Dr. Seppo Virtanen is an Associate Professor in Cyber Security Engineering and Vice Head of Department of Computing, the University of Turku, Finland. He received his MSc in applied physics (electronics and information technology) in 1998 and his PhD [DSc(Tech)] in Communication Systems in 2004 from the University of Turku. In 2009, he was awarded the title of adjunct professor (dosentti) in Embedded Communication Systems. He completed his certificate in university pedagogy in 2010 and became a holder of the government decree regulated teacher's competence and qualification. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He has supervised more than 130 Master’s theses and taught more than 70 instances of 23 different university courses to engineering students as principal instructor. His current research interests are on cyber security in smart environments, secure network and communication technology and security technologies for IoT.

Our core in research is communication and cyber security technologies in three application domains:

• Autonomous vehicles and traffic
• Smart city and cyber society
• Health and well-being
  
  Communication System and Cyber ​​Security research in our lab concentrates on studying technologies for networked systems and applications of the communication-intensive future from the engineering and human points of view. The strategic goal of our research is to apply research and technological development to building a secure information society. We consider the basic elements for human well-being as the most fundamental drivers for pursuing this strategic goal, in which the technology-driven and human-driven development directions meet. This is pursued with an interdisciplinary approach, where innovations create active interaction between traditional scientific areas.
  

Our lab has the main educational responsibility in two Master’s level major programs, of which one has a double degree option within the EIT Digital Master School. We also teach several courses in our undergraduate program and Collaborate with foreign institutions in implementing educational partnership degree programs.

Master's degree majors:

• Cyber ​​Security: The major focus is on Researching cyber security technologies developed for networked systems and applications of the communication-Intensive future. The technological topics covered include security of smart environments, system and network security, security of communication systems and applications, and designing secure systems.
  
• EIT Digital Master School Cyber ​​Security, Security of Networked Systems: this is a double degree implementation of the UTU Cyber ​​Security major in the EIT Digital Master School. The EIT Digital Master School is a two-year Master’s program jointly run by 20 top European Universities, renowned researchers, and leading businesses. The program leads to a double degree and an EIT labeled Certificate. The Cyber ​​Security major acts as both an entry site and an exit site for the EIT Master School. The students start their cyber security studies in one of the Universities offering the entry year studies and move to another university in another country for the exit (specialization) year. In the field of cyber security, the cyber security major subject at UTU is the only degree program in Finland to participate in the EIT Digital Master School.
  
• Communication and Cyber ​​Security Engineering: this major is officially taught in Finnish, although in most courses, the teaching language is English. The major is part of the degree program “Degree Program in Information and Communication Technology”. The course-level implementation is more or less equal to the two cyber security majors.