Named after Professor A. Nico Haberman, head of the Computer Science Department between 1980 and 1988 and Founding Dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, the lecture series enables students to engage with prominent faculty and well-known leaders in the field of computer science.

Lecture Title: Progress Toward an Engineering Discipline of Software

Abstract: Is “software engineering” really engineering?  The term was coined in 1968 to call attention to problems with software production. Both theory and practice for software have evolved since then, but do we yet have a true engineering discipline?  Classical engineering disciplines have emerged from craft practice and commercialization through the infusion of codified knowledge and science. Using this emergence pattern as a point of reference, I will sketch the evolution of software engineering, drawing on civil engineering and software architecture for examples that show the progressive codification of informal knowledge toward rigorous models and tools.  This will provide the basis for assessing the maturity of the field and identifying our next challenges.

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Biography:

Mary Shaw is the Alan J. Perlis University Professor of Computer Science in the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests lie in the area of software engineering, particularly software architecture and design of systems used by real people. She has received the United States’ National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award, the IEEE Computer Society TCSE’s Distinguished Educator Award, and CSEE&T’s Nancy Mead Award for Excellence in Software Engineering Education. At Carnegie Mellon she has received the Robert E. Doherty Award for Sustained Contributions to Excellence in Education and the SCS Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence. She is a fellow of the ACM, the IEEE, and the AAAS.