The jury awarded the winner for his dedication, engagement with students and overall contribution to the course "Introduction to Security".
Another year, another appreciation of our teachers! We're happy to share that Martin Řepa has been awarded with the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. This recognition celebrates his exceptional contributions to the Introduction to Security course.
Martin’s tenure during the Winter/Summer Semester 2024/2025 was defined by a deep-seated passion for the subject and a commitment to innovative instruction. His ability to create a safe, dynamic, and highly engaging classroom environment has left a lasting impression on his students and peers alike.
In appreciation of his dedication and the high standard of excellence he brought to the program, Martin has been awarded a 15,000 CZK scholarship.
What do you like most about teaching?
That moment when you know it all makes sense. We opened our Introduction to Security course to the public two years ago, and since then I’ve met many alumni in my life outside the university who told me how much they loved it. This recognition has a great value to me and gives me motivation to give 100% every year.
What makes a good teacher?
I would say a passion for the topic makes a good teacher. Passion is what keeps you learning and helps you find ways to share knowledge in a clear, motivating way. You can usually tell within seconds if any speaker is genuinely excited about the field and it makes a huge difference. I feel lucky in this case because security is both my hobby and my professional focus.
How is your approach different compared to other teachers?
I don't really know all my fellow teachers, but I try to constantly put myself in the students’ shoes and think about how it feels to listen to the lecture or read the materials. At the same time, not every student thinks like I do, which is why I love that our teaching team is international with a lot of passion and different teaching styles to accommodate all students.
What advice would you give to fellow teachers?
Don’t forget to enjoy the process, and keep learning along the way. Also, step back sometimes and think about the big picture: how the world is changing, what students actually need and how to adapt to deliver the most value to students.
About the course:
Our course has been open to the public for two years with great success. The upcoming winter semester will be the third year. Anyone can register and follow the class for free, either in person in Prague or remotely from anywhere in the world, as all classes are streamed and recorded. Registration will open soon, so I recommend following the Stratosphere LinkedIn account and our website.
We have also developed a unique open-source project for the class called StratoCyberLab, which allows anyone to practice both attacking and defending security skills on their own computer locally. Anyone can run the cyberrange locally and hack our challenges or contribute. This project allows remote students or anyone to follow our classes and try all our hands-on examples in an environment created specifically for our class mimicking the real world.
