HumaniSE Lab

Farewell to Dulaji Hidellaarachchi!  Dulaji has been a PhD student since 2019 and then a Research Associate since 2023 with Monash Faculty of IT. She finishes her role with us early in the new year and we wish her well in her new role as a Lecturer at RMIT.  She is an expert in empirical and qualitative methods in Software Engineering (SE), and the impact of human aspects on the software engineering process. These include personality, motivation, performance, cognitive capabilities, accessibility challenges, diverse software engineering teams, and many others. Her work has been published in top venues including TSE, TOSEM, EMSE, ICSE, CHASE, COMPSAC and others. She has worked with a range of industry and societal groups to better understand and improve diversity and inclusion in software engineering teams. We look forward to continuing collaborations with her new team at RMIT!

We’re thrilled to celebrate Rashina Hoda receiving the Guiding Star Mentorship Award at the inaugural Women of Colour in STEM Awards earlier this month! This award recognises Rashina’s outstanding dedication to mentoring through the STEM Sisters Mentoring Program. Her commitment to mentoring in STEM has made a real difference to so many. Learn more about the awards and their incredible impact: https://lnkd.in/gBfiv7MX Rashina is pictured with Prof Ann Nicholson (left) and Dr Ruwangi Fernando, the founder of STEM Sisters and the Women of Colour in STEM Awards (right). Monash Information Technology, STEM Sisters

Congratulations to Hira Naveed on successfully completing an internship at Aurecon! We're thrilled to celebrate this milestone and hope the experience was both insightful and enriching for your research journey. Aurecon is an engineering and advisory organisation with an increasing focus on incorporating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to enhance the engineering lifecycle. This internship focused on exploring existing research and developing evaluation and monitoring techniques for the LLM applications being developed at Aurecon. Assessment of LLM applications is critical for building client trust and maintaining service quality. The expected outcomes for this internship were eliciting evaluation and monitoring requirements for Aurecon’s LLM applications, the design and development of an LLM assessment framework, implementation of evaluators and monitors for an LLM application, and the creation of LLM agent ontologies. Monash Information Technology, APR.Intern

Impact of Human Aspects on the Interactions Between Software Developers and Users Human factors play a critical role in software engineering, especially in shaping how developers and users collaborate. Our systematic literature review (SLR) dives into the influence of these human aspects, analysing their relationships, and identifying both positive impacts and strategies for negative effects. Key findings: ➡️ Developer-user dynamics are essential for successful software projects. ➡️ Identified research gaps to guide future studies. ➡️ Practical recommendations for both academia and industry. Led by Hashini Gunatilake, we explored trends, limitations, and future directions in this evolving area of Software Engineering (SE), aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice. As a software practitioner, these insights can help improve system quality, boost user satisfaction, and enhance project outcomes by effectively managing developer-user interactions. For researchers, this SLR opens up new areas for exploration. Learn more and access the paper: https://lnkd.in/gyX_6ndU Monash Information Technology, John Grundy, Rashina Hoda, Ingo Mueller #SoftwareEngineering #HumanAspects

Thank you, Dr. Chetan Arora from Monash University, Australia, for visiting us and sharing your insights on Generative AI-driven transformations in the Software Development World. Your session was truly inspiring for our students, and we hope to learn more from you in the future! Chetan Arora, Ph.D., FHEA #monashuniversity #viie #vsit #ai #guestlecture

Enhancing Mobile App Reviews with Structured Feedback and NLP-Driven Analysis Our latest project tackles the challenges of unstructured and fake mobile app reviews by introducing a structured review system. With predefined tags like "Usability" and "Features" and verification markers like "Verified Purchase," we aim to improve the authenticity of reviews. Using advanced NLP models (GPT-4, RoBERTa), the system automates tag generation and sentiment analysis, offering developers actionable insights. A prototype tested by 37 participants showed enhanced review clarity, trust, and authenticity. https://lnkd.in/g9ZyggyN Accepted in Communications in Computer and Information Science Journal (CCIS) Monash Information Technology, Omar Haggag, John Grundy, Rashina Hoda

LazyCow: A Lightweight Crowdsourced Testing Tool for Taming Android Fragmentation. Android fragmentation, with its endless variety of device models and OS versions, makes it nearly impossible for developers to test their apps on every device. This often leads to compatibility issues, crashes, and frustrated users. Existing tools primarily focus on API-based compatibility, but they overlook the broader scope, such as OS customisations by manufacturers, which can create unseen issues. LazyCow is a testing solution that helps developers detect a wider range of compatibility issues across real Android devices. Unlike traditional methods, LazyCow dynamically executes test cases directly on devices, reducing bandwidth, enhancing flexibility, and detecting both API and vendor-specific issues that static analysis can't catch. Our experiments, run on thousands of devices, showed impressive results - LazyCow identified hundreds of compatibility issues with a 100% true positive rate. By distributing test cases across real-world devices, LazyCow supports developers in delivering more stable, reliable apps to their users. ➡️ Read the pre-print: https://lnkd.in/gTFhBqru ➡️ Watch a demo: https://lnkd.in/gMeB2qNd Presented at 2023 ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), San Francisco, USA, Dec 3-9 2023. Monash Information Technology, Xiaoyu(Chloe) Sun, John Grundy, Xiao Chen, Yonghui Liu, Li Li

How does identifying human values early improve healthcare and well-being software? Our project explores how embedding human values, like security and self-direction, in software design enhances user engagement, especially for older adults. Using the Pharaon project, this study shows how values-based design in early development stages can increase software adoption and effectiveness. Learn more about our work: https://lnkd.in/gQ5sN5RN Monash Information Technology, Omar Haggag, Waqar Hussain, Tahira Iqbal (University of Tartu, Estonia), Kuldar Taveter (University of Tartu, Estonia), Tarmo Strenze (University of Tartu), John Alphonsus Matthews, University of Tartu, Estonia), Anu Piirisild (University of Tartu, Estonia)

Exciting to see Rashina Hoda's book is now available! This book offers practical insights for conducting qualitative research with a socio-technical focus. Covering research foundations, data collection, analysis techniques, and AI's potential role, it empowers researchers in diverse disciplines to produce rigorous, valuable outcomes in today's digital landscape. Review: “This book is a valuable and timely contribution to the software engineering (SE) community. It is a gold mine for PhD students who may learn by examples and be empowered to teach their supervisors to adopt socio-technical grounded theory to further advance SE research. It is published at the right time, when the acceptance for qualitative research is growing, and before new attempts to quantify it have taken ground, and before ChatGPT’s successors have taken over.” (Prof. Per Runeson, Lund University, Sweden [from the Foreword]) https://lnkd.in/gZjnsNaV Monash Information Technology

The struggle is real! The agony of recruiting participants for empirical software engineering studies. Empirical software engineering research plays a vital role in advancing industry practices. But over the last decade, our experience has shown significant hurdles in recruiting software professionals as study participants. Despite exploring multiple methods, like social media outreach, personal networks, and even paid platforms, recruitment remains challenging. Time-intensive approaches like interviews often deter participation, and voluntary studies tend to attract fewer responses. In our recent work, we dive into the specific challenges, innovative solutions, and actionable strategies for engaging participants in essential research. Read the pre-published article at: https://lnkd.in/gnsgge97 Presented at a workshop at VL/HCC2024 on Addressing Challenges in Recruiting Participants for HCC Research Studies, Liverpool, UK, 2 Sept 2024. Monash Information Technology, Kashumi Madampe, PhD, PSPO, John Grundy, Rashina Hoda, Humphrey Obie, PhD