Software Quality Engineering Research Group (SoftQual)

Research Projects

Project Title	Duration	Funded by...	In collaboration with...
Tuning of Artifact and Process Parameters towards Optimized Maintenance	2012-2015	NSERC CRD grant #CRDPJ414157-11 and industry	NovAtel Inc. A joint project with the Software Engineering Decision Support Research Laboratory
Mining Repositories for Optimized Embedded Software Life-cycle Effort Allocation	2011 (May-October)	NSERC ENGAGE grant #EGP-413039	NovAtel Inc. A joint project with the Software Engineering Decision Support Research Laboratory
Design and Testing of defect-intolerant Embedded Systems. A multi-disciplinary team. Our team's focus area: Traceability analysis in the context of embedded software systems Papers: 1, 2 Tools: AutoETF, AutoBBUT, EmbeddedGear	2008-2011	NSERC CRD grant #CRDPJ 365295-08 and industry	Analog Devices Inc. CDL Systems Ltd. Ecole d'ingénieurs et d'architectes de Fribourg DirectVoxx A joint project with Dr. Mike Smith
Model-based Testing and Analysis of Distributed, Embedded and Real-Time Systems, sub-projects: Automated testing of SCADA software systems (papers: 1) Test code (script) analysis and engineering, and quality assessment of software test suites (papers: 1, 2, 3, 4) Search-based UML-driven testing of multi-agent-based software systems (papers: 1, 2, 3) Analysis of the Test Suites of the Android mobile Platform Survey of software testing practices in Alberta, Canada and world-wide (papers: 1)	2007-2012	NSERC Discovery grant #341511-07 and start-up funds from UofC	MR Control Systems International Inc.
Engineering (development, testing and maintenance of) Optimization Software for the Oil Pipeline Industry (details...) (papers: 1, 2)	2007-2011	Alberta Innovates grant #200600673 (previously called Alberta Ingenuity) and industry	Pembina Pipeline Corp. Optimal Solutions Ltd. Enbridge Inc.
Model-based Performance Testing and Analysis of Distributed Real-time Software (papers: to be listed)	2003-2006	NSERC Discovery and CRD grants, Canada Research Chair, and industry	IBM Canada Siemens Corporate Research Conducted in the Carleton University's Software Quality Engineering Laboratory (SQUALL)

Our Research Approach

We utilize action research and empirical approaches in our research and development (R&D) activities, since we are passionate about bridging software engineering academia and practice and we believe that the software engineering theory and techniques should be rigorously evaluated in industrial settings.

In the area of software engineering, research impact is of outmost importance. For example, there are projects (e.g., ACM SIGSOFT Impact Project) and even papers (1 and 2) measuring and analyzing the impact of software engineering research on software engineering practice. Our research approach and projects are well aligned in this direction, to ensure that our research activities and output have a noticeable impact on the software engineering practice.

We maintain a dedicated page where we place links to papers, talks, articles, etc. on Useful Software Engineering Research.

Testimonials from Industrial Partners

"Many thanks for your efforts. I reviewed the defect report. It looks complete and clear. I am very pleased with the results of the automated testing. We will consider all identified defects and will try to address them."

Matt M. Eskandar, PEng
CEO, MR Control Systems International Inc.
May 2010

Information for Potential Industrial Partners

The SoftQual lab focuses on applied software engineering research. This means our research addresses practical software engineering issues by investigating solutions that are viable given current technologies and typical system complexities. Our objective is to improve practice and develop prototype tools whose design is well thought out so that they can be extended into commercial tools. The Canadian government has a number of programs to sponsor industry-university relations. If you believe the type of research we do can be of interest to your organization, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Vahid Garousi.