Research Topics in Software Engineering

This seminar is an opportunity to become familiar with current research in software engineering and more generally with the methods and challenges of scientific research.

Each student will be asked to study some papers from the recent software engineering literature and review them. This is an exercise in critical review and analysis. Active participation is required (a presentation of a paper as well as participation in discussions).

The aim of this seminar is to introduce students to recent research results in the area of programming languages and software engineering. To accomplish that, students will study and present research papers in the area as well as participate in paper discussions. The papers will span topics in both theory and practice, including papers on program verification, program analysis, testing, programming language design, and development tools. A particular focus will be on domain-specific languages.

 

General information

Tuesday, 14:15-16:00 CHN G 46

Lecturers


TAs

 

DownloadIntroduction slides (PDF, 1015 KB)

Language: English

Credits: 2 credits

Course catalogue

 

Schedule

How it Works

  • In the beginning of the seminar, every student will get a research paper and presentation date assigned (see schedule above). Please register your choice of paper here.
  • Understand the paper (motivation of the work, what they do, what the results are,
      what the limitations are)
  • study the paper carefully
  • obtain and study relevant background material such as other papers that are cited; you may need to include some of this
     background material in your presentation
  • create a presentation
  • try to follow the guidelines given in the first lecture
  • main check list what the presentation should include:
    • clear motivation for the work
    • maybe briefly provide some necessary background
    • clear explanation what the paper does; this means using, as appropriate, examples, well-designed visuals, code examples
    • do not trivialize the content, go deeper where necessary
    • understandable (by your fellow students) presentation of the content and the results
    • do not try to cover everything in the paper, just the key parts; be ready to explain any technical term used
    • brief critical discussion in the end of the contribution: strong and weak parts including limitations
    • strive for high visual quality
    • acknowledge any external material (graphics, anything included by copy-paste from other sources) on the same slide (bottom right, small font, gray is usually a good way)
  • If possible try out the tool/code that comes with the paper
  • Have one meeting with your advisor at least a week before your presentation for
    clarifications and feedback. Bring a complete draft of the presentation.
  • Present at your assigned date
    • Presentations are 30 minutes + 15 minutes for questions
    • The presentation time will be enforced (as in the real world) but much too short is a negative

Academic Integrity

Avoid copy-paste as much as possible. For material (especially graphics and anything included by copy-paste) not created by you but used in your presentation you have to provide an acknowledgment of the source on the same slide.
 

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