Pia Hanfeld

Pia Hanfeld is a PhD student in the Machine Learning and Security (MLSEC) group at BIFOLD, jointly supervised by Prof. Wolfgang Hönig at the IMRC Lab, TU Berlin. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in General and Digital Forensics and a Master’s degree in Cybercrime/Cybersecurity from the University of Applied Sciences Mittweida. During her Master’s program, she spent two semesters at the University of Wrocław, where she focused on Deep Learning and completed her Master’s thesis.

Pia began her doctoral research at the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), an institute of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) located in her hometown of Görlitz.

During her time at CASUS, she collaborated with colleagues across the Helmholtz centers in Saxony to establish one of three Jugend hackt AI Labs, serving as Lab Lead for three years. These labs provide teenagers (ages 12–18) with hands-on technical education covering everything from programming to 3D printing and soldering.

Additionally, Pia served as a member of the Life and Technology (L&T) committee. In this role, she reviewed and evaluated project proposals for funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) to support structural development across the Lusatia region.