Research Interests

I have an interdisciplinary background of computer science and English and German studies, with a special focus on writing and the writing process. I am interested in bringing these different perspectives together. My active research topics are:

• Programmer's Block –
  • how, why and when do programmers get stuck in the programming process?
  • And what do they do to get 'unstuck' again?
• Programming strategies –
  • the variety of individual strategies that people use to approach the programming process.
  • How can we leverage the diversity in strategies for teaching and software production?

Additional interests pertain to the didactics of programming and the intersection of programming and language.

Thesis Supervision

I supervise bachelor's and master's theses that are related to my research interests. If any of the topics above pique your interest too, please follow the steps outlined under Teaching > Theses to contact me.

Finished and ongoing theses

• Aisha Shaikh: Programmer´s Block and Security-Relevant Shortcuts: A Survey Study of Developers Under Pressure. Master Thesis, ongoing.
• Kunal Rokde: Programmer’s Block at Development Handoffs: An Exploratory Study of Developer Experiences and AI-Assisted Problem Solving. Master Thesis, 2026.
• Florian Grabs: Evaluation von Programmierstrategien: Entwicklung eines Selbsteinschätzungs-Fragebogens für Softwareentwickler. Master Thesis, 2026.
• Ivonne Yulieth Ojeda Cuervo: Coder's Block in Social Media: A Thematic Analysis of Coder's Block in X. Master Thesis, 2025.
• Nadja Just: Fehlerkategorisierung von Programmierfehlern anhand des Kurses Datenstrukturen. Master Thesis, 2024. Winner of the Eleonore-Dießner-Preis 2025.
• Ishrat Zahan Nishat: A Study of Expert java programmers on the Advantages and Challenges of Using ChatGPT for Code Refactoring. Master Thesis, 2024.

Publications

• Belinda Schantong, Norbert Siegmund, and Janet Siegmund. Toward a Theory on Programmer's Block inspired by Writer's Block (Kurzfassung). Proceedings of Software Engineering -- Fachtagung des GI-Fachbereichs Softwaretechnik, GI-Edition -- Lecture Notes in Informatics. 2026.
• Yifan Du, Belinda Schantong, and Janet Siegmund. Knowledge Transfer and False Friends: Insights on Transitioning from C to Java. IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), 2025. Pages 193-204 https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEET66350.2025.00026
• Nadja Just, Belinda Schantong, and Janet Siegmund. From Bugs to Breakthroughs: Novice Errors in CS2. Arxiv, 2025.
• Belinda Schantong, Norbert Siegmund, and Janet Siegmund. Toward a Theory on Programmer's Block Inspired by Writer's Block. Empirical Software Engineering, Volume 30, article number 15, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10542-9
• Belinda Schantong, Dominik Gorgosch, and Janet Siegmund. Toward Finding and Supporting Struggling Students in a Programming Course with an Early Warning System. Arxiv, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.01709.

Talks

• SE 2026: Toward a Theory on Programmer's Block Inspired by Writer's Block (February 23-27, Bern, Switzerland).
• ICSE 2025: Toward a Theory on Programmer's Block Inspired by Writer's Block (April 30-May 3rd 2025, Ottawa, Canada).
• CSEE&T 2025: Knowledge Transfer and False Friends: Insights on Transitioning from C to Java (April 28-29 2025, Ottawa, Canada).