Departmental Research

Department faculty and students perform active research in a number of topics, from robotics to the language analysis of program comments. This research helps faculty keep the undergraduate and graduate curricula up to date in a rapidly changing field, and it assists in getting undergraduate students into excellent advanced graduate programs. The department has a strong tradition of undergraduate involvement in research projects with an excellent record of participation in publications – students have traveled as far as Ireland to present joint faculty/student work, and they helped write the software that cracked the Human Genome.

      Technical Reports

Current research topics include:

• Human detection and tracking for robotic workcell safety
• External calibration of cameras and laser sensors
• Text analysis and matching for information retrieval
• Optimal strategies for games of chance
• Software process analysis

In 2009, Professors Dawn Lawrie and David Binkley received a $310k NSF grant on “Making Sense of Source Code: Improving Software through Information Retrieval.” This grant will allow Drs. Lawrie and Binkley to work with students on the application of information retrieval techniques to the understanding and analysis of very large computer programs.