Digital technologies, Europe and International Relations - Podcasts

Digital technologies, Europe and International Relations

Digital technologies are increasingly recognized as a defining feature of contemporary world affairs. The web, social media, but also blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) affect public engagement and governance at European and international levels. This course explores some impacts of digital technologies on politics and international affairs. It provides some key factual and analytical elements that should contribute to a better understanding and appreciation of this new field of study.

Interviews of experts

Students were asked to interview an expert working in a field related to a topic of this course (e.g. expert in cybersecurity, hacker, AI policy advisor) and make an audio recording in the form of a podcast. Their task was to create a group of 5 students, select the expert, interview him/her, produce and publish the podcast, and finally present the process and main arguments to the class. In association with the career department of the university, this course pays special attention to the professional soft skills acquired by students. You will find on this page the audio recording of the experts' interviews.

Interview of Marcel Zumbühl, CISO of Swiss Post Group

Students : Frank Nydegger, Antonela Bardhoku, Chantal Fabienne Bauhofer, Lynn Morgane Plüss

From 1990 to 1996 Marcel Zumbühl studied Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics and Business Administration at the University of Bern. After his studies, he worked for Accenture, before becoming CIO and later CSO of Swisscom. From 2015 to 2018 he worked for Credit Suisse, first as CISO for Digital Private Banking and later as Global Head of Security Control Steering. Since 2018 he has been working for Swiss Post Group. He has also been active as a lecturer at the ETH Zürich since 2009 and at the University of Lucerne since 2021. Furthermore, since 2019 he has been a board member of Swiss Cyber experts and since 2020, he has been co-president of the Information Security Society Switzerland.

Interview of Fayez Alrafeea, PhD Candidate, Unige

Students : Kamila Ciok, Olha Kropyva, Leonie Liechti

Fayez Alrafeea is a PhD Candidate at the Information Systems Center of the University of Geneva. He is about to finish his PhD and is interested in how fake news affect Social Media and how software are dealing with misinformation. This is why he helped develop the project “Certify”2 to combat fake news, disinformation and misinformation.   

Interview de M. Lissy, Alloboisson

Students : Christian Favre, Yll Shatri & Loïc Nötzel 

Chrys Lissy a 28 ans, et habite à Neuchâtel. Après des études dans l’ingénierie de l’informatique et des systèmes de communication à la Haute école ARC à Neuchâtel, il commence sa carrière en tant que développeur pour Syslog, société fribourgeoise de systèmes d’informations pour entreprises. En parallèle, il exerce à son compte une activité de conseil dans de multiples domaines de l’informatique et développe pour lui programmes et applications mobiles. Il travaille actuellement comme développeur web “full stack” pour la plateforme de e-commerce suisse alloboissons.ch, active dans la vente de boissons avec et sans alcool aux entreprises et aux particuliers. Le groupe Alloboissons basé dans le canton de Fribourg est composé du site de vente en ligne éponyme, de la Halle Aux Boissons, chaine régionale de magasins de vente directe et au détail ainsi que de Les Vins Jules Gex, actif dans le négoce et l’importation de vins et spiritueux.  

Interview de Mohamed Chennoufi, Access Now

Students : Charlotte Blanc, Selima Ben Salah, Eliot Robert Et Noé Lukundula 

Mohamed Chennoufi, est membre de la helpline de l’Organisation Non Gouvernementale (ONG) Access Now, basé dans le bureau de Tunis. Cette ONG a pour but de garantir les droits de l’Homme aux individus, de la même façon que des groupes sécurisent de plus grandes institutions (banques, gouvernements, …).

Interview of Ocean Weber, ARTMYN

Students : Monica Vianna Nunes Da Silva, Caroline Vechiato Guimaraes, Teimo Isarasakdatikul and Eren Sirmen

ARTMYN is a Swiss start-up based in Lausanne that revolutionizing the way art is experienced, promoted and authenticated. Specialized in artwork digitalization, they developed a 5D scanner - an imaging technique combining thousands of photographs captured through different light sources, designed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Working with the biggest institutions in the Art industry, Artmyn is setting new standards in the way Fine Art can be experienced and promoted on screen, via a web browser, accessible from any mobile device. The goal of the company is to « transform Artmyn in a new standard and make our plateforme as a Spotify or Itunes of Art, a field that hasn’t lived his transition into the digital » (Alexandre Catsicas co founder Artmyn).

Interview of Hernâni Marques, CCC Switzerland

Students : Vinicius Marignac, Gautier Chardin, Hoi Ching Lee, Cho Yeung Wong, and Felicitas Murat 

Hernâni Marques is a computational linguist, sociologist, and neuroinformatician active in Switzerland. He is the spokesperson for the CCC Switzerland (CCC-CH), a hacker organization from a civil society between white and grey hat hacking. White hacking is done for private or public interest with permission from the owner while grey hacking revolves around finding vulnerabilities in a private or public system without the previous consent and with a political goal. Furthermore, he is a council member of the p≡p foundation which advocates privacy. There, Hernâni Marques works on creating tools to technically restore privacy. Moreover, he is politically committed to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information. In this podcast, Hernâni Marques shares his job routine as well as his view on encryption, blockchain, mass surveillance, and cybercrime. In the end, he provides some advice for those interested in his field of work.

Interview de Frédéric Bourla, SCRT

Students : Sarah Hammoud, Al Hamadani Mohammed, Hans Huber, Alakhras Mohamad

Frédéric Bourla est le chef de la division analytique à SCRT. SCRT est spécialisé dans la sécurité des systèmes d’information ainsi que le hacking éthique (le hacking non malveillant). L’entreprise propose notamment des audits intrusifs, des conseils en défense informatique et de l'intégration de solutions spécialisées. SCRT est basée à Morges.

Interview of Marcus Michaelsen, Vrije University

Students : Tsering Gonpa & Chun Yin Wong

Marcus Michaelsen is a researcher at LSTS research Group at Vrije University7 in Brussels. His research focuses on the intersection of Digital Technologies, Human Rights Activism and Authoritarianism. As represented in his current project "Digiact", funded by an EU fellowship, he investigates digital surveillance and transnational repression against exiled dissidents and Human Right defenders.