Events Calendar

CS Colloquium: Michael Ernst (University of Washington) - Analyzing the entire program: applying natural language processing to software engineering

Speaker: Michael Ernst, University of Washington

Talk Title: Analyzing the entire program: applying natural language processing to software engineering

Series: CS Colloquium

Abstract: This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Computer Science Research Colloquium. Part of Yahoo! Labs Machine Learning Seminar Series.

A powerful, but limited, way to view software is as source code alone.
Mathematical techniques, such as abstract interpretation and model checking, can indicate whether the program satisfies a formal specification. But, where does the formal specification come from?

A program consists of much more than a sequence of instructions.
Developers make use of test cases, documentation, variable names, program structure, the version control repository, and more. I argue that it is time to take the blinders off of software analysis tools: tools should use all these artifacts to deduce more powerful and useful information about the program.

Researchers are beginning to make progress towards this vision. In this talk, I will discuss four initial results that find bugs and generate code, by making use of variable names, error messages, procedure documentation, and user questions.


Biography: Michael D. Ernst is a Professor in the Computer Science & Engineering department at the University of Washington.

Ernst's research aims to make software more reliable, more secure, and easier (and more fun!) to produce. His primary technical interests are in software engineering, programming languages, type theory, security, program analysis, bug prediction, testing, and verification. Ernst's research combines strong theoretical foundations with realistic experimentation, with an eye to changing the way that software developers work.

Ernst is an ACM Fellow (2014) and received the inaugural John Backus Award (2009) and the NSF CAREER Award (2002). His research has received an ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award (2013), 8 ACM Distinguished Paper Awards (FSE 2014, ISSTA 2014, ESEC/FSE 2011, ISSTA 2009, ESEC/FSE 2007, ICSE 2007, ICSE 2004, ESEC/FSE 2003), an ECOOP 2011 Best Paper Award, honorable mention in the 2000 ACM doctoral dissertation competition, and other honors. In 2013, Microsoft Academic Search ranked Ernst #2 in the world, in software engineering research contributions over the past 10 years.

Dr. Ernst was previously a tenured professor at MIT, and before that a researcher at Microsoft Research.

More information is available at his homepage: http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mernst/.

Host: Chao Wang

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair