Learning from Biological Intelligence for Complex Technical Systems

Mandy Balthasar works as a researcher and lecturer at Universität der Bundeswehr München, at Institute for Software Technology, and at Usable Security and Privacy Group at Research Institute for Cyber Defence (CODE). She is also PhD student at University of Passau, at Chair of Computer Science, with a focus on Distributed Information Systems.

Her research, focuses on understanding and designing mechanisms for collective decision making and collective behavior, both in artificial and living collectives.

Previously, as an IT consultant, she has worked on projects in management, human-computer interaction and software engineering in the field of IT and information security.

She laid the foundations by training in civil and criminal law, a degree in the judiciary of the state of Baden-Württemberg, a Bachelor in Information Science, and a Master of Science in Computer Science.

She is lecturer at various universities in the German-speaking world, as well as for Springer Nature Campus.

For several years she has been on the road as head of the working groups for Usable Security & Privacy and Human-Centered Design & Ethics of German UPA and is involved in numerous national and international technology associations, such as ACM, GI, ISACA, UPA and others.

This results in a special focus of her engagement on the human-centered areas of information technology: security and society. In addition, she is studying ethics in the master’s degree program at Munich School of Philosophy .