The Informatiktage 2024 inspire with avatars, bots and cyber security

At the end of March, interested people of all ages will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with experts and researchers and learn new things about the world of computer science. A varied programme of workshops, guided tours and talks will be offered during the week. The main part of the programme takes place on Saturday: the Department of Computer Science opens its doors and the wide range of events is complemented by an exhibition area with many interactive elements. Most of the events are aimed at individuals and are tailored to specific age groups.

The programme includes several programming courses and coding workshops for children and young people:

• In the "Programming with Python" course, secondary school pupils learn how to use programming to move a turtle across the screen and draw shapes and figures.
• In the "Meitli programmieren (Programming for girls)" course, primary school girls in grades 5 and 6 construct geometric patterns and mandalas and learn important computer science concepts in the process.
• In the workshop "Gross mit Klein: Programmieren zu zweit (Big & small: programming in pairs)", children aged 7⁺ and adults code together and get the autonomous mini-robot Thymio up and running.
• The workshop "Von T-​Shirts, Jacken, Schuhen und Socken: Informatikunterricht ohne Computer  (Of T-shirts, jackets, shoes and socks: Computer science lessons without computers)" is aimed at 5^th and 6^th grade teachers.

Cyber security: tips, tricks for everyone

How does the darknet work? What are the most common cybercrime phenomena? How do you recognise fake documents? These and many other questions about IT security will be answered on Saturday by experts from ETH Zurich and the Zurich Cantonal Police. Visitors will become cyber detectives and test how good they are at intercepting data or differentiating between forged and genuine documents.

• The workshops " Entdecke die ersten Geheimschriften (Discover the first ciphers)" and "Einführung in die Kryptografie (Introduction to cryptography)" are aimed at children with magic tricks, puzzles and illustrative examples.
• In many cases, humans are the major weak point when it comes to unauthorised access to data. The presentation "Mensch-​Computer-Interaktion: Der Mensch als Sicherheitsfaktor (Human-computer interaction: Humans as a safety factor)" is dedicated to the reasons for this and what can be done about it.

The Volumetric Capture Lab is also on a visionary level. In a green room with around 100 spherically arranged cameras, body movements are precisely recorded and high-resolution 3D images are created. Lifelike avatars are animated from the data and anyone who wants to can also create their own digital copy.

In the Game Lounge, graduates of the Game Programming Lab present their self-developed game "Prometheus - The Heist". Players embark on an epic journey and attempt to conquer Mount Olympus - the home of the gods - and steal the sacred fire. Fun is pre-programmed.