The Future-IoT Summer School is a Franco-German initiative at the intersection of research, education, and industry, fostering innovation and cross-border collaboration.

Now in its 7th edition, it has established itself as a key platform for scientific exchange between young researchers, industry experts, and leading academics.
This year’s theme, “Secure Smart Regions,” addresses the growing role of IoT in shaping resilient, efficient, and sustainable regions. With applications ranging from smart governance and infrastructure to environmental monitoring and emergency services, the topic is both timely and impactful.

Participants will explore cutting-edge security, scalability, and data management challenges essential for building trustworthy IoT ecosystems. Our didactical approach combines high-level keynotes, masterclasses, hands-on workshops, and a hackathon, ensuring interactive learning and real- world application.

A strong Franco-German and European dimension is reflected in the diverse participant base, binational mentorship, and intercultural networking activities. With a hybrid format, we extend our reach globally, reinforcing the French-German leadership in digital transformation and IoT innovation.

The Summer School will take place in Scharbeutz near Timmendorfer Strand (Germany) on August 20 – 26, 2025

The program provides a unique mix of networking events with keynotes, hands-on sessions, and social events!

20.8.2025 Wednesday

Morning: Setup / Check-In

14h00 [K] Welcome and Opening, Prof. Dr. Marc-Oliver Pahl (IMT Atlantique) / Prof. Dr. Sebastian Steinhorst (TUM))

14h30 [K] “Secure Smart Regions”, Prof. Dr. Marc-Oliver Pahl (IMT Atlantique) / Prof. Dr. Sebastian Steinhorst (TUM))

15h30 [P] PhD Madness (2 min per student/poster)

17h00 Presentation of the Challenges for the week

20h00 Joint Dinner

21.8.2025 Thursday

09h00 [K] Keynote 2

10h00 [H] Working on Challenges

12h00 Lunch

14h00 [K] Keynote 3

15h00 [P] Poster Session

16h00 [H] Working on Challenges / Hackathon 

19h00 [M] Hacknight with Pizza (until 23h)

22.8.2025 Friday

09h00 [K] Keynote 4

10h00 [H] Working on Challenges / Hackathon 

12h00 Lunch

14h00 [K] Keynote 5

15h00 [H] Working on Challenges / Hackathon 

19h00 [M] Makeathon Hacknight with Asian Food (until 23h)

23.8.202 Saturday

09h00 [K] Keynote 6

10h00 [H] Working on Challenges

12h00 Lunch

14h00 [S] Visit of something around the smart region Ost Holstein (Heiko Nowak) 

19h00 Joint Dinner

24.8.2025 Sunday

10h00 Wattwanderung/ …

15h00 Aquarium/ Boat/ …

19h00 Joint dinner

10h00 [S] Wattwanderung

15h00 [S] Aquarium / Boat

19h00 Joint Dinner

25.8.2025 Monday

09h00 [K] Keynote 7

10h00 [H] Working on Challenges

12h00 Lunch

14h00 [K] Keynote 8

15h00 [H] Working on Challenges

19h00 [H] Hacknight with Burger (until 23h)

26.8.2025 Tuesday

09h00 [K] Keynote 9 (typically from a member from the external jury)

10h00 [H] Challenges / Finalizing the presentations 

12h00 Lunch

14h00 Presentation of the jury

14h30 Project pitches in front of the international jury

16h00 Jury discussion

16h30 Closing event with recap of the week and winner coronation ceremony

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Color Coding:

[K] Keynote

[P] PhD Networking

[H] challenges

[S] Social Event

Food

You will find the challenges here asap.

The Summer School Future IoT “Secure Smart Regions” will take place in Scharbeutz near Timmendorfer Strand (Germany) on August 20 – 26, 2025!

The venue is ZEITLOS – Hotel Garni Haffkrug
(https://www.zeitlos-haffkrug.de/)

Address: Sierksdorfer Weg 1, 23683 Scharbeutz, Germany

Organizers

Marc-Oliver Pahl, Ph.D., IMT Atlantique, France (Expert Cybersecurity)

Prof. Dr. Marc-Oliver Pahl heads the industrial Chair Cybersecurity for Critical Networked Infrastructures (cyberCNI.fr) at IMT Atlantique Rennes, France. The chair hosts 18 professors, 9 PhDs, 4 PostDocs, and multiple engineers and interns. Marc-Oliver is an adjunct professor of Carleton University in Canada. Marc-Oliver is Vice President of the German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (germany.acm.org). He heads the Future Education activities of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future (future-industry.org). Marc-Oliver’s research focuses on a holistic approach to cybersecurity with an emphasis on collaborative approaches including VR-based cybersecurity interfaces and federated learning. He is an experienced teacher and an eLearning pioneer, holding several teaching awards. He continuously hosts events for larger audience such as the TALK.CYBERcni.fr speaker series and the future-iot.org PhD school series.

Sebastian Steinhorst, PhD, Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany

Sebastian Steinhorst is professor for Embedded Systems and Internet of Things at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of TUM. The research of Prof. Steinhorst centers around design methodology and the hardware/software co-design of distributed embedded systems for use in Internet of Things, automotive and smart energy applications.

Olivia Pahl, Project Manager Cyber Accelerator at IMT, France

Olivia Pahl is Head of Education Projects at the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future (GFA) at IMT in France, and Project Manager for the Cyber Accelerator, a national program supporting the internationalization of French cybersecurity startups. Before moving to France, she led the communications department at the Institute for Societal Development (FGW) in Düsseldorf, Germany.

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Speakers and Challenge Providers (alphabetical given name)

Mohammad Hamad, Technical University of Munich

Mohammad Hamad is a Research Group Leader for Security for IoT and Automotive Systems at the Associate Professorship of Embedded Systems and Internet of Things at the Technical University of Munich.

Marc-Oliver Pahl, Ph.D., IMT Atlantique, France (Expert Cybersecurity)

Prof. Dr. Marc-Oliver Pahl heads the industrial Chair Cybersecurity for Critical Networked Infrastructures (cyberCNI.fr) at IMT Atlantique Rennes, France. The chair hosts 18 professors, 9 PhDs, 4 PostDocs, and multiple engineers and interns. Marc-Oliver is an adjunct professor of Carleton University in Canada. Marc-Oliver is Vice President of the German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (germany.acm.org). He heads the Future Education activities of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future (future-industry.org). Marc-Oliver’s research focuses on a holistic approach to cybersecurity with an emphasis on collaborative approaches including VR-based cybersecurity interfaces and federated learning. He is an experienced teacher and an eLearning pioneer, holding several teaching awards. He continuously hosts events for larger audience such as the TALK.CYBERcni.fr speaker series and the future-iot.org PhD school series.

Laurent Toutain, IMT Atlantique and Co-Founder of Acklio, France

Laurent Toutain is a Professor with the IMT Atlantique Graduate Engineering School and a Co-founder and a Scientific Advisor of Acklio. He worked for several years on IPv6 and participated in the creation of the G6 group, which has been gathering researchers and industrialists around IPv6 since 1995. His current research focuses on protocols and architectures specific to IoT’s needs. From 2011 to 2015, he managed the Smart Grid competence center shared by Télécom Bretagne, Texas Instruments, and ITRON. He is the author of several books on networks.

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Communication

Samira Franzel, Science Communication Specialist at Einstein Center Digital Future, Germany

Samira Franzel has been responsible for science communication at the Einstein Center Digital Future since 2021. She studied American Studies and Political Science at the University of Mannheim, the Free University of Berlin, and the University of Copenhagen. In recent years, she has worked at the Graduate School for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, the Goethe Institute, and the Sarah Wiener Foundation, among others.

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Staff

Sandrine Frouin, Assistante du Département SRCD at IMT Atlantique, France

Erkin Kirdan, M.Sc., TU München, Germany

Research Associate at the IOT Smart Space Team at TU München.

Christian Lübben, M.Sc., TU München, Germany (Expert IoT)

Christian Lübben is a research associate and PhD student at the chair of Network Architectures and Services at Technical University of Munich. Within the Internet of Things (IoT) Smart Space Orchestration (S2O) team his research focus lies on optimizing IoT smart spaces using Artificial Intelligence (AI) based advanced data analytics. The S2O team works on new ways of taming the complexity of the IoT. The goal is making a joint orchestration as simple as writing a smartphone App. Challenges include security, usability, resilience, scalability, and performance.