Lectures, courses, mentoring

Education

We make science and applied technology accessible to both expert and general audiences — through lectures, courses, workshops and doctoral mentorship.

Who it is for

Our educational activities are aimed at:

Forms of education

Lectures and workshops

We regularly organise expert lectures and practical workshops on current IOAS research topics — from distributed fibre-optic sensing to virtual reality in public health. Lectures are given by researchers who publish and apply their findings in practice.

Conferences and panels

We regularly take part in international conferences as both speakers and panel organisers. An example is the talk “Next-Gen Methods in NDT” at the ATG conference (November 2025).

Mentoring of doctoral students and graduates

We provide associate members with mentorship for:

Consulting for municipalities

Practical expert consulting for mayors, municipal officials and IT managers in cybersecurity, IoT and Smart City. The goal: building resilient and transparent digital infrastructure even in smaller municipalities.

Open publications

Our news section publishes detailed descriptions of projects and scientific results in plain language — freely available so they serve not only members, but also students, journalists and anyone interested.

Topics

Catalogue of professional courses

Seven structured courses for companies, public administration and professionals — from cyber security to generative design and botnets. Every course ends with an IOAS certificate carrying a verifiable ID in an online register. Prices exclude VAT; we grant a 10 % discount for 10+ participants from one company and 15 % for 20+.

Dates open according to demand. If a course interests you, click I am interested in a date — your e-mail is enough and we will come back with the nearest option. It commits you to nothing; binding registration is available once you know the date.

Cyber security €299 / person

Cyber security — practical aspects with real demonstrations

A two-day intensive training with live demonstrations of attacks and defence in a controlled environment.

Duration
2 days · 16 hours
Level
Beginner — Intermediate
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Min. participants
10 people
Format
In person / hybrid · Bratislava or on site
Included
Materials, lunch, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • IT administrators, helpdesk and system engineers
  • Heads of IT departments and CISOs without deep technical background
  • Security coordinators in companies falling under NIS2 / Act No. 69/2018 Coll.
  • Employees working with sensitive data

What you take away

  • Hands-on experience with phishing, social engineering and their prevention
  • An understanding of the most common vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10, ransomware vectors)
  • A ready "first 30 days" action plan

Programme (2 days × 8 h)

  1. The cyber-threat landscape 2026 — statistics, trends, the economics of cybercrime
  2. A live phishing campaign — preparation, tuning, delivery
  3. Ransomware for real — anatomy of an attack, an encryption demo in a sandbox, negotiation
  4. Social engineering — phone calls, pretexting, OSINT
  5. Defence 1 — segmentation, MFA, EDR/XDR, 3-2-1 backup
  6. Defence 2 — a security-awareness programme, policies, incidents
  7. Tabletop incident simulation (group work)
  8. Drawing up an individual action plan + Q&A

Methodology: 30 % theory / 50 % live demonstrations in a laboratory environment / 20 % group exercises. Free cancellation 14 days in advance.

GDPR · Audit €199 / person

GDPR audit — practical aspects

How to actually run a data-protection audit in a company — from mapping processing operations to corrective measures.

Duration
1 day · 8 hours
Level
Intermediate
Lecturer
Roman Václav, MBA
Min. participants
8 people
Format
In person / online · Bratislava or on site
Included
Templates, materials, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • DPOs and data-protection coordinators
  • Compliance managers, lawyers and internal auditors
  • HR directors and marketing managers processing client and employee data
  • Consultants providing GDPR services to third parties

What you take away

  • A GDPR audit-plan template including checklists
  • A model record of processing activities (Art. 30 GDPR)
  • A practical DPIA assessment methodology with a decision tree
  • The IOAS certificate "GDPR Audit Practitioner"

Programme (1 day × 8 h, four 90-minute blocks)

  1. The current state of GDPR — decisions of the Slovak DPA and the EDPB, the highest fines 2024–2026
  2. Mapping processing operations — a workshop (HR, marketing, e-shop)
  3. DPIA in practice — when it is mandatory, how to run it, what the record must contain
  4. Rights of data subjects — case studies of complaints, deadlines
  5. Closing: consultation on specific cases + certificate

Methodology: 60 % workshop on real anonymised cases, 40 % theory. Free cancellation 7 days in advance.

Audit · NIS2 €599 / person

How to prepare for a cyber-security audit in 10 days

A crisis sprint programme for companies that have been notified of an upcoming cyber-security audit and need to cover the maximum of risks pragmatically.

Duration
3 days · 24 hours (intensive)
Level
Advanced · Intensive
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Max. participants
12 people
Format
In person · Bratislava / on site
Included
30 days of e-mail support from the lecturer after the course
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • CISOs, cyber-security managers and IT directors in entities under NIS2
  • Companies with an announced audit from SK-CERT / the National Security Authority or an external auditor
  • Compliance managers who need to turn an ISMS into auditable form quickly
  • Consultants delivering audit-readiness services

What you take away

  • A complete 10-day crisis preparation plan with a daily checklist
  • A set of model documents (policies, directives, risk and asset registers)
  • A corrective-action tracking template (POA&M)
  • The IOAS certificate "Audit Readiness Specialist"

Programme (3 days × 8 h)

  1. Anatomy of a cyber-security audit — what the auditor asks and what they verify
  2. Workshop — rapid asset inventory and data classification
  3. Sprint on mandatory documentation (policies, directives, continuity plans)
  4. Risks and measures — risk analysis, mapping to ISO/IEC 27001 Annex A
  5. Technical controls — patching, MFA, logging, backups, segmentation
  6. Dress rehearsal — a simulated interview with an auditor

Methodology: 70 % practical document work and exercises, 30 % theory. We recommend bringing data about your own organisation. Free cancellation 14 days in advance.

Engineering · CAD €2,920 / person

Applied specifics of generative design in electrical engineering

An advanced five-day course for engineers who want to use generative design for electromechanical assemblies, heat sinks, enclosures and conductive structures.

Duration
5 days · 40 hours
Level
Advanced · Specialised
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Max. participants
8 people
Format
In person · Bratislava (FEI STU)
Included
90-day cloud licence, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • Designers of electrical equipment and R&D engineers
  • Mechatronics and embedded developers designing their physical enclosures
  • Designers of cooling, antennas and shielding structures
  • Product development managers

What you take away

  • The practical ability to use generative design in Fusion 360 / nTopology / Altair Inspire
  • Your own case-study project (a heat sink or enclosure from brief to production documentation)
  • An understanding of the constraints of additive manufacturing (DfAM) for metals and polymers
  • A library of your own parametric blocks
  • The IOAS certificate "Generative Design — Electrical Engineering Practitioner"

Programme (5 days × 8 h)

  1. Principles of generative design, topology optimisation, lattice structures
  2. Defining objectives, constraints and loads (EMC, thermal, mechanical)
  3. Thermal management — passive and active heat sinks, CFD simulation
  4. Design of lightweight load-bearing structures and enclosures, integration with electrics
  5. Validation, preparation for 3D printing (SLM, MJF), project presentations

Methodology: 70 % hands-on, 20 % consultation on your own projects, 10 % theory. Prerequisite: experience with parametric CAD. Laptop with a GPU of at least 4 GB.

DSP · Signals €1,490 / person

Modern methods of complex signal processing

A three-day technical course on processing multidimensional and non-stationary signals — from classical Fourier analysis to wavelet and deep-learning methods.

Duration
3 days · 24 hours
Level
Advanced · Technical
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Max. participants
10 people
Format
In person / online · Bratislava / Košice
Included
A library of Jupyter notebooks, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • DSP engineers, embedded developers and FPGA designers
  • R&D staff in telecommunications, radar, acoustics and vibration
  • Data scientists working with time series and sensor data
  • Predictive-maintenance engineers

What you take away

  • An understanding of when to use FFT, STFT, wavelet and Hilbert-Huang transforms
  • Practical Python skills (numpy, scipy, librosa, pywavelets, pyTorch)
  • The ability to design a hybrid DSP + ML pipeline
  • The IOAS certificate "Advanced Signal Processing Practitioner"

Programme (3 days × 8 h)

  1. Sampling, aliasing, spectral analysis, leakage, windows
  2. STFT and spectrograms — the limits of time-frequency resolution
  3. Practical exercise — bearing vibration, fault identification
  4. Wavelet transform (CWT, DWT, packet)
  5. EMD and the Hilbert-Huang transform for non-linear signals
  6. Practical exercise — analysis of an ECG / EEG record
  7. Deep learning for signals — 1D CNN, transformers, self-supervised
  8. Hybrid approaches — DSP feature engineering + ML classification
  9. Capstone — your own dataset

Methodology: Hands-on Jupyter, 30 % theory, 70 % coding. Prerequisites: basics of Python and linear algebra. The price is indicative — we confirm it before booking.

AI · Managerial €99 / person

Introducing artificial intelligence in your company effectively

A half-day strategic workshop for managers and owners — how to identify the ROI of AI, avoid the typical mistakes and start a pilot within 30 days.

Duration
Half a day · 4 hours
Level
Beginner — Managerial
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Min. participants
5 people
Format
Online (MS Teams) / in person (Bratislava)
Included
Templates, recording, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • Owners, executives and directors of small and medium companies
  • Managers of operations, marketing, finance and HR
  • Project managers before their first AI project
  • Consultants working on digitalisation

What you take away

  • A map of typical AI use cases by sector with an ROI estimate
  • A template for quickly assessing your own AI idea (canvas + checklist)
  • An overview of ready AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini)
  • A compliance checklist (AI Act, GDPR, copyright)
  • The IOAS certificate "AI Implementation Awareness"

Programme (half a day × 4 h, four 60-minute blocks)

  1. AI without the hype — what today's models can and cannot do
  2. 25 real use cases — sales, marketing, operations, HR, finance · live demos
  3. Workshop — identifying 3 opportunities in your own company + canvas assessment
  4. Risks, regulation (AI Act, GDPR), choosing a supplier, a "first 30 days" action plan

Methodology: A managerial format without programming. 40 % lecture, 40 % workshop, 20 % discussion. Free cancellation 5 days in advance.

Botnets · SOC €699 / person

Botnets — theory and practice

An in-depth two-day course on the anatomy, life cycle and defence against botnets — from classic IRC networks to modern IoT and P2P architectures, with demonstrations in an isolated laboratory.

Duration
2 days · 16 hours
Level
Advanced · Technical
Lecturer
Branislav Anwarzai
Participants
6 – 10 people
Format
In person · Bratislava
Included
YARA rules, IOC sets, IOAS certificate
Programme, who it is for and what you take away

Who it is for

  • SOC analysts, incident responders and threat hunters
  • Network administrators and security engineers at ISPs and hosting companies
  • Malware researchers and CSIRT/CERT staff
  • Cyber-security auditors focused on DDoS, credential theft and cryptomining

What you take away

  • An understanding of botnet architectures (centralised, P2P, fast-flux, DGA)
  • Detection of C2 communication in network traffic
  • Experience analysing bot malware in a sandbox
  • A set of IOCs and YARA rules for known botnet families
  • Procedures for takedown and coordination with SK-CERT
  • The IOAS certificate "Botnet Analyst Practitioner"

Programme (2 days × 8 h)

  1. Definition, life cycle and history (Storm, Mariposa, Mirai, Emotet, TrickBot, Mēris)
  2. C2 architectures — IRC, HTTP(S), DNS tunnelling, P2P, DGA, fast-flux
  3. Infection vectors — exploit kits, IoT brute force, supply chain, drive-by
  4. Live demonstration — analysis of a Mirai variant in an isolated lab
  5. Detection — NetFlow, anomalous DNS, beaconing patterns, JA3/JA4
  6. Exercise — writing YARA and Suricata rules, finding C2 in a PCAP
  7. Defence — segmentation, sinkholing, DNS RPZ, EDR/NDR, MISP/OpenCTI
  8. Takedown and legal aspects — SK-CERT, ICANN, registrars, Act No. 300/2005 Coll.

Methodology: 40 % theory, 50 % hands-on (samples, rules, PCAP), 10 % discussion. Virtualised lab (REMnux + FLARE VM). Prerequisites: networking knowledge, Linux basics, your own laptop with VirtualBox/VMware Workstation and at least 16 GB RAM.

E-learning courses

In preparation

We are preparing online versions of selected courses — self-paced, with practical assignments, a knowledge check and the same IOAS certificate with a verifiable ID as the in-person format. We will publish the launch date once the first course passes internal review.

Would you like to be notified at launch, or do you need an in-house online course sooner? Let us know

General terms and benefits

Interested?

Are you planning an event, a course or a lecture and looking for an expert? Write to us:

director@ioas.pro · +421 903 667 654

Or fill in the contact form.