Does the Berkeley Security Group offer courses, events, or ways to join?

Updated

Yes. The Berkeley Security Group's site explicitly signals all three: it says the group hosts events, teaches courses, and invites people to join. The page itself is a directory-style overview rather than a schedule, so the practical path is to use its people lists and outbound links to find the specific course, event, or contact you need.

What the group says it offers

The site's own section headings are the clearest evidence of what it provides:

  • "We host events!" — the group runs events, though the page does not list dates or formats.
  • "We teach courses!" — teaching is presented as an ongoing activity of the group.
  • "We'd love for you to join us!" — an explicit open invitation to join.

The page also states the group studies "a wide variety of topics, including cryptography, network security, usable security, and secure machine learning." That matters for choosing a course or event: the group's work is broad, so you should match your interest to a specific faculty member or lab rather than to "security" in general.

How to find the right course or event

The page does not publish a course catalog or event calendar. Instead, it points you to the people involved and says: "To learn more about our research, we encourage you to visit the pages of our faculty and students, linked below."

A workable approach:

  1. Pick your subarea. Decide whether you care about cryptography, network security, usable security, or secure machine learning.
  2. Find the matching faculty. The page lists faculty including Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, Natacha Crooks, Chris Fletcher, Anthony Joseph, Vern Paxson, Raluca Ada Popa, Dawn Song, and David Wagner. Faculty pages are the most likely place to find current course listings and reading groups.
  3. Check affiliates and postdocs for applied or adjacent work. Affiliates listed include Serge Egelman and Nicholas Weaver; postdocs and staff include Alisa Frik, Zhanhao Hu, Yiping Ma, Mona Wang, and Primal Wijesekera.
  4. Look at the broader network. The page notes that "Security research at Berkeley spans a number of labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools," and links out to related groups — so a course or event may sit outside the core group page.

Who this is for

If you are… What the page supports What you still need to do
A prospective grad student The group lists current grad students and says it welcomes joiners Check faculty pages for admissions and research-fit guidance
A current Berkeley student Courses and events are stated as group activities Find the specific course number or event listing via faculty pages
An external researcher The group names collaborators and affiliated labs Use the linked lab and center pages to find seminars or joint events
Someone exploring the field Topic areas are named (crypto, network, usable security, secure ML) Read individual faculty and student pages for depth

Practical caveats

  • The page is a people-and-links hub, not a schedule. Treat any specific course title, term, or event date as something you must confirm on the linked page.
  • The "join us" invitation is a general statement. It does not describe an application process, eligibility, or timeline — those details are not on this page.
  • Because the group spans multiple departments and schools, the most reliable first step is to identify one person whose work matches your interest and follow their page outward.

If your goal is to take a course, attend an event, or join the group, start from the faculty and student lists on this page and work outward to their individual sites.