New at HNU: Prof. Dr. Aykan Inan

After graduating from high school, I began a dual study program in electrical engineering and information technology (ETTI) at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich in cooperation with the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in 2009, which I successfully completed in 2012. I then worked at the BND until 2016, while at the same time completing a private degree in IT security at the University of Bochum in cooperation with isits AG.

Unfortunately, I can't say any more about that.

From 2017 to 2023, I worked as a research assistant and doctoral student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EI) at Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Tobias Eggendorfer, who now works at Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. My focus was on IT security and forensics, with a particular focus on RSA cryptanalysis, which I investigated in my dissertation. I researched the use of machine learning to analyze prime numbers in order to enable a more efficient prime factorization and thus an improved cryptanalysis of RSA. The exact topic was: Analyzing the Potential for a Prime Detection and Integer Factorization Method for use in Machine Learning by means of Prime Characteristics, Statistics and Geometry.

From May 2023 to February 2025, I was a professor of IT security at Nuremberg Institute of Technology. From March 2025, I have now moved to Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU) to take on new challenges and further contribute my expertise in the field of IT security.

I am passionate about everything to do with security and hacking, even though the field is incredibly large and diverse.

I am particularly interested in cryptography, which is also reflected in my PhD topic, as well as in various aspects of IT security. I am particularly interested in OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), i.e. the use of publicly available information for security analyses. This is a new field of research for me.

I am particularly fascinated by the combination of cryptography and practical IT security, as it is crucial for the protection of digital systems and constantly poses new challenges. Unfortunately, I don't get much time for research as my current focus is on setting up and developing new topics for lectures.

Looking back, my career was strongly influenced by chance. I never had the goal of becoming a professor. This opportunity only arose towards the end of my doctorate.

I have always enjoyed teaching and lecturing so much that I even considered becoming a teacher (far) in the past. In the professorship, I now have the opportunity to live out exactly this enthusiasm for teaching and at the same time contribute my expertise in the field of information security as well as continuing my own education.

I particularly appreciate the creative freedom in this profession. It gives me the chance to actively develop the department and inspire students for IT security.

Of course, I have to put a lot of time into the preparations at the moment. When I was a student myself, you didn't really notice that, but now as a professor, it's even more of a different story in terms of the work involved.

Apart from work, I try to find my balance with sports in the fitness area. Sunday is a family day for me, as much as possible, with excursions such as hiking, swimming or anything else that comes to mind spontaneously or the weather allows. In short, I like to travel.

Now that I'm back in Ulm, I also have the opportunity to rekindle old friendships a bit more, which I particularly like.

In my seminars and lectures, students are given an overview of many different subject areas, all of which are closely interlinked.

The security aspect is always at the forefront. IT security is a complex field that consists of many individual building blocks that need to be understood and linked in a meaningful way.

I plan to specialize in cryptography, cyber security, digital forensics and hacking. I also teach basic subjects, but because I can't help it, they always have a touch of security in them.

In short: it's going to be varied with me!

My first days and weeks at HNU are still very exciting. I'm constantly getting to know new faces and gathering lots of impressions. At the same time, there is an unbelievable amount of input, ranging from mega to gigabytes, which I have to process. 
Even though I have already gained experience at other universities, every university is a little different. The numerous internal abbreviations in particular pose quite a challenge for my working memory. But that's exactly what makes the start interesting and varied!

As a native of Ulm, I would never have thought that I would return to the region at some point. During my studies and my professional life to date, I moved from Munich to Berlin and Bonn. My position as a research assistant at Weingarten University of Applied Sciences brought me closer to home again.

When I received the call to Nuremberg, it initially looked as though my path and that of my family would continue in this direction. But then, as so often in my career, chance played a role and I was given the opportunity to take up a professorship in Neu-Ulm.

As I have strong roots in the region, I am very happy to be here. I remember many places from my childhood. I have very different memories of the Wiley site, for example, including the American troops who were stationed here at the time ;-)