For teaching (and for my eyes on a 4K screen), I need sometimes Eclipse with larger icons and UI fonts (the editor fonts can be easily adjusted within the Eclipse preferences).
What works for me (with X11) as described in https://linux-blog.anracom.com/2024/08/28/eclipse-too-small-icons-on-high-dpi-screens-workaround-for-kde-plasma-by-scaling-on-x11-and-wayland/
I also have in my home directory a .gtkrc-2.0 file and need to find out whether deleting it, would change anything -- some applies for the gnome-tweaks command.
On Saturday, 27. September 2024, 12:00-17:00, there is Vísindavaka 2025, the Icelandic family-friendly-during-daytime edition of European Researchers' Night 2026 at Laugardalshöll.
The Computer Science department of University of Iceland will have booths there, showcasing our research. Watch out for updates and visit our booth.
Gagnabær ("Datatown") digital twin that visualises cyber attacks in Iceland. (Photo from Vísindavaka 2024)
Real-time object detection: AI trained on a supercomputer, but running locally in the browser of your smartphone. (Photo from 2022)
Our booths at the previous European Researchers' Nights:
Parts of this event are in the context of our cybersecurity activities and the ECCC/EU co-funded projects ICEDEF – Defend Iceland and Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS).
Eyvör NCC-IS, the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity in Iceland is holding on 11 September 2025, 08:30-12:30, an event on Cybersecurity: From Grants to Impact (registration needed). Those who got grants from Eyvör NCC-IS for increasing cybersecurity will present their results.
The Icelandic minister for infrastructure and the director of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network (ECCC) will attend and the agenda is:
08:30 Coffee & Registration
09:00 Opening – Mr. Hrafnkell Gíslason, Managing Director of ECOI
09:10 Eyjólfur Ármannsson, Minister of Infrastructure
09:20 Luca Tagliaretti, Executive Director at ECCC
09:50 Hörn Valdimarsdóttir covers the Defend Iceland success story
10:00 Break
10:10 Grant Projects: Brief Presentations, first part
11:00 Break – Coffee and refreshments
11:20 Grant Projects: Brief Presentations, second part
12:05 Eyjólfur Eyfells at Rannís covers the Application Process and Eligibility
12:30 Closing
The next call for grants will be open 1. October to 1. December 2025: check out at Rannís.
Photo from after the event: Eyvör NCC-IS members together with ECCC executive director Luca Tagliaretti
This event is in the context of our cybersecurity activities and the ECCC/EU co-funded projects ICEDEF – Defend Iceland and Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS).
While I am teaching to use AI coding assistant, there have been recently two studies published that give an indication that AI coding assistants do actually decrease productivity:
One aspect is that developers learn over time about the project that they are working on whereas LLMs have been trained once and will always start from scratch in a project where they are used as coding assistants.
We presented an update on our cybersecurity activities to industry and students at the 21st Icelandic HPC Community Workshop August 28, 2025.
We covered there the joint MSc. programme in cybersecurity, our research, and the Digital Europe Programme projects Eyvör NCC-IS, the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity in Iceland and Defend Iceland, including the European network of NCCs and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC).
This event is in the context of our cybersecurity activities and the ECCC/EU co-funded projects ICEDEF – Defend Iceland and Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS).
On 11th of July 2025, participants of the Children's university (Háskóli unga fólksins) visited the Computer Science department. We did there a mini tabletop exercise on critical infrastructure in Iceland and after that authentication was discussed, e.g.:
- do not use the same password everywhere (if your password got stolen it will by tried at all kinds of services, so if you use the same password everywhere, all services can be accessed using your identity,
- use two factor authentication: even if your password got stolen, an attacker would still need the second authentication factor, e.g., would need to steal your phone that contains some authentication app as second factor in addition to your password.
This event is in the context of our cybersecurity activities and the ECCC/EU co-funded projects ICEDEF – Defend Iceland and Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS).
The cybersecurity collaboration of University of Iceland and Reykjavik University will open their Frostbyte cybersecurity laboratory and students will present results from their cybersecurity projects.
When: 23 May 2025, 9:00-13:45
Where: Reykjavik University – Lecture room Mars M122
Registration needed (to qualify for food), see also https://www.frostbyte.is/news/
This event is also announced on the RU webpage and on the UoI webpage in Icelandic and English.
Group photo of participants
Best Student Presentation award winners. From left to right: Prof. Helmut Neukirchen, Student Presentation award winner Birgir Sigurðsson (both University of Iceland), Student Presentation award winners Marteinn Lundi Kjartansson and Emilía Maidland from Reykjavík University.
This event is in the context of our cybersecurity activities and the ECCC/EU co-funded projects ICEDEF – Defend Iceland and Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS).
While the deadline for our M.Sc. programmes in Tölvunarfræði/Computer Science, Hugbúnaðarverkfræði/Software Engineering, and Reikniverkfræði/Computational Engineering have passed, you can still enroll into or B.Sc. programmes.
So, if you wanted to enroll into one of our M.Sc. programmes, but missed the deadlines: just enroll into a related B.Sc. programme (e.g. Iðnaðarverkfræði/Industrial Engineering) which allows you to take courses, including the M.Sc. courses of the M.Sc. programme that you were aiming for. In some cases, you need to talk to the teachers of these courses to get admitted as a non-B.Sc. student (but this should not be a problem if you can show that you have already the B.Sc. degree that is assumed for that course). You can then still change next year into your desired M.Sc. programmes and get your M.Sc. courses that you already took accounted.
The coalition agreement of the new Government that is forming aims at more digital surveillance (e.g. data retention in telecommunication, face and number plate recognition). While this is not good for privacy, at least IT security gets legal certainty:
In the Germany, there is the problem that IT security researchers who report vulnerabilities to companies (Responsible Disclosure) are sometimes sued by these companies based on a German legislation that was supposed to make breaking into IT systems a crime. I signed a petition of IT security researchers to change that legislation in order to prevent that Responsible Disclosure can be made a crime. The hope was that the currently forming government will change legislation and indeed:
The new coalition agreement covers cybersecurity at some places in an abstract manner and also includes the above legislative change:
Cyberstrafrecht, Deepfakes, Strafbarkeit Plattformbetreiber und Hackerparagraph
Wir reformieren das Cyberstrafrecht und schließen Strafbarkeitslücken, zum Beispiel bei bildbasierter sexualisierter Gewalt. Dabei erfassen wir auch Deep Fakes und schließen Lücken bei deren Zugänglichmachung gegenüber Dritten. Wir verschärfen die Sanktionsmöglichkeiten gegenüber Plattformen, insbesondere bei systemischen Mängeln bei der Entfernung strafbarer Inhalte. Wir werden im Computerstrafrecht Rechtssicherheit für IT-Sicherheitsforschung schaffen, wobei wir Missbrauchsmöglichkeiten verhindern.
