system engineering research topics

• Systems Ph.D.
• M.Eng. Degree On Campus
• M.Eng. Degree Distance Learning
• Systems M.S. Degree
• Minor in Systems Engineering
• Professional Certificates
• Student Organizations
• Energy Systems M.Eng. Pathway
• Health Systems Engineeing M.Eng. Pathway
• Systems M.Eng. Projects

Research Topics

• Research News
• Ezra's Round Table / Systems Seminar Series
• Academic Leadership
• Graduate Field Faculty
• Graduate Students
• Staff Directory
• Ezra Systems Postdoctoral Associates
• Research Associates
• Faculty Openings-Systems
• Get Involved
• Giving Opportunities
• Recruit Students
• Systems Magazine
• Academic Support
• Experience and Employment
• Graduate Services and Activities
• Mental Health Resources
• Recruitment Calendar
• Tuition and Financial Aid
• Program Description
• Program Offerings
• How to Apply
• Ezra Postdoctoral Associate in Energy Systems Engineering
• Cornell Systems Summit

Research in Systems Engineering at Cornell covers an extremely broad range of topics, because of this nature, the research takes on a collaborative approach with faculty from many different disciplines both in traditional engineering areas as well as those outside of engineering.

Because of the nature of systems science and engineering, the research takes on a collaborative approach with faculty and students from many different disciplines both in traditional engineering areas as well as those outside of engineering such as health care, food systems, environmental studies, architecture and regional planning, and many others.

Artificial Intelligence

Computational science and engineering, computer systems.

Data Mining

Earth and Atmospheric Science

Energy systems, health systems, heat and mass transfer.

Information Theory and Communication

Infrastructure Systems

Mechanics biological materials, natural hazards.

Programming Languages - CS

Remote Sensing

Robotics and autonomy, satellite systems, scientific computing, sensor and actuators, signal and image processing, space science and engineering, statistics and machine learning, statistical mechanics and molecular simulation, sustainable energy systems, systems and networking - cs, transportation systems engineering, water systems.

Oliver Gao | Civil and Environmental Engineering

David Goldberg | Operations Research and Information Engineering

Adrian Lewis |  Operations Research and Information Engineering

Linda Nozick |  Civil and Environmental Engineering

Francesca Parise | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mason Peck | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Patrick Reed |  Civil and Environmental Engineering

Samitha Samaranayake |  Civil and Environmental Engineering

Timothy Sands |  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Huseyin Topaloglu |  Operations Research and Information Engineering

Fengqi You | Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Mark Campbell | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Kirstin Petersen |  Electrical and Computer Engineering

Patrick Reed | Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jose Martinez | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Data Science

Madeleine Udell | Operations Research and Information Engineering

Maha Haji | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Semida Silveira | Systems Engineering

Jery Stedinger |  Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jefferson Tester | Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Lang Tong | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fengqi You |  Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Shane Henderson | Operations Research and Information Engineering

John Muckstadt |  Operations Research and Information Engineering

Jamol Pender |  Operations Research and Information Engineering

Rana Zadeh |  Human Centered Design

Yiye Zhang |  Weill Cornell Medicine

Information Theory and Communications

Stephen Wicker | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Programming Languages – CS

Andrew Myers | Computer Science

Fred Schneider | Computer Science

Mason Pack | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Mark Campbell |  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Robert Shepherd |  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Richardo Daziano | Civil and Environmental Engineering

Linda Nozick | Civil and Environmental Engineering

Bart Selman | Computer Science

Timur Dogan | Arts Architecture and Planning

Ken Birman | Computer Science

Hakim Weatherspoon | Computer Science

Richard Geddes | College of Human Ecology

Programs and Projects

Initiating Research

Capstone Marketplace

Events Calendar

Visualization of the SERC ecosystem

Worldwide Directory of SE and IE Programs

The Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC)

A University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) of the US Department of Defense, leverages the research and expertise of faculty, staff, and student researchers from more than 20 collaborating universities throughout the United States. SERC is unprecedented in the depth and breadth of its reach, leadership, and citizenship in Systems Engineering.

RESEARCH FOCUS AREAS

Latest news.

April 26, 2024

SERC UPDATES – April 2024

SERC Updates provides a bi-monthly highlight of research projects from across the SERC network of collaborators, recent news from the SERC community, links to popular events such as the SERC Talks, reading lists, job opportunities and much more.

April 25, 2024

An Interview with Dr. Paul Wach, Virginia Tech

Dr. Wach shared his aspirations for systems engineering and his place in the field, the engineers who have most inspired him, and an eclectic mix of books spanning sci-fi, history, and religion.

April 15, 2024

SERC Leaders and Researchers Attend CSER 2024

SERC researchers and senior leadership attended and presented at the 21st annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER), hosted for the first time by the University of Arizona on March 24-27, adding their insights on digital engineering, AI, teaching systems engineering and more.

February 22, 2024

SERC UPDATES – February 2024

February 6, 2024

An Interview with Dr. Valerie Sitterle, Georgia Tech

Dr. Sitterle discussed her latest research on decision-making processes, collaborating in her role on the SERC Research Council, her mentors at Georgia Tech, and some of her favorite history books.

SERC Leads Talks at INCOSE International Workshop

During the annual INCOSE International Workshop in California, SERC researchers shared insights on model-based systems engineering, digital engineering, safer complex systems, the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge and more.

Upcoming EVENTS

September 17, 2024

AI4SE & SE4AI Workshop 2024

The Systems Engineering Research Center is pleased to announce a call for abstracts for the fourth annual AI4SE & SE4AI Workshop being held on September 17-18, 2024. The event will be held at the George Mason University Arlington Campus. This highly anticipated event will bring together academia, go...

Systems Engineering Research Center

Stevens Institute of Technology 1 Castle Point Terrace Hoboken, NJ 07030

Phone: 201-216-8300 Fax: 201-216-8550

• Name * First Last
• Organization *
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Systems engineering research

• Published: 16 July 2008
• Volume 17 , pages 319–333, ( 2008 )

Cite this article

• Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui 1 ,
• Dennis M. Buede 2 &
• Andrew P. Sage 3  

341 Accesses

11 Citations

Explore all metrics

In this paper, we propose selected research topics that are believed central to progress and growth in the application of systems engineering (SE). As a professional activity, and as an intellectual activity, systems engineering has strong links to such associated disciplines as decision analysis, operation research, project management, quality management, and systems design. When focussing on systems engineering research, we should distinguish between subjects that are of systems engineering essence and others that more closely correspond to those that are more relevant for related disciplines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Research Methodology: An Introduction

The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research

Digital Twin: Mitigating Unpredictable, Undesirable Emergent Behavior in Complex Systems

Cervi, B. (2007). Race for flexibility, briefing agile production. Journal Manufacturing Engineer, 86 (4): 14–15

Article   Google Scholar  

Friedman, G. & Sage, A.P. (2004). Case studies of systems engineering and management in systems acquisition. Systems Engineering, 7 (1): 84–97

Gotel, O. & Finkelstein, A. (1994). An analysis of the requirements traceability problem. In: Proceedings of First International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 94–101, 1994

Honour, E. & Buede, D. (1998). SE Research Agenda. Private communication

Jackson, M. (1995). Software Requirements and Specification: A Lexicon of Practice, Principles and Prejudices. Addison-Wesley

Larsen, R. & Buede, D. (2002). Theoretical framework for the continuous early validation (CEaVa) Method. Systems Engineering, 5 (3): 223–241

Maier, M.W. (1998). Architecting principles for systems-of-systems. Systems Engineering, 1 (4): 267–284

Messaadia, M. & Sahraoui, A.E.K. (2005). PLM as linkage process in a systems engineering framework. International Journal of Product Development, 4 (3/4): 382–395

Sage, A.P. (2004). Sustainable development: issues in information, knowledge, and systems management. Information Knowledge Systems Management, 1 (3/4): 185–223

Google Scholar  

Sage, A.P. & Cuppan, C.D. (2001). On the systems engineering and management of systems of systems and federations of systems. Information, Knowledge, and Systems Management, 2 (4): 325–345

Sahraoui, A.E.K. (1999). System engineering: a discipline for unifying engineering education. Incose Insight, 1 (2): 19–21

Sekiuchi, R., Aoki, C., Kurematsu, M., & Yamaguchi, T. (1998). DODDLE: a domain ontology rapid development environment. In: Proceedings of PRICAI 98 (Pacific Rim International Conferences on Artificial Intelligence)

Zowghi, D. & Gervasi, V. (2005). On the interplay between consistency, completeness, and correctness in requirement evolution. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 14 (3): 277–330

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

LAAS-CNRS and Université de Toulouse, 7 Avenue du Colonel Roche Toulouse, 31077, Toulouse, France

Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui

Innovative Decisions, Inc., 2139 Golf Course Dr. Reston, VA, 20191, Reston, USA

Dennis M. Buede

Dept. of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

Andrew P. Sage

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui .

Additional information

Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui got his PhD and Habilitation in 1987 and 1994. He is actually Professor at Toulouse II University. He has been associate researcher at the University of California, Berkeley during academic year 1999–2000 pursuing research in system engineering for advanced transportation systems. He was guest professor and chair of requirement engineering at Hasso Plattner Institute for systems software engineering, Postdam, Germany in academic year 2001/2002.

Dennis Buede received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the Engineering-Economic Systems Department of Stanford University and his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He is currently a Principal in Innovative Decisions, Inc., which conducts decision and risk analyses. He has been a Professor of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at Stevens Institute of Technology and Professor at George Mason University. He is actually Vice Executive President at Innovative Decisions Inc.

Andrew P. Sage received the BSEE degree from the Citadel, the SMEE degree from MIT and the Ph.D. from Purdue, the latter in 1960. He received honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees from the University of Waterloo in 1987 and from Dalhousie University in 1997. He has been a faculty member at several universities including holding a named professorship and being the first chair of the Systems Engineering Department at the University of Virginia. In 1984 he became First American Bank Professor of Information Technology and Engineering at George Mason University and the first Dean of the School of Information Technology and Engineering. In May 1996, he was elected as Founding Dean Emeritus of the School and also was appointed a University Professor. He is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Council on Systems Engineering. He is editor of the John Wiley textbook series on Systems Engineering and Management, the INCOSE Wiley journal Systems Engineering and is coeditor of Information, Knowledge, and Systems Management. He edited the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics from January 1972 through December 1998, and also served a two-year period as President of the IEEE SMC Society. In 1994 he received the Donald G. Fink Prize from the IEEE, and a Superior Public Service Award for his service on the CNA Corporation Board of Trustees from the US Secretary of the Navy. In 2000, he received the Simon Ramo Medal from the IEEE in recognition of his contributions to systems engineering and an IEEE Third Millennium Medal. In 2002, he received an Eta Kappa Nu Eminent Membership Award and the INCOSE Pioneer Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 for contributions to the theory and practice of systems engineering and systems management. In 2007, he was elected as a Charter Member of the Omega Alpha systems engineering honor society. His interests include systems engineering and management efforts in a variety of application areas including systems integration and architecting, reengineering, engineering economic systems, and sustainable development.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Sahraoui, AEK., Buede, D.M. & Sage, A.P. Systems engineering research. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. 17 , 319–333 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-008-5083-9

Download citation

Published : 16 July 2008

Issue Date : September 2008

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-008-5083-9

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Systems engineering
• systems of systems
• requirements engineering
• systems families
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Systems Engineering

Studying systems at UC Berkeley in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department

• About systems
• Students and alumni
• Prospective students

You are here

The Systems Engineering program faculty conducts research in numerous fields which are listed below. As an MS student, you will gain tremendous exposure to the topics below, which are at the forefront of research and technology, through the classes you will take (which build partially on these research activities), and through direct exposure to the research work through projects or Graduate Student Research appointments.  

Deterioration models deployed in Bridge Management Systems (BMS) to determine optimal Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (MR&R) polices are developed from bridge condition data. The low resolution and coverage of these data sets have produced inaccurate models and significant lifecycle cost increase. This research applies adaptive control to successively improve the deterioration models over time, and to improve MR&R decision-making. Stochastic Duration Models are used and updated by Open-loop Feedback Control. Results have shown improvements relative to Certainty-Equivalence Control methods and time-invariant Markov Models used in current BMS. The benefits of this approach are evaluated through an ongoing empirical study.  

• Advanced Battery Management Systems

We are developing battery monitoring and control software to improve the capacity, safety, and charge rate of electric vehicle batteries. Conventional methods for preventing premature aging and failures in electric vehicle batteries involve expensive and heavy overdesign of the battery and tend to result in inefficient use of available battery capacity. The objective is to increase usable capacity and enhance charging rates by improving the ability to estimate battery health in real-time, to predict and manage the impact of charge and discharge cycles on battery health, and to minimize battery degradation.  

The Earth produces enough thermal energy to meet human demands many times over, but geothermal energy production has been limited to a few ideal locations.  Engineering solutions can allow us to unlock the geothermal energy under conditions where water does not flow freely through hot rock. Using a specially constructed laboratory apparatus, we are exploring the use of supercritical CO2 (a pervasive greenhouse gas) instead of water as the geothermal circulating fluid in order to increase energy production by 80% and to allow production at locations that are not ideal for conventional methods. 

The Connected Corridors program is a collaborative effort among a range of stakeholders - including the California Department of Transportation - to research, develop, and test a framework for corridor traffic operations in California. Connected Corridors is investigating how corridor components (highways, arterials, buses and rail) can work together efficiently so they can be managed as an integrated system, to reduce congestion and improve mobility. Connected Corridors will leverage new technologies: the internet, cellular and mobile devices, GPS technology, and social networking; along with building on the exeprience from previous PATH projects, including Tools for Operational Planning (TOPL) and Mobile Millennium. 

• Discrete Choice Methods

Fundamental to any research are the statistical tools that are used to model behavior, and therefore a significant part of my research is focused on improving these methods. There are issues with how models are specified, in particular the weak connection with the way people make decisions. I work to develop tools that enable more realistic specifications of the behavior. There are also issues with the methods being applied incorrectly, and I do work to uncover and fix these mistakes.

This project builds an accurate activity-based simulation of traffic movement within Ireland. The simulation relies on MatSim simulation software and incorporates multiple data sources from population census and national transportation agencies. The model also uses social media and the geography of the social network to study social influences in activity choice and travel behaviours .

   Floating Sensor Network

• Highway Pavement Network Resurfacing Policy

Traditionally, pavement management optimization has focused on minimizing user and agency costs. Previous research has expanded beyond minimization of life-cycle costs, to also include GHG emission, by solving the multi-criteria optimization problem with two objectives. Case studies were performed for an arterial and a major highway to highlight the contrast between policy decisions for various pavement and vehicle technologies.  The current research aims to extend the multi-objective optimization methodology (with life-cycle costs and GHG emissions) to the management of an entire highway network in the presence of realistic constraints.    

i2maps is an open-source software project. It provides a programming framework for interactive web visualisation and knowledge discovery from spatio-temporal data. It combines JavaScript and Python libraries to present the results of your data analysis quickly and easily to your target audience.

It is estimated that seasonal snow cover is responsible for 80% or more of annual water supplies in California. Stewardship of the state’s valuable water supply requires understanding of the mountain hydrology system from the first snowfall to the water in your tap. We are operating two of the largest wireless sensor networks in the world - a 60-node wireless sensor network, (> 280 sensors) near Shaver Lake, CA and more than 250-nodes in the American River basin (> 1200 sensors), allowing investigation of the effects of local-scale phenomena on large-scale mountain hydrology, something which is unfeasible without the WSN.

Turn your iPhone into an earthquake-measuring device and get live maps of other users' shakes! UC Berkeley is conducting research on the validity of modern smart phones being used as mobile earthquake sensors. Contribute your phone as a sensor to the project. Simply turn the application on when you plug in your phone at night and any possible earthquake triggers measured by your phone will instantly be streamed back to our University servers for further processing and map generation.

  Laboratory Earthquakes

Through carefully controlled experiments, fundamental mechanisms of fault rupture initiation are being studied with a level of detail unimaginable in the field.  This is made possible by sensors designed in the Glaser lab.  These devices allow accurate measurement of displacements as small as 1 pm, over a wide frequency band; no other displacement sensor can match this performance.  Current work includes scaling effects of near-fault measurement on perceived source dynamics, localized precursors to rupture, and nano-friction.

• Large-scale Urban Model Systems

This is the most applied area of research that I work on and is motivated by my time in industry (4-plus years at Caliper Corporation, 2-plus years as their Director of Demand Modeling). My emphasis here is to make use of the advances in the methods for modeling behavior and our increased understanding of behavior to improve the large-scale urban model systems used to inform decision-making regarding infrastructure investment and transportation policy. I work in both the developed and developing world contexts.  

• Learning Spatial Human Dynamics

This project builds machine learning models to uncover the complexity of urban mobility and the interplay between social networks and population movements in cities at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. 

• Maintenance Management for Bridge Networks

The research addresses the problem of optimizing maintenance, rehabilitation decisions for deteriorating bridges in highway networks. We search for the optimal maintenance plan which ensures an adequate level of network reliability at the lowest possible life-cycle cost. We show that the network reliability function can be obtained directly from the minimal cut sets under reasonable approximations. Analytical and efficient approaches are developed for networks with multiple origin-destination pairs. We also investigate large scale networks with the objective of minimizing the disruption to traffic caused by bridge failures by decomposing the network-level problem into single facility problems. 

   Measuring Decision-Making

   Monitoring Flexible Loads for Demand Response

   Philippines Internet of Water

Making a water secure world is becoming the watchword of the 21 st century – security of supply and quality, security from water-driven natural hazards, security of fragile ecosystems.  Watershed degradation in the Philippines is becoming severe, affecting livelihoods, particularly for those who depend on farming and forestry activities.  The Internet of Water will build and operate hardened hydro/geo observatories that will provide detailed, comprehensive and real-time information on surface and subsurface hydrologic conditions, local meteorological conditions, vegetative state, and ground movements of the watersheds.  Experimental sites include the  Molawin-Maralas catchment and the Dampalit  watershed, within the Mt Makiling Forest Reserve.

• Resilient Infrastructure

Many of our nation’s critical infrastructure systems are aging and becoming increasingly unreliable. How do we ascertain which of the multitude of components comprising a system are the most critical? In our research, we are creating algorithms that enable us to model large systems in a probabilistic manner, specifically, as a Bayesian network. In an environment where information about a system is uncertain and evolving over time, for example, after a natural or man-made disaster, this powerful framework is ideally suited for risk assessment and to support decision making for our nation’s complex infrastructure systems .

• Seismic Tunnel Detection Methods

The detection of unknown tunnels and other underground openings is a challenging problem in geophysics and has implications for geomechanical design, public safety, and domestic security.  We are investigating a number of different seismic techniques that show promise in addressing these challenges: surface wave backscattering, body wave diffraction, resonant wave imaging, and attenuation tomography.  In particular, we are interested in the limitations of these methods with regards to the target object’s depth and size, and the effect of naturally occurring geological heterogeneity on their resolution.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) studies the health of buildings over time. In this project, we use sensors to predict the response of a building to an earthquake. In our methodology, we combine our prior knowledge about the building with new information we obtain from sensors mounted on the building to dynamically monitor the structure. Our framework analyzes the evolution of the building probabilistically, informs decision making on the design of SHM strategies, and supports smart decisions about structural systems.

• Travel Behavior Modeling

Within the domain of transportation, predicting travel behavior is critical for improving the models that are used to evaluate infrastructure plans and policies. I work to incorporate factors into the models that are believed to be important in behavior and yet are not generally included. I have focused on social influences, the role of information, attitudes towards the environment, and higher-order lifestyle orientations.

   Travel Quality Study

• Traveler Behavior Change

This follows directly from travel behavior modeling, because once we understand what drives behavior, we can work to shift individual’s travel in more desirable directions (including more sustainable and healthier). Our Quantified Traveler project tracked individual’s travel via smartphone, fed back information on resources spent traveling (time, money, emissions, and calories) along with social comparisons of how much other people spent. In the three week experiment, we saw a measurable shift away from driving and towards biking and walking. 

This project led by Nachi Mehta is inspired by UC Berkeley’s  WorkFit  program to help make fitness and healthy eating easier for both participants of the program and their instructors. The benefit of harmonizing technology and fitness is two fold in this case, not only are participants able to keep on track with their fitness and diet goals, but instructors are able to see real-time data for their clients. With more information at their fingertips, instructors are better able to individualize programs and better able to help their clients achieve success.

• Adaptive System-Level Bridge Management Decision-Making
• Clean Energy from Hot Dry Rock
• Connected Corridors
• Dublin in Motion
• Floating Sensor Network
• Intelligent Water Grids
• Laboratory Earthquakes
• Measuring Decision-Making
• Mobile Millennium
• Monitoring Flexible Loads for Demand Response
• Philippines Internet of Water
• Travel Quality Study
• Towards Healthier Eating in the UC Berkeley Community

Systems Engineering Studying systems at UC Berkeley in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Civil and Environmental Engineering,  UC Berkeley

• Organization
• Call for Submissions
• keynote speaker
• SEANET 2024
• SE T/TT Faculty Interest Group
• Registration fees

March 2024 Tucson, AZ hosted by the University of Arizona College of Engineering

Stevens institute of technology, conference on systems engineering research 2023.

All accepted and presented full papers will be published in electronic proceedings with digital object identifiers (DOIs) and citation tracking.

Conference on Systems Engineering Research

Systems Engineering Toward a Smart and Sustainable World

Cser 2023 event photos.

Click on above images for a clearer view of some event highlights.

Important dates.

Submission to CSER 2023 has closed on Dec 11th.

Foundational Research Topics

Call for papers, the following types of submissions are welcome:, rsvp (coming soon).

Join us in Hoboken, NJ

UCL Computer Science

• Research topics

Research Topics

The main streams of our research are within exciting and important areas in software engineering and the digital arts/humanities.

We are always looking for talented people who are interested in joining SSE as visiting scholars (at all levels), PhD students, Research Assistants and Research Fellows.

Below you can find some of the topics we work on and the main contact person within our group. If you are interested, get in touch with Prof Federica Sarro  (Head of the group) and with the speficied contact within a given topic. Please, include in the message your CV, a statement of your research interests and experience, ideal starting time (and transcripts if you are a student) in your message.

Search Based Software Engineering

Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) uses advanced computational search (for example genetic algorithms and evolutionary computation and other meta and hyper heuristics) to solve complex software engineering problems.

Prof Harman was instrumental in founding this field of Software Engineering and coined the term “Search Based Software Engineering” in 2001. Professor Sarro and Professor Petka are well-established world-leading researchers in this area. 

SBSE can be thought of as the application of advanced AI techniques to software engineering, with a particular focus on optimisation. Read a recent tutorial paper on SBSE .

CREST has worked with ABB, Daimler, Ericsson, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft and Motorola on the development of SBSE so PhD students have many opportunities to work with companies should they wish to do so.

Possible collaboration and PhD topics in this area cover the complete spectrum of activity in software engineering (in its traditional and emergent forms). CREST is particularly well known for work on SBSE applications to software analysis and testing, repair, refactoring, management and requirements engineering. However, we are always willing to discuss SBSE projects with scholars who are interested in developing new application areas as well as these more established areas.

They have given many keynote talks and invited papers that set out open problems and research agendas for exciting developments in SBSE, all of which are available on our publications page. Prof. Harman, Sarro and Petke are is always willing to discuss potential projects on SBSE with prospective students via email. Other SSE staff are also very active in SBSE: Dr Krinke is interested in SBSE for clone detection; Dr Gold is interested in SBSE for program comprehension and program analysis and musicology. 

• Main contact: Prof. Federica Sarro 

Testing Software Product Lines

Software product lines are sets features that are combined into software products that satisfy a specific need from a customer or a specific market. The number of products that can be generated range from a few to thousands of products.

Due to the tangled components and complex configuration, verification and validation of product lines is challenging. Testing is one approach to verification and validation of the products and/or the product line.

The challenges in testing product lines that have to be faced and solved are that it may not be possible to test each possible product individually and that there exist no possibility to test a product line independent of products.

• Contact Jens Krinke

Dependence Analysis and Change Impact Analysis

Software systems can be seen of collections of parts that may or may not depend on each other. These range from statements and functions that are linked to each other, over large components like classes or packages, to non-source code artefacts like requirements and models that are linked to each other or to other artefacts.

In this research stream, we analyse software systems to identify the dependencies between the different parts and use them to solve software engineering problems. One example of such a problem is change impact analysis where the question is which elements of a software system are affected by a (potential) change to an element of the system.

Change impact analysis is an important technique that is extremely useful during software maintenance, for example, it can be used to establish which test cases have to be rerun after a change has been applied to a system.

Source Code Provenance

With the availability of source code available to be reused and the huge number of developers involved in large projects, it gets more and more important to establish the provenance of the current code within a project. 

This touches questions like “where is this code coming from”, “who has modified the code”, or “where has this code been reused”.  Such questions arise for example to establish if one is allowed to use the software according to its license or just to figure out who can answer questions about that code best. Approaches to answer such questions use large-scale string matching and software repository mining.

Secure Information Flow

A lot effort in making software secure goes into a kind of “fire-fighting”, i.e. discovering and closing vulnerabilities in code. However, even if all vulnerabilities have been eliminated, code still may not be secure.

It may contain covert channels that allow attacks on confidentiality of information, integrity of information, and the privacy and anonymity of the user. Such covert channels leaking information may be within the logic of the program or be so-called “side channels” such as measuring execution times or heat dissipation over different runs.

The challenge of constructing security critical code for contemporary software is enormous. Semantics based program analysis and type systems have a large role to play in guaranteeing end-to-end information security for networked systems.

• Contact David Clark

Semantic Analysis of Found Code

Found code is code that the analyser did not write. It may be source code or binaries. The task is to understand what it does and the (common) motivation is defence against malicious behaviours. Techniques include reverse engineering, program analysis, testing, and use of SMT solvers.

There are a whole range of problem domains in this area, for example malware classification and techniques for combatting packing, encryption and rewriting engines.

Testing Information Transformers

The hypothesis for this research is that the answers to some long standing questions in the theory of testing programs can be found or at least improved by viewing programs as transformers of information and using techniques from information theory and the measurement of information flow in programs to build an information theoretic theory of testing which answers questions such as the following.

• How do I select the test suite?
• When is it adequate?
• What does adequate mean in terms of information?
• How do I order the tests?

There is a security aspect to this research. An improvement in testing generally will improve the “fire fighting” of vulnerabilities and exploits, particularly when harnessed with information about attack vector templates.

Human-Computer Music Performance

There are many professional and amateur ensembles that perform popular music (e.g. jazz, rock, folk, music theatre, and contemporary church music) and would benefit from a computer stepping in when a human musician is absent and unable to play. 

Popular music has a steady beat and reasonably well-defined structures (e.g. chord patterns), but typically involves improvisation at many levels including sectionalised scores (re-arrangeable during performance), and improvised generation of the musical surface.  

Live interactive performance in this genre is thus a complex and interesting domain in which to undertake research.  Many disciplines and research methods are needed to tackle this problem including ethnography, computer vision, natural user interfaces, computer music (generation, machine listening, music information retrieval, representation), musicology, music performance, and real-time systems.   

Applications are thus welcome from potential students who have experience and expertise from a range of backgrounds.

• Contact Nicolas Gold

Computational Musicology

Computers have many applications in musicology, ranging from relatively simple applications to support musicologists in answering particular questions, through to complex models and algorithms to support entire research areas. 

Previous work in CREST has focused on computationally-enhanced studies of musical performance (piano performance, shaping in music) and continues by applying our expertise in information theory and search to problems in music analysis. 

Much of this work is collaborative (e.g. with the AHRC Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice and the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities).

Interdisciplinary Source Code Analysis

Combining CREST’s expertise in source code analysis and our interest in interdisciplinary applications, this strand of research focuses on the challenges posed by non-traditional source code (e.g. Max/MSP patches) and the opportunities available to enhance practice and research by developing new ways to analyse and develop in such languages. 

We have worked on clone detection in graphical data-flow languages like Max/MSP and Pure Data and welcome applications from potential students with interests in arts computing and/or source code analysis.

Probabilistic Modelling of S/W Testing

Most of the existing white-box testing techniques rely on structural adequacy criteria, such as statement or path coverage. The purpose of defining test adequacy criteria is to achieve a balance between effectiveness and efficiency of testing.

However, structural criteria fail to scale up for the systems that can really benefit from better testing, simply because fine-grained metrics like code coverage lose the relevance for large and complex systems. This strand of research combines the existing expertise of CREST – information theory and testing – to form a probabilistic view of the software testing, allowing us to assess and predict the system’s reliability with confidence.

Gamification of Software Engineering

The success of Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) bears an interesting observation: many software engineering tasks can be viewed as combinatorial optimisation.

This research will investigate whether it is possible to create entertaining gaming experience, essentially by extending meta-heuristics for SBSE to more interactive ones.

The grand challenge is to completely encapsulate the original software engineering problem and to present a playable game instead, seeking human insights into the problem solving. The research will also consider whether any non-conventional user interface and/or visualization can help specific software engineering tasks.

Professor Federica Sarro , Head of Research Group

Department of Computer Science  University College London 66-72 Gower Street London View Map

Find other Software Systems Engineering staff

Publications

You can find all of the Intelligent Systems Group's published research on our Publications page.

Study with us

• You can find out more about the  Software Systems Engineering MSc on the UCL Prospective Students website.
• You can also browse our PhD opportunities

Research projects

The SSE group currently leads several national and international research projects and participates in many more. Browse all our projects on our dedicated page.

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University

• Buckeye Link
• Find People
• Search Ohio State
• Majors + academics
• Majors and degrees

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Campus: Columbus

College: Engineering

To be considered for this major, freshmen applying to the Columbus campus are strongly encouraged to submit their complete admission application by November 1. 

Industrial engineers address the overall performance of systems, responsiveness of systems to customer and user needs, and the quality of products or services produced. Industrial engineers recognize how the design of machinery, tools, equipment, computers, software and automated systems affect the performance of people and work systems. They also evaluate and design the roles people play within work systems to ensure people can safely, effectively and efficiently perform their tasks while maximizing work quality. 

Organizations from every sector of our economy—banking, food, energy, health care, commercial aviation, manufacturing, logistics, entertainment and government—turn to industrial engineers for help in improving an organization’s efficiency and productivity. Industrial engineers often work in teams with other types of engineers and business specialists to design and improve systems that produce and distribute goods and services. Industrial engineers guide and support organizational management and often become managers. 

Get started

Prospective students interested in pursuing engineering at Ohio State must indicate their engineering major of interest on their application. Applicants are reviewed holistically by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Some engineering majors have available capacity and can direct enroll students into the major without an additional application process. Other engineering majors have a pre-major component and require an additional application process.

To learn about admission to specific engineering majors, visit:  https://engineering.osu.edu/undergraduate/future-students/admissions

All engineering students have a similar first-year plan of study, the college core, that provides fundamental courses in math, science and engineering.

Students in the industrial and systems engineering program gain a strong engineering foundation coupled with core course work in engineering economics, simulation, optimization, quality control, supply chain management and logistics, project management, manufacturing processes, workplace and facility design, ergonomics, lean engineering, systems thinking and cognitive systems engineering.

In addition to the college core and major courses, engineering students also take select core courses and general education courses.

Study abroad

Engineering students have several opportunities for global education, including  service learning ,  semester abroad , international internships,  engineering-specific study abroad  programs or the  Global Option in Engineering program . 

Whether it be installing solar panels on Haitian schools, researching biomedical optics in China, devising solutions for sustainable food production in Honduras, or setting speed records on the Isle of Man, Ohio State engineering students venture beyond classrooms and labs to find success in every corner of the globe. 

Students work with  Engineering Career Services  to find both paid internships and co-op jobs across the United States and around the world. About 75% of engineering students participate in a co-op or internship before they graduate. 

Honors and Scholars

Honors and Scholars  offer students an opportunity to pursue academic rigor (Honors) or foster passion through community (Scholars). Engineering students can enhance their experience by getting involved with one of the following engineering-based programs.

Engineering Honors

The  Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors (FEH) Program  is an optional course sequence that is offered to University Honors-designated engineering students. This accelerated program is designed to challenge students and provide them with a foundation in engineering principles that are necessary for success throughout their academic careers.

Engineering Scholars

Engineering Scholars contemplate the adoption of socially responsible practices within engineering as a means to minimize health risks and environmental impact and maximize efficiency, feasibility and sustainability.

Humanitarian Engineering Scholars  learn about and engage in engineering activities that impact underserved areas by addressing pressing problems. 

At Ohio State, engineering students conduct research alongside top faculty from across the university—doctors, physicists, designers, artists and experts in many other fields—to advance our knowledge and improve the world around us. Students enjoy multiple outlets to share their work, including Ohio State's annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum each spring. Learn more about  engineering research .

Industrial and systems engineering research topics:

• human systems integration
• resilience engineering
• biomechanics, physical ergonomics and safety
• optimization
• supply chain management and logistics
• forming and casting of lightweight materials
• data analytics, date-driven optimization and visual analytics

Student organizations

Industrial and systems engineering students choose from more than 80  engineering student organizations , including Alpha Pi Mu, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Big Data Analytics Association, Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, and Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Possible careers

Graduates of the industrial systems engineering program develop strong technical, management and design skills that are valuable to many different industries. They pursue a variety of career paths, including jobs in manufacturing and production,  health care, finance, energy systems, retail and distribution, aviation, information technology, marketing, and education.

For the past three years, 83 percent of industrial and systems engineering graduates have been placed in full-time employment within 3 months of graduation.

Some employers of industrial and systems engineering graduates include Accenture, AMEND Consulting, Boeing Co., Deloitte Consulting LLP., Eaton, Ford Motor Co., Honda, IBM Corp., JP Morgan Chase, Mettler Toledo, PepsiCo, SwagelokCo. and Whirlpool Corp.

Many graduates work with Engineering Career Services to find their first job.

Salary estimates

Beginning annual salaries for recent industrial and systems engineering graduates average $65,724.

Future students

More about this major

College website

Academic info

Department website

Interested in a career in the STEM fields?

Check out the STEM Pathway to discover the many majors Ohio State offers that can lead to a career in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

SELECT STUDENT TYPE

• First-year applicants
• Transfer applicants
• International applicants
• Military-connected applicants
• High school counselors
• Parents, guardians and families

Ph.D. in Human Systems Engineering

Workshop Explores Sustainable Software in Research

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Morgan Usry

College of computing school of computer science, software engineering.

In software development, project sustainability is paramount for ensuring long-term viability and continued growth. Sustainable software allows research projects to evolve with new technology and enables project maintainers to sustain interest in growing and transforming the software over time.

A recent workshop hosted on April 3 by Georgia Tech’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) and the Center for Scientific Software Engineering (SSE) gave researchers and students the opportunity to learn about available sustainable software resources.

The Sustainable Software in Academia workshop featured Georgia Tech research scientists and software engineers who shared the latest information on developing and maintaining sustainable software for research projects.

Jeffrey Young , OSPO director, and SSE co-director, said the workshop aligned with each organization’s goals of creating positive change for the research enterprise at Georgia Tech and in the broader academic community.

“Resources like the OSPO are explicitly meant to be a central point for researchers who may not know where to ask for help with their open-source projects. We strongly encourage all attendees, along with Georgia Tech researchers and students, to review the topics discussed and reach out to us with questions,” said Young.

According to Young, a senior research scientist in the School of Computer Science, the workshop provided a “from the ground up” exploration of the resources of the two centers. It also focused on how the centers can improve the quality of scientific software or open-source projects for researchers. 

Along with discussions of software engineering best practices, College of Computing Senior Associate Dean and Professor Irfan Essa and Suresh Marru, director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Science and Engineering (ARTISAN), covered AI-related efforts at the Institute level. Marru introduced the ARTISAN center, which brings new capabilities to Georgia Tech researchers to develop advanced AI science workflows using open-source tools.

A large portion of the workshop was dedicated to best practices for software engineering of scientific research projects. Dave Brownell, head of engineering for SSE, shared some tips on how to incorporate software engineering into research projects. These insights included the use of continuous integration and related tools to maintain the code quality of research projects and developing a shared vision for how research software should be built and maintained long-term. A panel forum with SSE research software engineers created an open discussion of best practices.

“The discussion was lively with a special focus on how Georgia Tech can better support quality software projects as well as a long, sustained lifecycle for open-source projects,” said Young.

Recent Stories

Student Startup Wins $50K, Advances in Microsoft…

Friday, May 17, 2024

Chatbots Are Poor Multilingual Healthcare Consultants…

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

We are thrilled to announce Vivek Sarkar as the new Dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech! With a distinguished career spanning academia and industry, Sarkar's leadership promises to elevate our community to new heights. https://t.co/2mX5D46cJz pic.twitter.com/LxpLTCXWZV — Georgia Tech Computing (@gtcomputing) April 12, 2024

@GeorgiaTech 's dedication to excellence in computer science (CS) has been recognized once again, with the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings unveiling the institution at 7th place overall for graduate CS studies. https://t.co/qavNUSTb7n pic.twitter.com/BcGyGBQld8 — Georgia Tech Computing (@gtcomputing) April 10, 2024