Research

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Previously, I was senior research scientist at the Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering. My goal is to help humans perform better in software engineering, software security, and software assurance tasks.

Here is my Google Scholar page.

You can contact me using through one of the icons in the bottom left.

  • Human factors
  • Empirical software engineering
  • Software analytics

  • Pocket Security - Smartphone Cybercrime in the Wild

    Researching mobile device usage habits at the intersection of the physical and cyber world to prevent crime

    Award #161084 from the National Science Foundation Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program. Learn more about this project at https://www.pocket-security.org.

  • Computer Science Education

    Encouraging diversity and retention in computer science through teaching approaches that appeal to many personality types and learning styles.

    See my teaching portfolio and publications on computer science education.

  • Human Factors in Software Development and Security

    Improving how humans solve problems in these spaces by developing people-focused tools and processes.

    Read more about the MimEc and AWARE projects to help software developers navigate IDEs, and the InViz project to support visual navigation and search of webserver log events in real time.

  • Data Protection Policy Effectiveness

    Providing company decision-makers with understandable, empirical evidence that indicates where and how their data protection policies are not being followed.

    A grant from the Cisco University Research Fund.

  • NASA Anomaly Analysis

    Applying machine learning to spaceflight mission problem reports to find trends and extract lessons learned.

    We analyzed thousands of NASA anomaly reports using machine learning, and built a web application to help NASA engineers query the data. Read about it or view the presentation from Mining Software Repositories 2016.

  • Secure Embedded Systems Engineering

    Researching threats and writing security requirements in the automotive industry.

  • Software Process Improvement and Assurance through Analytics

    Improving software process predictability and control through measurement, quantification, and analytics.