Spicy
I am the mascot of the Security and Privacy in Industrial Cooperation (SPICe) group at RWTH Aachen University.
Shortly after being manufactured in some factory in China, I quickly embarked on my first big journey to join the lovely SPICe group in Aachen.
Ever since, I am accompanying the group members on their business trips.
So far, excluding my origin in China and Aachen as my chosen home town, I have visited 15 cities, 8 countries, and 4 continents.
When I am not traveling, I am hanging around in our offices and provide occasional cuddles when needed as well as emotional support during tight deadlines. I am a big fan of spicy cuisine and for my taste, dishes cannot be too hot. Try to spot me in the images I took on my trips around the world.
2026
Visit @ UCLouvain
Joined Martin on a road trip to Louvain-la-Neuve to visit our friends at UCLouvain. Got to listen to Martin presenting our research on generalizable and comprehensible intrusion detection and sneaked into a PhD defense where I learned about interesting research on IoT security.
General Assembly of the 6GEM+ Consortium @ Fraunhofer IPT in Aachen
Joined Martin and Sotiris at the first General Assembly of the 6G consortium, hosted at Fraunhofer IPT in Aachen, where we presented our ideas on securing ultra-low-latency communication in 6G networks.
2025
SPICe Group Outing @ Aachen Christmass market
The SPICe group, being devoted fans of Glühwein (and Kinderpunch for the cautious ones), convinced me to join them for a cup, at the Christmas market in Aachen.
CAST IT Security Award 2025 @ Fraunhofer SIT
Joint Martin to support Fidelius and Laurenz at the final round of the CAST IT Security Award 2025, celebrating a strong third place in the Bachelor category and a fourth place in the Master category for our awesome students.
WuWoWAS 2025 @ Wurzburg, Germany
Traveled with Sotiris to Würzburg to participate in the Workshop on 6G Networks.
LCN 2025 @ Sidney, Australlia
Traveled with Stefan to the 50th LCN in Sydney to present our new testbed CoFacS and also listened Martin’s remote presentation on Client-Side Caching for TLS in constrained enviroment, which got nominated for the best paper award!
SPICe Group Outing @ The Woods
Joined the entire SPICe group for a mini-golf game, where Martin proved his skills not only as a team leader. Afterwards, we had a cold-weather barbecue in the woods.
IEEE EuroS&P 2025 @ Ca' Foscari
Survived the heatwave in Venice while helping to present our work on multicast source authentication for communication within vehicles and automated security testing of industrial 5G devices IEEE EuroS&P 2025.
Tag der Informatik @ RWTH Aachen University
Celebrated the graduation of Fidelius, Jonas, Olav, and Zehra to the beats of DJ Joost-Pieter Katoen at this year’s graduation celebration of the computer science department.
WiSec' 2025 @ Arlington, Virginia, USA
Traveled with Jonathan to Arlington to present our paper on assessing the network-layer security overhead in 5G networks at the 18th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks.
Fuse5G 2025
Presented our work on evaluating the impact of 5G security on URLLC at Fuse5G in Bochum, where I met my new friend CASAfant.
2024
PlusMoSmart Final Meeting @ BonnNetz
Listened to exciting presentations of the final results of the PlusMoSmart project and celebrated the successful conclusion of the project together with our project partners and sponsor.
5G-Sierra Final Meeting @ MARPOSS
Vividly demonstrated our results of the 5G-Sierra project at the final project meeting which took place in the facilities of our friends from MARPOSS Monitoring Solutions.
CSNet 2024
Jumped on the train to Paris to present our work on adaptive optimization of TLS overhead for wireless communication in critical infrastructure at CSNet 2024.
Housewarming party @ our new place
Officially inaugurated our new offices with the complete SPICe family, friends, and our new (and old) neighbors. Enjoyed a nice cheeseboard and tasty wine.
USENIX Security 2024 & CSET 2024
Traveled together with Martin and our friends from Fraunhofer FKIE to beautiful Philadelphia to present our work on detecting evasions of SIEM rules at USENIX Security 2024 (for which we won a distinguished artifact award!) and our survey of intrusion detection datasets at CSET 2024. Enjoyed a yummy cheesesteak at reading terminal market.
Moving to our new location
Already prepared to move to our new (temporary) location, it is quite dark and dusty in this box.
Stefan's Wedding
Led the conga line at Stefan’s wedding party in the middle of nowhere.
KoPa_45 Innovation Forum @ BDBOS
Took the night train to Berlin to attend the first innovation forum of the KoPa_45 funding programme hosted by BDBOS.
Tag der Informatik @ RWTH Aachen University
Attended the graduation ceremony of the computer science department to celebrate the outstanding theses of Simon and Stefan.
ACNS 2024
We rocked our research presentation for the 5G Sierra project in the blazing UAE sun. If you ever visit the UAE, expect to find me in your food!
Fuse5G 2024
Traveled to Utrecht (Netherlands) to support Sotiris in presenting the integration of 5G in Production Systems.
2023
DATIpilot Roadshow @ Zeche Zollverein
Traveled to Essen to support Martin and Thomas in pitching our proposal for an innovation project as part of the DATIpilot Roadshow “Innovation on Stage”.
MobiQuitous 2023 @ RMIT University
After 24 hours of flight, I attended MobiQuitous 2023 together with Jörn to present first results from our PlusMoSmart project.
SPICe Group Outing @ Three-country Point
Joined the complete SPICe group to a fun but exhausting hike to the three-country point, where I was in three countries at the same time. Afterwards enjoyed a cozy barbecue in the woods.
5G-Sierra Project Meeting @ Swissbit
Traveled to Berlin to support Thomas and Martin for the 5G-Sierra project meeting which was held at Swissbit AG. Had to wear a hairnet during the extremely exciting tour through their factory.
IEEE EuroS&P 2023 @ TU Delft
Joining Olav and Martin to wonderful Delft in the Netherlands to present our paper on comprehensively analyzing the impact of cyberattacks on power grids at IEEE EuroS&P 2023. Enjoyed fine dutch cuisine and tasty beer.