Lecturers

Available Theses / Student Projects

All available theses and projects can be found in E-Learning.

Feel free to contact me to discuss your ideas for theses or student projects.

Education

• Blockchain and Smart Contracts
• Operating Systems
• Distributed Systems
• Programming 1 / Basics of Programming
• Programming 2 / Object-oriented Programming
• Software Engineering
• Software Engineering 2  
• Software Development

Supervising

• Doctoral Theses
• Master's Theses
• Bachelor's Theses
• Projects of 6th term
• Programming projects of 4th term (BIN)
• Software Development projects of 4th term (BWI)

Current Research

Blockchain

• MEV and Arbitrage on Centralized (CEX) and Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)
• Human-readable Smart Contracts
• Tokenomics and Staking Rewards

Information Security Awareness (ISA)

• Assessing and Measuring ISA
• ISA and Personality Traits
• Sensitization of Employees

Research Interests

• Blockchain
• Smart Contracts
• Information Security Awareness
• Gamification
• Accessibility

Current Projects

Forschungsdatenmanagement (FDM) at BAM

The "Research Data Management" (FDM) project at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) aims to address the challenges of long-term documentation and record-keeping requirements. The FDM system will be implemented using openBIS and will enable BAM to document all completed projects, including all measurement data, in a clear and audit-proof manner. This will encompass general meta-information about the project, as well as specific measurement procedures and methods, and all collected data. FDM is urgently needed to ensure that research data is stored for at least five years in accordance with the DFG's (German Research Foundation) rules of good scientific practice.

dPaCoS - decentralized Patient Consent Service

This project started with the competition “Blockchain in Healthcare” of the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) in 2019. The idea is to store patient consents transparently and securely on the blockchain with the help of smart contracts. More information here. Press release here.

Past Projects

CASPAR - Platform for Evidence-proof and Traceable Data Usage

In this project of the Federal Office for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), a concept is being developed for the evidence-proof storage of information on buildings using smart contracts and Ethereum-based blockchains. Further information here.

Blockchain in the Approval Process for Chemical Industrial Plants
As part of the project of the Bavarian State Ministry of Digital Affairs (StMD) and the Bavarian State Ministry of Environment and Consumer Protection (StMUV), the requirements of authorities and stakeholders in the chemical industry were analyzed to develop a concept that digitizes the approval process for chemical industrial plants. Smart contracts, Ethereum-based blockchains and distributed ledger technologies were used. As part of the project, both tamper-proofing and trade secret protection requirements were met. Read more here.

Books

• Tobias Fertig and Andreas Schütz. Blockchain - The Comprehensive Guide to Blockchain Development, Ethereum, Solidity, and Smart Contracts. Bonn: Rheinwerk Computing, 2024. isbn: 978-1-4932-2514-9. url: www.sap-press.com/blockchain_5800/
• Kristin Weber, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. Grundlagen und Anwendung von Information Security Awareness: Mitarbeiter zielgerichtet für Informationssicherheit sensibilisieren. essentials. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2019. isbn: 978-3-658-26257-0. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658- 26258-7. url: link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-658-26258-7
• b1 Tobias Fertig and Andreas Schütz. Blockchain für Entwickler: Grundlagen, Programmierung, Anwendung. Bonn: Rheinwerk Computing, 2019. 565 pp. isbn: 978-3-8362-6390-0. url: www.rheinwerk-verlag.de/blockchain-fuer-entwickler-grundlagen-programmierung-anwendung/

Book Chapters

• Lukas Metzger, Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Kristin Weber. “Concerning Habits – Gewohnheit fördern zur Erhöhung der Information Security Awareness”. In: Faktor Mensch. Ed. by Kristin Weber and Stefan Reinheimer. Edition HMD. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2022, pp. 349–364. isbn: 978-3-658-34524-2. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-34524-2_19. url: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34524-2_19
• bc2 Kristin Weber, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. “Insider Threats – Der Feind in den eigenen Reihen”. In: Faktor Mensch. Ed. by Kristin Weber and Stefan Reinheimer. Edition HMD. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2022, pp. 311–329. isbn: 978-3-658-34524-2. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-34524-2_17. url: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34524- 2_17
• bc1 Nicholas H. Müller, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. “Mensch und Technik in der ange- wandten Forschung”. In: Faktor Mensch. Ed. by Kristin Weber and Stefan Reinheimer. Edition HMD. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2022, pp. 1–18. isbn: 978-3-658-34524-2. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-34524-2_1. url: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34524- 2_1

Journals

• Markus Oermann, Tobias Fertig, and Eya Sdouga. "Visualisierung von Gesetzen - Status Quo und Ausblick". In: ZG Zeitschrift für Gesetzgebung 40.4 (2025), pp. 394-412. issn: 0179-4051. url: online.otto-schmidt.de/db/dokument
• Kristin Weber, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. “Insider Threats – Der Feind in den eigenen Reihen”. In: HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik 57.3 (2020), pp. 613–627. issn: 2198-2775. doi: 10.1365/s40702-020-00616-9. url: doi.org/10.1365/s40702-020-00616-9
• Nicholas H. Müller, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. “Mensch und Technik in der angewandten Forschung”. In: HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik 57.3 (2020), pp. 372–384. issn: 2198-2775. doi: 10.1365/s40702-020-00615-w. url: doi.org/10.1365/s40702-020-00615-w
• Henry Vu, Tobias Fertig, and Peter Braun. “Model-Driven Integration Testing of Hypermedia Systems”. In: Journal of Web Engineering (2019). issn: 1544-5976. url: journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JWE/article/view/3155
• Andreas E. Schütz, Tobias Fertig, Kristin Weber, Henry Vu, Matthias Hirth, and Thomas Tran-Gia. “Vertrauen ist gut, Blockchain ist besser – Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Blockchain für Vertrauensprobleme im Crowdsourcing”. In: HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik 55.6 (2018), pp. 1155–1166. issn: 2198-2775. doi: 10 . 1365 / s40702 - 018 - 00471 - 9. url: doi.org/10.1365/s40702-018-00471-9

Conference Proceedings

• UPCOMING: Isabel K. Glückert, Tobias Fertig, Ricard Bibaj, and Sebastian Biedermann. "Understanding Human Behavior in Information Security Incident Scenarios: The Role of Big Five Personality Traits". In: Proceedings of the 30th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). 2026, url:
• UPCOMING: Tobias Fertig and Isabel John. "Keeping Students on Track: Portfolio Exams and Badges in an Asynchronous Software Engineering Course". In: The 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T). 2026,
• UPCOMING: Tanja Klöffel, Tim Nöth, Tobias Fertig, and Sebastian Biedermann. "VeiledWaves: A Covert Channel via Transmission Power Modulation in Wi-Fi Networks". In: 23rd International Conference on Security and Cryptography - SECRYPT 2026, 
• UPCOMING: Isabel K. Glückert, Tobias Fertig, Ricard Bibaj, and Sebastian Biedermann. "Big Five Personality Traits and Security Awareness Training Preferences". In 39th Bled eConference: Co-Creating Human-Centered and Responsible Digital Futures. 2026, 
• UPCOMING: Sathwik Amburi, Tiago Gasiba, Tobias Fertig, Ulrike Lechner, and Maria Pinto-Albuquerque. "Is This Mission Possible? A Study for Developer Challenges in Using Generative AI for Secure Software Development in Industry". In: 41st IFIP SEC Conference 2026.
• UPCOMING: Isabel John, Beaulah Soundarabai, Tobias Fertig, and Anne Hess. "Gamified Elearning in Software Engineering - an Intercultural Perspective". In: 16th International Conference on Intelligent Multimodal Communication and Learning Technologies (IMCL). 2025, 
• Jan Biermann, Maximilian Greiner, Karl Seidenfad, Tobias Fertig, and Ulrike Lechner. "The Blockchain Governance Laboratory: Demonstrating an Environment for Hands-on Blockchain Governance Research". In: 2025 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). 2025, doi: 10.1109/ICBC64466.2025.11114618. url: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11114618
• Isabel John, Anne Heß, and Tobias Fertig. "No More Binge Learning - Using Gamification Elements to Support Distributed Practice in Engineering Education". In: 2025 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). 2025, doi: 10.1109/EDUCON62633.2025.11016434. url: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11016434
• Isabel John, Anne Heß, and Tobias Fertig. "Work in Progress: Supporting Distributed Practice with a Gamified E-Learning Course". In: 27th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning. September 2024, doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-83520-9_13 url: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-83520-9_13
• Isabel John and Tobias Fertig. “Evaluation of a Gamified Elearning Course for Agile Methods”. In: 2024 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). 2024, pp. 1-8. doi: 10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578678. url: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10578678
• David Henkelmann and Tobias Fertig. “Exploring the Link Between Accessible Website Design and User Experience for Humans with Blindness and Visual Impairment: A Quality Study”. In: IDIMT-2023: New Challenges for ICT and Management: 31st Interdisciplinary Information Management Talks. Hradec Králové, Tschechische Republik, 2023. doi: 10.35011/IDIMT-2023-101. url: epub.jku.at/obvulioa/content/titleinfo/9026577
• Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Kristin Weber. “Developing a Maturity Model for Information Security Awareness Using a Polytomous Extension of the Rasch Model”. In: Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2023. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2023.827. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/103461
• Andreas E. Schütz and Tobias Fertig. “The Forgotten Model - Validating the Integrated Behavorial Model in Context of Information Security Awareness”. In: Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2023. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2023.828. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/103462
• Isabel John and Tobias Fertig. “Gamification for Software Engineering Students - an Experience Report”. In: 2022 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). 2022, pp. 1942–1947. doi: 10.1109/ EDUCON52537.2022.9766825. url: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9766825
• Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Kristin Weber. “Automated Measuring of Information Security Related Habits”. In: Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2022. isbn: 978-0-9981331-5-7. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2022.925. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/80267
• Tobias Fertig, David Henkelmann, and Andreas E. Schütz. “360 Degrees of Security: Can VR Increase the Sustainability of ISA Trainings?” In: Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2022. isbn: 978-0-9981331-5-7. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2022. 924. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/80266
• Andreas E. Schütz, Tobias Fertig, and Kristin Weber. “Defining a Core Ontology for Medical Devices in Germany to Ensure Semantic Interoperability”. In: Modelling and Development of Intelligent Systems. Ed. by Dana Simian and Laura Florentina Stoica. Communications in Computer and Information Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021, pp. 394–410. isbn: 978-3-030-68527-0. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-68527-0_25. url: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-68527-0_25
• Philipp Ulsamer, Andreas E. Schütz, Tobias Fertig, and Lisa Keller. “Immersive Storytelling for Information Security Awareness Training in Virtual Reality”. In: Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2021. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2021.861. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/71482
• André Stollberger, Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, Karsten Huffstadt, and Nicholas H. Müller. “Analysis of the Operating Costs of a Decentralized App in the Ethereum Blockchain”. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Applied Informatics Imagination, Creativity, Design, Development. ICDD 2020. Ed. by Dana Simian. Sibiu, Romania, 2020, pp. 250–261. url: conferences.ulbsibiu.ro/icdd/2020/files/Proceedings_ICDD2020.pdf
• Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, Kristin Weber, and Nicholas H. Müller. “Towards an Information Security Awareness Maturity Model”. In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems. Ed. by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou. Vol. 12206. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020, pp. 587–599. isbn: 978-3-030-50506-6. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_40. url: link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_40
• Kristin Weber, Andreas E. Schütz, Tobias Fertig, and Nicholas H. Müller. “Exploiting the Human Factor: Social Engineering Attacks on Cryptocurrency Users”. In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems. Ed. by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020, pp. 650–668. isbn: 978-3-030-50506-6. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_45. url: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_45
• Peter Silbermann, Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Nicholas H. Müller. “Utilizing Context Effects of Banner Ads for Conversion Rate Optimization”. In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems. Ed. by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020, pp. 641–649. isbn: 978-3-030-50506-6. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_44. url: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_44
• Andreas E. Schütz, Kristin Weber, and Tobias Fertig. “Assessing the Information Security Awareness of University Students”. In: Proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). Dubai, 2020. url: aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/54
• Philipp Ulsamer, Tobias Fertig, Kevin Pfeffel, and Nicholas Müller. “Motor Imagery to Control Mobile Applications – An fNIRS Study”. In: Proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). 56. Dubai, 2020. url: aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/56
• Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Kristin Weber. “Current Issues Of Metrics For Information Security Awareness”. In: Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). An Online AIS Conference: AIS, 2020. url: aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2020_rp/184
• Felix Franz, Tobias Fertig, and Andreas E. Schütz. “Democratization of Smart Contracts: A Prototype for Automated Contract Generation”. In: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). 2020, pp. 1–3. doi: 10.1109/ICBC48266.2020.9169479. url: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9169479
• Tobias Fertig and Andreas E. Schütz. “About the Measuring of Information Security Awareness: A Systematic Literature Review”. In: Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2020. isbn: 978-0-9981331-3-3. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2020.798. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/64540
• Andreas E. Schütz, Kristin Weber, and Tobias Fertig. “Analyze Before You Sensitize: Preparation of a Targeted ISA Training”. In: Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2020. isbn: 978-0-9981331-3-3. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2020.800. url: hdl.handle.net/10125/64542
• Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, Kristin Weber, and Nicholas H. Müller. “Measuring the Impact of E-Learning Platforms on Information Security Awareness”. In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing Learning Experiences. Ed. by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou. Vol. 11590. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 26–37. isbn: 978-3-030-21814-0. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-21814-0_3. url: link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-21814-0_3
• Andreas E. Schütz, Tobias Fertig, Kristin Weber, and Nicholas H. Müller. “How E-Learning Can Facilitate Information Security Awareness”. In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing Learning Experiences. Ed. by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 390–401. isbn: 978-3-030-21814-0. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-21814-0_30. url: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21814-0_30
• Felix Franz, Tobias Fertig, Andreas E. Schütz, and Henry Vu. “Towards Human-readable Smart Contracts”. In: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), pp. 38–42. doi: 10.1109/BLOC.2019.8751309. url:ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8751309
• Patrick B. M. Müller, Tobias Fertig, Henry Vu, and Peter Braun. “Hypermedia: The Key to RESTful Web Applications”. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies. 3rd International Special Session on Advanced Practices in Model- Driven Web Engineering. Seville, Spain: SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, 2018, pp. 378–387. isbn: 978-989-758-324-7. doi: 10.5220/0006927103780387. url: www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Link.aspx
• Henry Vu, Tobias Fertig, and Peter Braun. “Automation of Integration Testing of RESTful Hypermedia Systems: A Model-driven Approach”. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies. 3rd International Special Session on Advanced Practices in Model-Driven Web Engineering. Seville, Spain: SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, 2018, pp. 404–411. isbn: 978-989-758-324-7. doi: 10.5220/0006932004040411. url: www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Link. aspx?doi=10.5220/0006932004040411
• Maximilian Janik, Kristin Weber, Andreas E. Schütz, and Tobias Fertig. “Informationssicheres Verhalten automatisiert messen”. In: Proceedings of D-A-CH Security 2018 - Bestandsauf- nahme, Konzepte, Anwendungen, Perspektiven. Ed. by Peter Schartner and Norbert Pohlmann. Gelsenkirchen: syssec, 2018, pp. 1–12. url: www.syssec.at/de/veranstaltungen/dachsecurity2018/papers/DACH_Security_2018_Paper_11A1.pdf
• Henry Vu, Tobias Fertig, and Peter Braun. “Towards Model-driven Hypermedia Testing for RESTful Systems”. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies. 13th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies. Porto, Portugal: SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, 2017, pp. 340–343. isbn: 978-989-758-246-2. doi: 10.5220/0006353403400343. url: www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Link.aspx

Workshop Proceedings

• Tobias Fertig and Peter Braun. “Towards Offline Support for RESTful Systems”. In: Companion Proceedings of the The Web Conference 2018. WWW ’18. Republic and Canton of Geneva, CHE: International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018, pp. 1875–1880. isbn: 978-1-4503-5640-4. doi: 10.1145/3184558.3191655. url: doi.org/10.1145/3184558.3191655
• Henry Vu, Tobias Fertig, and Peter Braun. “Verification of Hypermedia Characteristic of RESTful Finite-State Machines”. In: Companion Proceedings of the The Web Conference 2018. WWW’18. Republic and Canton of Geneva, CHE: International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018, pp. 1881–1886. isbn: 978-1-4503-5640-4. doi: 10.1145/3184558.3191656. url: doi.org/10.1145/3184558.3191656
• Philipp Ulsamer, Tobias Fertig, and Peter Braun. “Feature-oriented Domain-specific Languages”. In: Tagungsband des Dagstuhl-Workshops Modellbasierte Entwicklung eingebetteter Systeme XIV. ed. by Matthias Riebisch, Michaela Huhn, Hardi Hungar, and Sebastian Voss. Lecture Notes in Informatics. Bonn: Gesellschaft für Informatik, 2018, pp. 31–20. url: download.fortiss.org/public/mbees/mbees2018_proceedings.pdf
• Tobias Fertig and Peter Braun. “Model-Driven Testing of RESTful APIs”. In: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web. WWW ’15 Companion. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2015, pp. 1497–1502. isbn: 978-1-4503-3473-0. doi: 10.1145/2740908.2743045. url: doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2743045

Doctoral Thesis

• Tobias Fertig. “Assessing Information Security Awareness in Organizations”. Doctoral thesis. Erlangen: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2023. url: open.fau.de/items/5c313462-1b30-479b-92b3-8163438f84a2

Technical Reports

• Stefan Maack, Stephan Schäfer, Thomas Braml, Johannes Wimmer, Thomas Kuhn, Andreas Jedlitschka, Tobias Fertig, and Andreas Schütz. "CASPAR - Construction Administration Shell - Plattform für die beweissichere und rückführbare Datennutzung im Bauwesen". Federal Institute For Materials Research and Testing. 2025. doi: 10.34657/21445. url: doi.org/10.34657/21445
  

Invited Speaker

 

• Tobias Fertig. "More Than Just Passwords: The Social Impact of Security Awareness", At: 25th International Conference on Innovations for Community Services (I4CS), 2025, url: www.eah-jena.de/i4cs-conference/invited-speakers

Non Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Tobias Fertig. "Wie Smart Contracts zur Digitalisierung beitragen können", In: Netzwerk Insider Juli 2024, ComConsult GmbH. 2024, url: www.comconsult.com/wie-smart-contracts-zur-digitalisierung-beitragen-koennen/

Vita

 

• since 2024: Professor of Blockchain and Secure Decentralized Applications
• since 2023: Head of Blockchain Technologies at Unternehmensberatung H&D GmbH  
• since 2022: Managing Director at Schütz & Fertig GmbH
• February 2019: 2nd Place at Competition "Blockchain in Health Care" of Federal Ministry of Health, Germany 
• 2018 - 2023: Doctor of Engineering in Information Security Awareness at FAU
• 2016 - 2023: Research Assistant at THWS
• 2014 - 2016: Master of Science in Computer Science at FAU
• 2011 - 2014: Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science at THWS