Dr. Bonita Sharif and her students presented papers at the International Conference of Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) 2024 earlier this month.
Dr. Sharif, graduate student Kang-il Park, and undergraduate student Michael DeJournett all traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona, Oct. 6–11 to attend the 40th International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2024 and the IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT).
Park, a doctoral student in the School of Computing (advised by Dr. Sharif), also attended the Doctoral Symposium at ICSME. He presented his dissertation progress via a presentation and a poster and received feedback from a group of expert senior software engineering researchers on his research.
Citation: Park, K. “Assessing Software Developer Productivity and Emotional State Using Biometrics.” International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution Doctoral Symposium Track (ICSME 2024).
Dr. Sharif co-presented a paper with Doug Durham (of Don’t Panic Labs and Nebraska Global) on their collaboration in software engineering research and education.
Citation: Durham, D., and Sharif, B., (2024) “Integrating Lean Processes and Engineering Discipline into Work Culture Over 20 Years: An Experience Report”, 40th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2024), Industry Track, Oct 6-11 2024, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Students Kang-il Park, Isaac Baysinger (UNL graduate and now Software Engineer at Viavi Solutions), and Michael DeJournett were part of a paper on how UML layouts and working memory affect defect identification that was published at the 12th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT). DeJournett and Dr. Sharif co-presented this paper. VISSOFT is a small community of targeted software visualization research. This was DeJournett’s first published paper and presentation at a software engineering conference.3
Citation: Sharif, B., Park, K., DeJournett, M., Baysinger, I., Aly, M., Maletic, J. I. (2024), “Examining the Effects of Layout and Working Memory on UML Class Diagram Defect Identification”, 12th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), Oct 6-7, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Dr. Sharif also published a paper with UNL student Nate Liess, who helped in the qualitative analysis of videos to understand how developers layout diagrams. This analysis turned out to be a much more difficult task than initially anticipated. This poster generated a lot of discussion from international visualization researchers. Several suggestions on how to evaluate layouts visually were discussed.
Citation: Sharif, B., Liess, N., Maletic, J. I. (2024), “Exploring How Developers Layout UML Class Diagrams”, 12th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), Oct 6-7, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Dr. Sharif and her team of collaborators also published a tool demo paper at the 12th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), which won the best tool demo award. The tool paper extended the previous visualization software for eye tracking data (collected by iTrace) and expanded it to incorporate token-based heatmaps and support for scarf plots. Visualizing eye-tracking data on realistic systems is a challenge. When done correctly, these visualizations help in uncovering developer behaviors during software tasks. Josh Behler from Kent State demonstrated iTrace-Visualize live at the tool demo session. “The tool demo session at VISSOFT is one of the best sessions because you can play with tools live and test them out with their authors. This session was the most fun,” said Sharif.
Citation: Behler, J., Villalobos, G., Pangonis, J., Sharif, B., Maletic, J. I. (2024), “Extending iTrace-Visualize to Support Token-based Heatmaps and Region of Interest Scarf Plots for Source Code”, 12th IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT), Oct 6-7, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, – Best Tool Demo Award
Dr. Sharif acknowledges that a lot of this work is possible because of the motivated and driven students we have in the School of Computing. “After some reflection on what lessons were learned from this trip, it is time to move forward and continue pursuing the next research endeavor,” said Sharif.
