Information on individual educational components (ECTS-Course descriptions) per semester

Participating students are required to have an academic interest and the ability to work independently and ask questions. Selection is therefore based on a letter of application and an associated selection interview.

Application deadline: September to 31.10.2025. 

Send the written expression of interest (content: Who am I? Why am I interested in research in this area?) to armin.simma@fhv.at or martin.dobler@fhv.at.

Students will be selected for the research project on the basis of a personal interview. 

Acceptance or rejection must be made by 15.11.2025 at the latest.

If you are accepted, the research project will be listed together with the other courses on your A5 portal under "Grades" from December. With 12 ECTS, the entire Contextual Studies are thus defined and booked.

In the event of rejection, other courses for the summer semester 2026 with 3 or 6 ECTS in the compulsory elective area are available for selection on the A5 portal until 25 November 2025. 

Scheduling takes place with those responsible for the research project. 

Course cost: For any intended visits to scientific conferences, the travelling expenses or participation fees incurred will be borne by the students.

Nachhaltigkeit: SDG 9 - resilient infrastructure

FHV Future Skills: Appropriate Application, Foster Critical Thinking, Create Environmental & Sustainable Awareness

The prerequisite for attending this course is the willingness to carry out the project started in the summer semester over two semesters with 6 ECTS credits each and to continue it in the following winter semester. If the student is unsuccessful, the Contextual Studies will be continued in the winter semester outside the course.

The continuation of the research project as part of a Master's thesis is strived. The aim is to publish the research results in the form of a publication, a research report, a conference paper, a video or similar.

Due to the required prerequisites, students are not entitled to admission to the course.

In the first 6 weeks of the semester, the future research question is developed through independent literature research and presented to the supervisor at the end of the 6 weeks. If there is no sufficient foundation for a one-year research work, it makes sense to withdraw from the research project. It is then possible to continue the Contextual Studies outside of the "Research Project: Computer Science".

• Willingness to work independently in a subject area.
• Willingness to participate in the definition of objectives
• Structured approach to project development and elaboration (time schedule, etc.)
• Interest in information security or IT security

Scientific theoretical positions, qualitative and quantitative research methods, research design and research planning in the field of current activities and areas of application in the field of information security or IT security (especially in the field of digitalisation).
Since the detailed topic is defined together with the students, teaching content cannot be specified in detail. Instead, different subject areas are specified. The student must select only one of these topics (several topics may also be combined).

1. trusted computing (e.g. with Trusted Platform Module TPM).
2. automatic (unattended) booting (i.e. booting without human intervention (input of password) and without biometric authentication) and still high security - especially high integrity protection - for IoT; but also for standard PC systems, based on hardware root of trust (e.g. TPM) and open source software like LUKS, IMA/EVM, clevis, tpm2-tools, dm-verity etc.
3. learning platforms for cyber security; so-called cyber ranges
4. security for industrial IoT systems (e.g. control systems)
5. blockchain and innovative applications
6. secure data models
7. automated, cryptologically secured, actor-based data exchange.
8. methods for estimating technology readiness level (TRL).
9. secure IT methods for SMEs
10. information security management systems

General learning outcomes of research projects:

• Students produce a scientific paper by developing, independently working on and answering a research question.
• Students know the cornerstones and milestones of a research project (research question and objectives, theses, falsification, experiments, quality criteria, etc.).
• Depending on the research centre or group, students learn about different research methods - from qualitative/quantitative methods, understanding and operating programmes and production facilities to the use of specific IT tools, etc.
• Students can integrate relevant aspects of research ethics and data protection into research projects.
• Students can present research content in the context of team meetings, events or publications.
• Students know their expertise and passion for research and are aware of their next steps in deepening their research expertise, including PhD options.
• Students know elements of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Specific learning outcomes of research projects:

Students familiarise themselves with aspects of current research projects in the field of Computer Science and the Business Informatics Research Centre.

The detailed, scientific learning outcomes are agreed and documented individually with the students before the start of the course as part of the formulation of their research questions.

Content Learning Outcomes:

Important note: Students choose the topic, therefore not all learning objectives mentioned below are relevant but only one or more (chosen) objectives.

Students understand that security is an essential aspect in digitalisation (digital transformation/Internet of Things). They know and understand the three pillars for implementing security: technology, people, process. Depending on their choice of topics, they can implement detailed measures in a company or organisation regarding one of these pillars.

Technology: students can implement one or more technological measures (e.g., cryptologic techniques, trusted computing technology, security protocol, authentication technology) to achieve a defined security goal.

Human: Students understand that security measures are only successful if the user is willing and able to use the measure. They can prepare the measure to be user-friendly.

Process: Students understand information security management as a holistic process. They know and understand the necessary processes of an information security management system (ISMS). They know how to design and organise an (ISMS). They can implement individual of the activities.

Activation: The students take responsibility for the research and learning process by introducing their own perspectives in the jointly discussed research map (context) and raising questions. They should be able to incorporate their own ideas into the research question.

Action orientation: In the introduction to the topic, the students recognise the discrepancy between their current knowledge and the target state. At the same time, the focus is on the methods and skills necessary for dealing with the question, so that a targeted acquisition of the necessary procedures can be carried out by the students.

Will-based implementation: Agreement of framework conditions and practices that make the company possible and promising. These include common rules and expectations, milestones, dealing with failure and a new beginning, the agreement, for which the students assume responsibility and when they give account when.

Embedding: Contact persons in the research team, including their availability, and especially mentors are named. Conditions under which a sufficient contact with the students is ensured during the work process, and which enable exchanges to be maintained and to provide ongoing feedback. 

Supervision is provided by researchers from the FHV in the form of coaching, guidance, participation in discussions and seminars, and guided self-study.

Degree of achievement beforehand in the discussion of defined learning and work objectives with reference to the previous knowledge of the student. Documentation of learning outcomes and project implementation

House public presentation in the winter semester.

The course "Research Project: Computer Science" will be continued under the same name in the coming winter semester. 

It is also possible to have more than one coach, if the subject is area-transcending.

Due to the close connection to the Research Centre Business Informatics (RC BI), students can make contact with their partners from research and industry at events as part of the RC BI projects. There is also the possibility of aiming for a scientific publication (conference or journal) in cooperation with the research centre.

• Claudia Eckert (2006), "IT-Sicherheit: Konzepte - Verfahren - Protokolle", Oldenbourg
• Randy J. Boyle, R. Panko (2014), "Corporate Computer Security", Pearson
• Matt Bishop (2005), "Introduction to Computer Security", Addison-Wesley
• Matt Bishop (2017), "Computer Security: Art and Science", Addison-Wesley
• Umesh Hodeghatta Rao (2014) "The InfoSec Handbook: An Introduction to Information Security", Apress
  
  

Topic Trusted Computing:

• Will Arthur, David Challener: "A Practical Guide to TPM 2.0: Using the Trusted Platform Module in the New Age of Security", 2015
• Segall, Ariel: "Trusted platform modules: why, when and how to use them", 2017
• Yao, Jiewen; Zimmer, Vincent: "Building secure firmware: armoring the foundation of the platform", 2020
• Kinney, Steven: "Trusted platform module basics: using TPM in embedded systems", 2006
  
  

Topic Blockchain:

• Tapscott (2016), "Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World"
• Arvind Narayanan, "Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies"
  siehe dazu auch die Video lectures online: http://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu/
• Drescher, Daniel (2017), "Blockchain Basics", Apress
  
  

Further project-related literature: Special literature will be agreed upon separately for each project, depending on the situation and the specific problem.

• Self-organised learning and independent work according to the standards of the respective research unit
• Collaboration and presence in the team and participation in working groups
• Coaching and guidance
• Experiments, field research, laboratory work, etc.
• Moderation and presentation techniques
• Project completion in the form of a publication, research report, poster, video, etc.
  
  

In research projects, students delve into current research questions that are pursued at the FHV in the environment of challenging research projects or in the context of documented internal competence building. Experiences and insights from the research process are recorded in a logbook.

As learners, they are given the time to construct, reconstruct (re-sift and reassemble existing knowledge) or deconstruct (uncover the limitations of their own discipline) knowledge. In the concrete research process, they practice a scientific approach ("craftsmanship") in research and observation/survey as well as a constructive approach to active and passive criticism in discussion.

Supervision by researchers of the FHV takes place through coaching, instruction, participation in discussions and seminars as well as accompanied self-study.

• Brief introduction to the course by (the) mentor(s) (lecturers)
• Key topics and results of the research will be addressed by coaches (lecturers)
• Impulse lectures by coaches
• The topic is prepared within a workshop and the underlying research questions and goals are worked out together
• Independent research project or clearly defined sub-area of the project
• The project or sub-area results from the research questions developed in the previous step.
• Independent elaboration takes place in close consultation with a coach. 
• Students present their project in a presentation. Finally, the research topic as well as the results are to be presented within the course and, if applicable, to other research projects of the Contextual Studies.