The 2024 Helmut and Heide Balzert Award for outstanding contributions to the teaching and the didactics of Informatics has been given Wolfgang Pfeffer and Tobias Fuchs.
Award ceremony on September 24, 2024 in Wiesbaden, Germany
From left to right: Ulrike Lucke (Selection Committee Chair), the award winners Wolfgang Pfeffer and Tobias Fuchs, Heide and Helmut Balzert (Award Donators), Martin Glinz (SI Board Member)
Photo: Mike Auerbach
In 2021, Helmut and Heide Balzert have donated an annual award for outstanding contributions to the teaching and the didactics of Informatics. It is endowed with € 10,000. The award is bestowed by the German Informatics Society GI, together with the Swiss Informatics Society SI, the Austrian Computer Society OCG, and the Prof. Balzert Foundation. A selection committee, consisting of Helmut Balzert as a donator and a board of experts appointed by GI, OCG, and SI selects the winner(s) from the nominations.
This year’s award was given to Wolfgang Pfeffer and Tobias Fuchs for their work “The Mystery of Crypto-Castle – Coding and Encryption in the Digital Escape Room”
They have created a digital learning game in the style of an escape room game that gives highschool students a self-motivated approach to coding and encryption methods in Informatics. By focusing on current 11th grade curricula and analog accompanying materials, the authors have ensured that the game can be readily used in Informatics courses at schools. Currently, CryptoCastle is available only in German. You can try it here.