Christoph Meinel (born April 14, 1954 in
Meißen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechts ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) is a German computer scientist and professor of Internet technologies and systems at the
Hasso Plattner Institute
The Hasso Plattner Institute (Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Digital Engineering gGmbH), abbreviated HPI, is a German information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, an ...
(HPI) of the
University of Potsdam
The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...
. In the years 2004 to 2023 he was the scientific director and CEO of the HPI and has developed the
openHPI learning platform with more than 1 million enrolled learners. In 2019, he was appointed to th
New Internet IPv6 Hall of Fame
Professional life
Meinel studied mathematics and computer science at the
Humboldt-University of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
from 1974 to 1979, received his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) there in 1981, on questions of complexity theory, and habilitated (Dr. sc. nat.) in 1988, with the paper Modified branching programs and their computational power. After German reunification, he held visiting positions at the universities of
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
and
Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
.
From 1992 to 2004, he was Professor of Theoretical Concepts and New Applications in Computer Science at the
University of Trier
The University of Trier (german: Universität Trier), in the German city of Trier, was founded in 1473. Closed in 1798 by order of the then French administration in Trier, the university was re-established in 1970 after a hiatus of some 172 y ...
. From 1996 to 2002, he was founding director of the Institute for Telematics e. V. in Trier, which, under the supervision of the
Fraunhofer Society
The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...
, dealt with issues in the field of Internet and Web technologies. From 1995 to 2007, he was a member of the scientific board of directors of the International Meeting and Research Center for Computer Science
IBFI Schloss Dagstuhl. He was Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the
University of Luxembourg
The University of Luxembourg ( French: ''Université du Luxembourg''; German: ''Universität Luxemburg''; Luxembourgish: ''Universitéit Lëtzebuerg'') is a public research university in Luxembourg.
History
The University of Luxembourg was foun ...
(2002–2010), is Honorary Professor at the School of Computer Sciences at
Beijing University of Technology
Beijing University of Technology (), also called Beijing Polytechnic University or Bei Gong Da (), is recognized as one of the Project 211 universities. The university has established a multidisciplinary academic structure, offering a variety ...
, and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Shanghai and Dalian.
In the years from 2004 to 2023, Meinel was the Institute Director and CEO of the
Hasso Plattner Institute
The Hasso Plattner Institute (Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Digital Engineering gGmbH), abbreviated HPI, is a German information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, an ...
for Digital Engineering (HPI) in Potsdam and holds th
Chair of Internet Technologies and Systems From 2017 to 2021, he was founding dean of the Faculty of Digital Engineering at the
University of Potsdam
The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...
. Meinel is a member of
acatech
Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering (german: Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften) on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of German technical sciences independe ...
, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, and serves on the Board of Governors of the
Technion in Haifa, among many other academic bodies. He is a teacher at th
HPI School of Design Thinkingand on the MOOC platform
openHPI.
Research focus
Christoph Meinel's work initially focused on theoretical computer science, and here on
complexity theory and
Binary Decision Diagrams
In computer science, a binary decision diagram (BDD) or branching program is a data structure that is used to represent a Boolean function. On a more abstract level, BDDs can be considered as a compressed representation of sets or relations. Un ...
. Later, he worked on Internet technologies, IT security, and digital education and new forms of teaching and learning on the Internet, such as tele-teaching and e-learning wit
tele-TASKand openHPI. He then conducted research o
issues, such as the high-security network protection Lock-Keeper, protection against unwanted and offensive content, and security in service-based architectures with applications in telemedicine. He is also scientifically engaged i
issues on the Internet and new forms of Internet-based teaching and learnin
tele-TASK In 2008–2022, together with Larry Leifer he was program director of th
HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program(HPDTRP).
The first European MOOCs platfor
openHPI which Meinel initiated and developed under his leadership, offers free interactive online courses on topics related to digital education and technologies. More than 1 million learners from around the world are enrolled () and can also earn qualified certificates for successful completion of online courses. In the process, the identity of course participants is verified via webcam and online learning opportunities and certifications are given weight. The openHPI platform is now also used by other partners, such a
openWHOopenSAPLERNEN.cloudKI-Campuso
eGov-Campus
Meinel is also involved in the area of digital education in schools and chairs nationwide working groups that develop concepts and secure digital working environments for learning in the future. The "Bildungscloud" and in particular th
enables a low-threshold and data protection-compliant access to digital educational offerings in German schools. Th
which was funded by the German federal ministry of education and Researc
and developed under Meinel's leadership in the years 2016–2021, is now operated by Dataport AöR and is in use in many thousands of schools in all German states, especially Thuringia, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony. Students and teachers can use it to access digital teaching resources in the classroom, communicate digitally, securely store and exchange texts, presentations and data, and access educational software from the Internet pseudonymously.
Meinel holds several international patents (for example Lock-Keeper) and has developed, among others, the tele-teaching syste
tele-TASK the online collaboration tool Tele-Board or the very popula
ID-Leak-Checkerservice.
Publishing and editorial work
Meinel is author, co-author, or editor o
Among these are "Blogoshere and its Exploration",
"Internetworking",
"Digitale Kommunikation",
"WWW – Kommunikation, Internetworking, Web-Technologien",
"Design Thinking – Innovation lernen, Ideenwelten öffnen",
"Mathematische Grundlagen der Informatik",
"Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen im VLSI-Design. OBDDs – Grundlagen und Anwendungen",
and of various conference proceedings.
Meinel has published more than 700 per-reviewe
in international scientific journals and conferences. He holds various international patents (e.g. Lock-Keeper,
tele-TASK, and Teleboard).
Meinel is editor of the book serie
Understanding Innovationpublished by Springer-Verlag, the scientific online journals ECCC and ECDTR, th
In 1994, he was the initiator and co-founder of the online journal on complexity theory ECCC – Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity and its editor-in-chief until 2016.
MOOCs and Teleteaching
Man
lectures and lecture series of Christoph Meinel are recorded and freely accessible on the Internet via the tele-TASK portal. In 2012 his team designed the first European
MOOC
A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, m ...
platform
openHPI which provides many free online courses in the field of IT-technologies. He also offers variou
massive open online courses for example on Blockchains, Internet Security for Beginners, Internet and Web Technologies with about 10.000 enrolled learners each. As a chairman of various Cloud-Learning initiatives Christoph Meinel leads innovations in the field of the digital transformation of the German schools and education sector. With projects such as "Bildungscloud" and "
Schul-Cloud"
he promote the use of digital media in schools and other educational instances.
References
External links
Personal HomepageMOOCs platform of HPItele-TASK portal - archive of more than 5.000 lecture videosGerman IPv6 CouncilECDTR - The Electronic Colloqium on Design Thinking Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meinel, Christoph
Living people
Academic staff of the University of Potsdam
20th-century German inventors
German computer scientists
1954 births
German male writers