Youth research 2017Young researchers selected
The winners of the 2017 national final of Jugend forscht have been announced: at the end of May, Federal Education Minister Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka presented awards to the best young researchers. Computer&AUTOMATION presents the national winners in computer science and technology, including special prize winners.
Marcel Ullrich and Christopher Pfeiffer, both 18 years old, made encrypted data communication their own. Secure encryption requires random numbers - similar to the lottery. Generating these by computer is not easy. However, the two young researchers have succeeded in doing just that: They amplified the noise of a diode and analyzed it with a microcomputer. The trick: as the noise is generated by quantum effects, its generation is naturally subject to pure chance. The two used the resulting numbers for a new type of data encryption based on neural networks. This year, Ullrich and Pfeiffer have been awarded the prize for original work in the field of computer science.