Science

My scientific contributions

by Marcel Garus · · available at www.marcelgarus.dev/science

My research focus is how to build tighter feedback loops during programming using dynamic analysis; for example, using fuzzing to give feedback on the behavior of your code while you type it. I want people to feel more confident in modifying their computing tools.

Why I think this topic matters

I believe in a future where our computing tools are more customized. That doesn't mean that literally everyone needs to know how to code, but maybe it will be common for a few people to provide custom computing tools to their local community.

The current reality is far from that. Even in the best case scenario – when the tool is open source and the user is a professional programmer – the friction to customization is insanely high. When is the last time you have not just used an open source tool, but downloaded, built, and customized it?

From my perspective, this are more concrete ways how we can work towards that vision:

Tear down barriers that actively prevent people from modifying their tools.
Give people meta-tools that make them more confident in changing other tools.

My academic life so far

2025 – today

Ph.D. student at the Software Architecture Group, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam. Advisor: Robert Hirschfeld

2022 – 2025

M.Sc. IT-Systems Engineering at Hasso-Plattner-Institut, University of Potsdam

2018 – 2021

B.Sc. IT-Systems Engineering at Hasso-Plattner-Institut, University of Potsdam

Peer reviewed publications

2026

Marcel Garus, Philipp Kolbe, Robert Hirschfeld. From Static Code to Dynamic Values: Toward Live Programming Through Object-Oriented Fuzzing. Paper to be presented at DEBT'26 (ECOOP) in Brussels, Belgium. pdf

2025

Tom Beckmann, Eva Krebs, Marcel Garus, Stefan Ramson, and Robert Hirschfeld. Defeating Dragons in The Classroom: Role-playing Games for Teaching Communication and Decision Making Skills in Software Engineering. In Proceedings of the Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG) 2025, Belgrade, Serbia, September 8-10, 2025. pdf

Marcel Garus, Jens Lincke, Robert Hirschfeld. Fuzzing as Editor Feedback. In Proceedings of the Programming Experience 2025 (PX/25) Workshop, companion volume to the International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (‹Programming›), co-located with the International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (‹Programming›), pages XXX-XXX, Prague, Czechia, June 2, 2025, Schloss Dagstuhl Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs). pdf

2024

Marcel Garus, Sven Köhler, Andreas Polze. Increasing Awareness for Energy Consumption in Jupyter Notebooks. Extended Abstract presented at the 1st International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing in Glasgow, Scotland (remote). pdf

Technical Reports

2024. Marcel Garus, Rohan Sawahn, Jonas Wanke. Implementing Memory Management in the NinjaStorms Operating System. Technical Report. Google Books

Teaching

2026

Fuzzing and Dynamic Programming Tools (MA seminar)

Software Engineering I (BA lecture): lectures on testing

2025/2026

End-User Development (MA project seminar)

Academic Community Participation

2027

publicity chair at ‹Programming› 2027

2026

publicity chair at ‹Programming› 2026

student volunteer at ‹Programming› 2026

Other works

2025. Marcel Garus. Fuzzing as Editor Feedback. My Master's thesis. pdf

2021. Marcel Garus. Architektur und Implementierung eines modularen, skalierbaren Backends für Sensordaten verschiedener Nutzer. My Bachelor's thesis. pdf