A Festschrift Symposium for Professor Angela Sasse

On 31 March 2026, 85 current and former students, collaborators, colleagues and friends came together at University College London to celebrate 35 years of Angela Sasse at UCL, at a Festschrift Symposium recognising and celebrating her contributions to the field of Computer Science and human-centred security.

Professor Angela Sasse

M. Angela Sasse is the professor of human-centred technology at UCL, and of human-centred security at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. She is a pioneer of usable security research and interdisciplinary security research. In recent years, her focus has been empirical research on how large organisations manage cybersecurity risks, in particular in relation to human capital. In 2018 she moved to Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, where she is a speaker of the Exzellenzclusterproject CASA, the interdisciplinary graduate school SecHuman, and the BMBF-funded DigiFit project. She was elected Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering (2015) and the German National Academy of Sciences "Leopoldina" (2023).

The Festschrift Symposium

The event was held at University College London on 31 March 2026. The festschrift volume is available on Amazon.

Programme

Time Session
09:00 – 09:30 Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 09:45 Opening Remarks
09:45 – 11:00 Session 1: Foundations
Papers (6)
11:00 – 11:30 Morning Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:45 Session 2: Education and Behaviour
Papers (6)
12:45 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:00 Session 3: Operational Practice
Papers (5)
15:00 – 15:30 Afternoon Tea Break
15:30 – 16:20 Session 4: AI, Ethics & Societal Values
Papers (4)
16:20 – 17:00 Closing Plenary / Q&A
17:00 – 18:30 Reception

Call for Papers (Archival)

Updates

13 December 2025: Submission deadline extended to 13 January 2026
1 December 2025: Submissions can now be made at our Microsoft CMT page
22 October 2025: Clarify symposium attendance for authors and copyright
4 February 2026: Announce draft programme for symposium
22 February 2026: Registration open
4 March 2026: Announce list of accepted papers
31 March 2026: Papers available online and for purchase on Amazon

Timeline

Submission Requirements

Submissions are limited to eight pages in LNCS format excluding bibliography and any appendices, and maximum ten pages total (shorter submissions are encouraged). Authors will retain copyright to their submission, and grant permission for the work to be published under a Creative Commons license. Submissions should be on a topic inspired by, relating to, or commenting on the broad area of Professor Sasse's research. The theme of the event will be "Users Are Not The Enemy" but this should be interpreted as a springboard for ideas rather than as a constraint.

Submission Instructions

Submissions should be made in PDF format by 31 December 2025 at our Microsoft CMT page.

Presentation at the Symposium

It is expected that at least one author of each accepted paper will attend the Festschrift Symposium to present their work. If this will not be possible, please contact the organizers.

Publication and Copyright

The festschrift will be published and made available in print, digital, and PDF formats. Authors retain copyright of their work and must publish their contributions under a Creative Commons 4.0 license of their choice.

License Agreement

Authors of accepted contributions must sign a license agreement granting us the non-exclusive right to publish, distribute, and sell their work as part of the festschrift. One co-author needs to sign and submit the agreement on behalf of all authors.

Note: If some, but not all, of the authors are employees of the U.S. federal government, the form must be signed by one of the authors who is not an employee of the U.S. federal government.

Acknowledgements

We also extend our thanks to Dan Ristea for his diligent work as the publication chair. Special thanks are due to Lizzie Howie for her cover design and administrative support throughout the planning process. The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. Finally, we are deeply grateful to the UCL Department of Computer Science for their generous support and for hosting this Festschrift Symposium.

Organisers

You can contact us at: sassefest@cs.ucl.ac.uk.

Steven Murdoch
Ingolf Becker
Simon Parkin
Ruba Abu-Salma
Sacha Brostoff