News
ATHENE project on AI to combat online hate speech: Dr Thea Riebe introduces herself
Hate speech on the internet is on the rise – and AI is set to help identify and combat it more effectively. The CYNTRA project will launch in July 2026 within the ATHENE research area Reliable and Verifiable Information through Secure Media (REVISE). It will be coordinated by Dr. rer nat. Thea Riebe and her colleague Dr. rer. nat. Marc-André Kaufhold, two researchers at TU Darmstadt's group PEASEC – Science and Technology for Peace and Security. In this interview, Thea Riebe introduces herself and her research, and provides insights into the project’s research approach and practical relevance.
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New ATHENE project: Greater security for embedded systems in practice and research
Since the start of the year, ATHENE has been running a new research project entitled ‘Advanced Reverse Engineering Techniques for Embedded and Wireless Systems’ – ARTEWS for short. Until the end of 2029, ATHENE researchers will be working to make the security of embedded systems systematically verifiable – and will be developing complementary tools for this purpose, which will be integrated into a practical toolbox by the end of the project. The target audience comprises small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as academic research groups. The toolbox is designed to help them carry out security analyses in a structured and independent manner.
read moreATHENE researchers have uncovered serious security vulnerabilities in children's smartwatches.
Smartwatches enable children to make calls and send text messages to their parents. Parents can also use the device to track their child's location. Designed for children aged 4–10, these smartwatches serve as an introduction to smartphones. ATHENE researchers from the Secure Mobile Networks (SEEMOO) department at TU Darmstadt, headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Hollick, have examined a children's smartwatch and found that even basic IT security mechanisms were not observed. Doctoral student Nils Rollshausen explains the details of the analysis in an interview.
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From our research: Greater fairness in facial recognition
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Naser Damer and his team at ATHENE are developing innovative methods for fair biometric systems. In this interview, he explains how continuous demographic labels instead of discrete categories reduce bias in facial recognition systems and what role this research plays in trustworthy AI applications.
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ATHENE and IC3 Establish Transatlantic Research Cooperation on Cybersecurity
Goethe University Frankfurt, together with the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) at Cornell Tech, has signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a comprehensive research cooperation within the framework of ATHENE. The agreement creates institutional links between Europe's largest cybersecurity research center and North America's leading blockchain research consortium at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.
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