"When I came to Germany two years ago, I knew that I would be working at one of the best research centers in the world. What I didn't know was how good the students are here"

But let’s start at the beginning: After the musical opening of the ceremony, Prof. Alex May (Chair of Cryptanalysis) leads through the evening and has plenty of words of appreciation in addition to anecdotes and tips for the future. In his speech, Dean Prof. Gregor Leander (Chair of Symmetric Cryptography) also bids farewell to the graduates with best wishes, emphasizes their achievements and expresses his pride.

Of course, the main players should also be heard. For the specially produced graduate video, the Audimax is transformed into a movie theater. The students in the video, who later turn out to be the best performers on their degree course, review their beginnings at RUB. They talk about how impressive the large campus is for first-year students, how they made friends for their entire time at RUB during Freshers’ Week and which places are now among their favorites. They also talk about the challenges and successes during their final theses and reveal their plans for the future.

The big highlight of the ceremony, however, remains the honoring of the graduates. To prolonged applause from their families, friends and companions, they are called to the stage one course at a time to receive their congratulations.

Shortly before the end of the official part of the event, things get exciting again. For the second time, the student body presents a prize for outstanding teaching, the Excellent Teaching Award. Yuval Yarom is honored in the category of mandatory modules for his course “Computer Architecture”, in which he introduces around 400 students to the structure and functionality of modern computers. In his acceptance speech, he was impressed by the motivation and performance of the students: “When I came to Germany two years ago, I knew that I would be working at one of the best research centers in the world. What I didn’t know was how good the students are here”. There was also a very happy winner in the elective module category. Dr.-Ing. Max Hoffmann came out on top against more than 30 professors with “Software Implementation of Cryptographic Procedures” as an external lecturer and enthusiastically emphasized that there is no greater recognition for him than the appreciation of his teaching by the student body.