Student Theses

We are constantly offering topics for student theses. Most topics can be adapted, no matter if you are looking for a Bachelor's, Master's, or Diploma thesis, or even a research-related module (e.g., INF-25-MA-FP). In fact, we highly recommend combining your thesis with a research project or seminar that already works toward your thesis.

If you are interested, please check the remarks below, and make sure to review the formal application requirements and familiarize yourself with the application procedure at the examination office. You are also encouraged to approach a member of our chair. You can contact Florian Tschorsch for an initial consultation, or you can make an appointment with the supervisor of the respective topic directly. It is good practice to get in touch well in advance of your planned starting date.

Requirements and Expectations

We expect that students have substantial knowledge related to privacy and security, typically demonstrated through successful completion of our courses. In addition, candidates for a Master’s thesis should have knowledge in a sub-field related to our research topics and experience with associated research methodologies. Before you start, make sure that you allocate sufficient time for your research work. Our expectation is that you work full time on your thesis project.

The thesis should demonstrate your ability to solve problems independently and document results according to scientific standards. While Bachelor’s theses can be more practical (approx. reflecting the state-of-the-art), Master’s theses should offer new insights (approx. we learn something new). The Bachelor’s thesis can be written in German and English, typically comprising 30-40 pages. The default language for Master's theses is English, typically comprising 60-80 pages.

Supervision

Thesis writing is an interactive process, involving discussions with your supervisor and potentially other members of our research group. Candidates often spend part of the time at our chair. Ideally candidates contribute to our research projects or even publish their results in scientific forums together with us. If you need feedback or assistance, we expect you to take initiative and contact your supervisor.

Research Proposal

Students are expected to draft a research proposal (aka exposé) outlining the motivation, goals, and planned approach, based on discussions with their supervisor. The proposal is a concise description of your work in running text (max. 3 pages excluding bibliography), possibly supported by meaningful tables or figures. The proposal is crucial for making expectations transparent. It basically serves as an agreement on the topic, which aligns all involved parties and minimizes misunderstandings.

As part of writing a research proposal, students are expected to carry out preliminary research to ensure that the chosen topic aligns with their interests and complements their existing skills.

Your research proposal should include the following information:

• Your understanding of the topic (problem statement)

• The status quo with references to academic literature (related work)

• Research question(s) and your planned approach and method

• Discussion of potential risks and ethical considerations (where applicable), as well as a critical reflection on the use of generative AI (if used).

• A rough timeline with 3-4 non-trivial milestones, distinguishing between minimum objectives and extended objectives (stretch goals).

Please note that the above points also suggest a structure for your research proposal. When writing your research proposal, please define the topic as precisely as possible and also specify what is out of scope to manage expectations. Keep in mind that drafting a research proposal is an iterative process involving your supervisor. It may require some time and should already follow an academic style of writing. Your supervisor must accept your final proposal.

Current Topics (Working Title)

• Modularization and integration of anonymization processes (k-anonymity, z-anonymity, differential privacy)

  Contact: Carolin Brunn

• Probabilistic Data Structures for Counting in Distributed Systems

  Contact: Carolin Brunn
• ToxiNTProxy: Resiliency Testing for Applications Relying on NTP
  Contact: Keno Goertz
• Timeliness of On-Chain Timestamps in Partial Synchrony
  Contact: Keno Goertz
• Classification of Trusted Timestamp Applications
  Contact: Keno Goertz
• Design and Implementation of Hybrid Private Information Retrieval
  Contact: Stefan Köpsell
• Improving Security & Resilience of 5G by Trustworthy Virtualisation
  Contact: Stefan Köpsell
• Model Based Security Analysis
  Contact: Sebastian Rehms
• Security Modelling of Trusted Execution Environments
  Contact: Sebastian Rehms
• Tutorial Design for Formal Security Modelling
  Contact: Sebastian Rehms
• Assessing the disciminatory power of time-based device fingerprints
  Initial point of contact: Florian Tschorsch
• Compiler-based mitigation of time-based web browser fingerprinting
  Initial point of contact: Florian Tschorsch
• Virtualization-based mitigation of time-based web browser fingerprinting
  Initial point of contact: Florian Tschorsch
• Adaptive Athentication for Communication in Networks-on-Chip
  Contact: Elke Franz
• Anonymous Routing in Networks-on-Chip
  Contact: Elke Franz

• Attacking Anonymous Communication Networks (Tor, Loopix, Nym)
  Contact: Maximilian Weisenseel

• Privacy in the Internet of Things
  Contact: Maximilian Weisenseel

• Privacy and Utility in Distributed Systems
  Contact: Maximilian Weisenseel
• Exploring alternative bootstrapping mechanisms for Bitcoin
  Contact: Charmaine Ndolo
• Bitcoin V1 vs Bitcoin V2 adoption thresholds for network attacks
  Contact: Charmaine Ndolo

• Exploration of Hardware Trojan models in the context of Networks-on-Chip
  Contact: Sebastian Jaster

• Simulation environments for secure communication in Networks-on-Chip
  Contact: Sebastian Jaster

• Adaptive Routing for Mesh-based Networks-on-Chip
  Contact: Sebastian Jaster

• Trust-based Adaptive Routing through Decentralized Trust Assessment
  Contact: Sebastian Jaster

• Physical Layer Authentication in Dynamic Wireless Environments
  Contact: Ghazal Bagheri

• Measuring and assessing sovereignty in cloud deployments
  Contact: Ivan Gudymenko

• Privacy-preserving LLM-based systems with provider exclusion using confidential computing
  Contact: Ivan Gudymenko

• Security and privacy assessments of EUDI wallet
  Contact: Ivan Gudymenko

• Analysis of threat modelling tools and methods in cloud computing environment
  Contact: Ivan Gudymenko

• Privacy attacks on networked medical devices
  Contact: Ivan Gudymenko