital cities.

Professor Hollick will also address this topic in his guest lecture in the ITEG lecture series:

Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 17:00 - 18:30
Wissenschaftliches Zentrum ITeG, Pfannkuchstr. 1, 34121 University of Kassel, Room 0420
Lecture with Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick/Technische Universität Darmstadt
"Digital cities - promise or threat to civil society"

About the lecture:

In 2050, it is estimated that around two thirds of the world's population will live in cities - up from around 30 percent in 1950 and 50 percent in 2010. The growth in the number and size of cities will be made possible by adaptable and efficient (critical) infrastructures: energy; transportation, traffic and logistics; health; food; water; finance and insurance; government and administration. The ubiquitous use of information and communication technology (ICT) is crucial for adaptability and efficiency. At the same time, non-public areas such as private households, private transportation and the economy are increasingly being penetrated by ICT. This results in considerable dependencies on ICT systems, which increase with increasing networking. In such digital cities, the functionality of ICT-supported infrastructures is endangered by natural events, human and technical (ICT) failure, violence and terror. At the same time, users are exposed to potential permanent surveillance and paternalism, which can be realized in digital cities. In this lecture, we look at the promises of digital cities and question them. We will highlight potential risks for citizens and outline possible solutions.

https://www.uni-kassel.de/eecs/iteg/veranstaltungen/vortragmatthiashollick