9th Annual MSE Community Newsletter

Software Engineering

MSE Update | Community Newsletter for the Master of Software Engineering Professional Programs | Spring 2015

Contents 2

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

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A QUARTER CENTURY OF EXCELLENCE: 25 YEARS OF MSE

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SHARED CORE: A DISCUSSION WITH ALUMNUS, CHRISTIAN JUNGERS

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SITTING IN TWO BOATS - ALUMNI PROFILE: AMIT BOOB

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MY HEART IS IN THE WORK - ALUMNI PROFILE: NINA PATEL

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STUDENT PROJECTS

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INTERNATIONAL AND EXEC. EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

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2014 ALUMNI SPEAKERS

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FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS

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2014 HONORS AND COMMENDATIONS

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OUR GREATEST ASSET

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2014 REGIONAL ALUMNI EVENTS RECAP

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WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE 25TH: EVENT DETAILS

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Obtain general information about Carnegie Mellon University by calling 412-268-2000.

The Statement of Assurance can also be found on-line at: http://www.cmu.edu/policies/documents/SoA.html.

Message From The Director Dear Software Engineering Alumni and Friends, I hope that this newsletter finds you happy, healthy, and prosperous in every way. At the beginning of every year, we take time to look back on our achievements throughout the past twelve months. This year was especially remarkable for a number of reasons.

In 2014, we experienced a spike in our in our international collaborative outreach. In June, the first cohort of graduate students from Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea arrived. Throughout the next five weeks, they participated in a specifically-designed, condensed Software Architecture course that included an applied project spanning the length of their program. This marked the first time that the MSE actually hosted an executive education-like program with an international higher education partner. Based upon the evaluations from students, partners and participating faculty, it was highly regarded, thereby prompting Ajou to request a repeat offering of the program in summer 2015.

Also new on the international front is that the program rekindled discussions with the University of Coimbra on the possibility of reengaging in the executive education arena. Although the nature of the collaboration has yet to be determined, we’ll be sure to keep you apprised as we move forward.

Also of note this year was the surge in turnout at the regional alumni events hosted across the United States. More than 100 alumni attended events ranging from a cocktail reception in San Francisco to a tour of Fenway Park in Boston. This signifies a 100% increase over event attendance last year, which is truly outstanding.

And lastly, though most exciting of all, is the effort that has gone into coordinating the MSE 25th Anniversary Reunion which is set to happen in March 2015. Throughout 2014, plans have been in the works for a two-day event here in Pittsburgh in celebration of a quarter century of Software Engineering education at Carnegie Mellon. Starting on Friday, March 20th, the MSE community will gather at events designed to facilitate networking as well as to showcase their individual and organizational accomplishments.

It will be a terrific event, and I encourage all members of the extended MSE community to join us. Additional information on the event can be found in the newsletter, or at the MSE 25th webpage. For questions regarding the 25th, don’t hesitate to contact Josh Quicksall, Student-Alumni Relations Coordinator (jquicka@cs.cmu.edu).

However, these are just a few of the accomplishments and updates we have to share with you. In fact, we’ve taken the 25th Anniversary as an opportunity to expand the scope of the newsletter. In this year’s edition, you’ll find more community focused profiles and articles in addition to the news and updates you’ve come to expect. We hope you enjoy these changes and – as always – welcome your feedback.

On behalf of the Master of Software Engineering Professional Programs faculty, administrators, and staff, I send to you and your families my warmest wishes for a healthy, prosperous 2015. And I look forward to welcoming you at the MSE 25th.

Best regards,

David Garlan

MSE UPDATE | 2

A quarter century of excellence

A LOOK BACK AT 25 YEARS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT CARNEGIE MELLON

In t THE EARLY YEARS day’s world It might be said that the MSE program began in the fall of 1985, changing software when staff from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) were assigned to the Graduate Curriculum Project. Their task was neers must deal with to define the makings of a professional software engineering master’s degree. The exercise stemmed from the SEI’s broad platforms, user expectatio charter to address the transition of software engineering technology and the broader need for highly skilled software This changing environment engineers. If this was to happen, it was apparent that the SEI’s educational programs needed to grow. Thus, the notion of a software engineering education software engineering master’s degree was conceived. technologies, but also trains eng As former program manager Phyllis Lewis recalls, it was an exciting time. “Not only was the SEI evolving and gaining technologies and trends, allowing importance, but the software engineering curriculum was taking shape. Every person who was working on the project was emerging opportunities to improve proud of the work they’d done and excited that their ideas were The first MSE class. Pictured: Dennis Carleton, Kent Meyer, Dr. Larry contributions to the framework of an educational program at typical engineering education keeps Druffell (SEI Director), Alberto (Beto) Mijares, Rob Veltre, Dimitris CMU.” Led by Norm Gibbs and driven by several SEI Engineering Varotsis, Jim “Chops” Alstad, Dr. Norm Gibbs (MSE Director), Dr. Mark Workshops, the initiative resulted in several published reports advances by offering courses in new Ardis (MSE Faculty), Conrad Maher, Spencer Peterson, Dr. Robert Firth that detailed the structure and basis of a program intent on (MSE Faculty), Joe Rafail, Greg Zelesnik, Phyllis Lewis. educating software engineers at the graduate level. while the engineers are in school, MSE program officially launched in August 1990 with its first full cohortfor of students.

The path to a fully-realized master’s degree was neither swift them future challenges. A bette nor smooth, however. Carnegie Mellon’s President, Richard Rob Veltre (MSEwith ’91) reflects upon this first MSE cohort: models, skills, and ana Cyert, made the MSE initiative a priority project in 1986, and engineers an implementation committee was convened. Nico Haberman, “Our class was their the “test flight” of the MSE Program.

Though throughout career to evaluate e Dean of the newly-formed School of Computer Science, reached our individual backgrounds were pretty diverse, we mostly out to Jim Tomayko, a tenured Associate Professor of Computer had a good time together. appropriate Being the first class, thereones was a adapt to t Science at Wichita State University, with the request that he joincessfully lot of back-and-forth with the faculty on topics and material. the CMU team and lead the committee. gineers, would as weagents o The entire then, faculty brought a ton to theact table. I think all appreciated that the program was in its infancy and that we Between 1988 and 1990, SEI staff members including Mark Ardis, Mellon University has bee had a responsibility to help it succeed and evolve. At times, Robert Firth, and Jim Tomayko taught six core courses in the MSE Carnegie the atmosphere was combative …but not often.

Both the curriculum. Phyllis Lewis remembers those first lectures: curriculum in veryits master faculty and students were passionate about their of roles soft and perspectives, so disagreements were bound to occur.”

“The software engineering community in Pittsburgh was very process, the university has had t receptive to the core courses, and registration was notable.

Phyllis Lewis remembers this first group as well. “They were a Before long, attendance in the courses was so high that not wouldgroupdiffer very experienced who not only from worked well traditional together in all of the registrants would fit into the television studio in the classes and Studio, they socialized well within the program and SEI Building. When that happened, closed circuit televisions experience would be offered with the people at the SEI where we were housed at the time.” were set up in several conference rooms to accommodate the overflow.” require. The result is a TEACHING AT Ato DISTANCE Students completing the core coursework were invited to apply to cultivate future lea Starting in 1993, the MSE undertook its first efforts to deliver for admission to the pilot offering of the MSE program in the the MSE curriculum remotely. Says Lewis, “It was starting to look fall of 1989. The MSE proposed a “design studio” capstone neering. It combines as if we’d need to specifically tailor our program for companies where students would work on a project under the direction wanting to train groups of software engineers simultaneously, of an experienced software designer. The approach modeled tored software but were unwilling (or unable) to send them for an extended the common 19th century method of schooling engineers and period to Pittsburgh.” Working first with the Mexican Central craftsmen, a practice that continues to remain standard in many proj Bank and later with the Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas of architecture and fine arts programs.

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With the successful demonstration of the Studio concept, the 3 | Spring 2014

(CIMAT) in central Mexico, the core curriculum was recorded and then packaged for use. The packaged curriculum was

tocomplimented by ofadditionally severalrapidly site visits by Jim Tomayko.

The program was a resounding technology, engisuccess, with the continued use of licensed courseware by CIMAT h new methods, tools, until 2010. ons, The and software markets. venture’s popularity opened doors for offering software underscores the need for engineering education to remote on thataudiences. Capitalizing not only teaches current the momentum of the model, the program ngineers todeveloped adaptan quickly to new enduring partnership with General Motors Corporation g them to anticipate and exploit whereby GM employees could Carnegie Mellon’s theircomplete products and processes. The graduate software engineering degree entirelyabreast from its Detroit of technological engineers headquarters. The exercise provided the impetusand to fully tools. This is fine w techniques define a robust remote curriculum corporate partners. To this Dr. Garlan lighting an inaugural lamp at an international conference on High Performance Computer, butfor it doesn’t necessarily prepare hosted by SSN SASE in Chennai, India. Started in 2001, SSN SASE’s partnership with the MSE is one of the day, GM engineers continue to running. the pursue any number of advancedbeprogram’s er approach would to longest provide degrees at CMU, a pathway made Picturedthey (left to right): Dr. David Garlan, Dr. Raj Reddy, Saravana Kumar (MSIT-SE ‘08), Dr. Shashikant possible by in-roads that the MSEthat alytical techniques can use Albal, Ajoy Navin (MSIT-ESE ‘,08) Samy Muthusamy, Dr. Prita Nair, and Dr. Radha. Photo courtesy of SSN forged eighteen years ago. emerging technologiesUniversity. and then sucIn 1999, Jim Tomayko fostered selected students. “We worked closely with the late Paul theira promising organization’s needs.

These en-the relationship with educational institutions in South Goodman, Tepper’s School of Business professor and former Africa. This early partnership ultimately shaped the way in which Director of the Institute for Strategic Development. In total, 30 of change.

Over the past nine we would interact with educational partners for years toyears, come. women graduated from the program over the course of three Sponsored by the South African Ministry of Communications en developing andprovided refining such a years.” and Vodacom, the program women from under-served educational institutions with remote access to our core remote programs evolved yet again when Tony Lattanze twarehigher engineering program.

In University the These curriculum. Working in conjunction with Stellenbosch (MSE ‘95) returned to the program as an instructor. Through in Johannesburg, admitted candidates completed year-one of the his involvement with Dr. Dan Lee, CMU’s late Dr. John Grasso, to determine howwiththe program in South Africa periodic curriculum on-site visits by Carnegie and John Kang, an executive education program called SEEK Mellon faculty, finishing the MSIT-SE degree requirements during (Software Engineering Evangelists for Korea) was developed. The ones, what kinds Rosso-Llopart of hands year-two in Pittsburgh. Mel (MSE ‘92) on was deeply SEEK program taught software engineering principles to working committed to the initiative, serving as point of contact on the professionals across Korea and would eventually transition to a andpartnership how asmuch well as an specialization instructor, advisor and mentor for full dual-degree program offered through the Information and Communications University (ICU) in Korea, later absorbed by the a novel approach that aims Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). aders“Although in softwareothers engi- did A second executive training program with an Indian partner was shape simultaneously. Through the combined effort of a long-term deliver atmena distance before taking Jim Tomayko, Tony Lattanze, Dr. Raj Reddy, and Dr. Shashikant Albal, discussions with Mahindra British Telecom (MBT) began e development into distance delivery of executive education. When Dr.Albal us; we came at it from a left MBT to assume the directorship of the newly formed School ject

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completely different angle”

for Advanced Software Engineering at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering (SSN SASE) in 2001, the initiative culminated in a full collaborative education partnership that has

MSE UPDATE | 4

In t GROWTH AND TRAGEDY day’s world The MSE program grew significantly throughout the late 1990’s changing software and early 2000’s, with campus class enrollments increasing from an average of 11 students (1991-1995) to 21 students (1995neers must deal with 2000). Likewise, the distance education program peaked at 150 active enrollees annually. platforms, user expectatio During this period, launched a second master’s program, ThisMSE changing environment the Master of Information Technology – Software Engineering.

Createdsoftware as a way to offer theengineering MSE curriculum remotely, the education framework for the degree was met with such rave approval that, in 2001, it was approved for on-campus Reconfigured technologies, butdelivery. also trains eng to serve early-career candidates, the program grew from its inaugural class size of 10 to over 27 students during the 2013-14 technologies and trends, allowing academic year. opportunities to improve emerging But as the programs continued to expand, tragedy struck. Jim Students and Faculty from the ICU/KAIST program gather for a photo. typical “Coach” Tomayko was diagnosed with aeducation degenerative neural keeps engineering The ICU/KAIST partnership paved the way for both international disease. Carrying on in his role as director, the disease severely collaborative education and executive education programs to follow. impacted his speech motor functions. Grace Lewis (MSE in new advances by andoffering courses ‘01), was recruited by Coach and vividly recalls his decline. graduated 146 students and continues to this day.

“It was very painfulengineers to watch him weaken.are His beautiful, while the in vivid school, These were the formative steps in the program’s expansion and mind was trapped inside a body that didn’t obey him anymore. outreach; they served as a testimony to the rapidly-changing Because I worked so closely withchallenges. him, I saw the deterioration them for future A bette industry’s demand for software engineering knowledge and day-by-day.” Despite the extreme physical challenges of his best practices. Gone were the days of the traditional onengineers skills, condition, Coachwith struggledmodels, to oversee the program that he’dand ana campus graduate program. “It was a brand new world,” says nurtured for over a decade. Grace points to one particular Lattanze. “Although others did deliver at a distance before us; throughout their career to evaluate e example of his tenacity: “Around this time, Coach was overseeing we came at it from a completely different angle and with a level distance education and he needed to send an email. Since he of engagement that was somewhat unorthodox. There was a cessfully adapt appropriate ones to t was close to my office, he asked if he could use my computer. It measure of uncertainty as to whether it could be done and if so, took him 15 minutes to write a three line email to a student. But how. But that didn’t stop us.” gineers, then, act as was agents o still, he did it. Even then, hiswould commitment to his students unquestionable.”

These partnerships became models for distance and Carnegie Mellon University has bee collaborative delivery that are employed to this day. “One of When it became apparent in 2002 that the efforts of managing the first things I was tasked with when I returned were these curriculum inthe program its master of soft the day-to-day operations of were too burdensome remote programs. What I did was to define clear boundaries for Coach, David Garlan was asked to step into the position to differentiate the various types of distance interactions that process, the university has had t as Co-Director.

A longtime core instructor in the program, we had” Lattanze continues. The program spun off Distance Garlan was somewhat surprised by the offer. “As a researcher, Education, such as the GM would differ from traditional program, from collaborative educational programs, such as SSN experience would be offered SASE. Also set apart were Executive “The MSE was his life.

He was The the MSE...

Education programs, such as the to require. result is a early SEEK initiative, wherein we to cultivate future could offer abbreviated, distilled He taught us all that this program is also lea course content to corporate It combines partners. As to why the divisions a family. And this idea thatneering.

Coach created were important, Lattanze says, “We tored software want to focus on the unique needs has fortunately continued, and is one I and methods of delivery inherent proj to each type of interaction…That is

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what has allowed these programs to do so well throughout the years.”

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hope never goes away.”

toin Argentina in the late 90’s. We did a lot together of rapidly and had great plans for the future.” technology, engiCoach’s passing was not only a personal blow to all who knew him, it was a blow to the program as well. h new methods, tools, “One constant in the program was Jim Tomayko,” Lattanze points out. Mel Rosso-Llopart agrees. “The ons, and software markets. loss of Coach caused a great deal of uncertainty. For all practical purposes, Coach was the program. We underscores the need for questioned how we would fill the gap.”

Jim Tomayko’s mark on the program was, however, that not only teaches current indelible. “I’d like to think that nothing has really changed since his passing. In many ways, his ngineers to adapt quickly to new character lingers, and it’s threaded throughout everything that we do, “ Lattanze says, “As he taught g them to anticipate and exploit us to do by his doing, we continue to give our all to the students, providing them with opportunities to their products and processes. The ‘try things’. Sometimes that means that they will fail.

Coach taught us that failing is an opportunity to learn engineers abreast of director, technological Beloved instructer and longtime program Jim “Coach” Tomayko, doing what he did best: teaching. Tomayko’s contributions to the program are immeasurable and – and this remains at the heart of our programs.” many of his teaching practices to inform This the way theis MSE/MSIT curriculum is As Rosso-Llopart points out, Coach’s teaching style w techniques and continue tools. fine taught today. continues to inspire. “Jim was a fantastic storyteller.

He had a way of effortlessly bringing the outside but it doesn’t necessarily prepare world into the classroom in a way that was not just my primary focus to that point had been on overseeing PhDs, informative, it was mesmerizing and fun. It’s an producing research papers, thesebe sorts of This was er approach would tothings.provide the approach that most of the faculty aspires to emulate.” completely different, and it provoked a little apprehension.” alytical techniques theyParticularly can use Garlan says, “But I was committedthat to the program.

Surely the greatest mark that Coach made on the MSE in light of the curriculum redesign in the 1990’s that brought community was the sense that it was, just that: a community. emerging technologies and then sucthe mission of the programs into focus.” Namely, it was “The MSE was his life. He was the MSE.” Grace Lewis points out, the program’s refined vision in terms of its relevance in the theirmarketplace. organization’s needs. These en-“He taught us all that this program is also a family. And this idea that Coach created has fortunately continued, and is one I hope of change.

Over the past nine years, never goes away.”

“It gave us a compass. Obviously, the characteristic of the field is that things are changing pretty fast. The needs of en developing and refining such a BRANCHING OUT industry change; the technologies change; the programming languages change. There’s all this chaos going on around this tware engineering Inyou end the engineering discipline. Andprogram. if you aren’t careful, up Under the directorship of David Garlan, the programs branched zig-zagging trying to figure out where you should be going out and welcomed new modes of collaboration. As a supplement to determine how the think curriculum while keeping up with things. I the significance of the to the ongoing distance education programs, there was an curriculum is that it essentially eliminated all that noise and shift to collaborate within Carnegie Mellon itself. Tony ones, said what of kinds hands onevery inward ‘Here arekinds the fundamental of things that recalls how a brief statement in a random conversation with software engineer needs to know.’”

Dr. Raj Reddy became a springboard for a new interdisciplinary and how much specialization degree program. “You should really think about a program in With Garlan‘s support, Coach carried on as an essential Embedded Software,” said Dr. Reddy. It made perfect sense. a novel approach that aims participant and leader, overseeing project solicitations, client “From my experience in industry, I recognized there was a interactions, and distance education. huge void in this area. Generally, I’d been running into two aders in software engitypes of engineers: electrical/mechanical engineers who had Coach passed away on January 9, 2006. Santiago Ceria (MSE no software background and software engineers who don’t a long-term men‘93) still remembers how he heard, “When Coach’s health know hardware.” Combining the hardware/software disciplines deteriorated and he was hospitalized, I was in touch with Phyllis meant that Lattanze was compelled to develop two courses for e development and Ellen, who kept me informed. I remember at one point it the new degree program, Hardware for Software Engineers and looked like he was getting better. But I finally got an email from Science for Practicing Engineers. Discussions with the j e c tPhyllis telling me he had passed.” Ceria goes on, “Jim was the Computer Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering about a

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first good friend that I lost. We went flying together, organized barbeques, played golf, implemented distance education courses

collaborative degree began in 2004.

MSE UPDATE | 6

In t day’s world changing software neers must deal with platforms, user expectatio This changing environment software engineering education technologies, but also trains eng technologies and trends, allowing Students for the Fall 2013 section of Hardware for Software Engineers pit autonomous search-and-rescue robots against one another in a time trial to find and retrieve grey pylons - called “minions”. Since its creation by Professor Tony Lattanze, the course, which teaches students about the fundamental aspects of opportunities to improve emerging embedded software engineering has proven to be one of the program’s most popular. typical engineering education keeps With Tony and David Garlan taking lead roles, a curriculum full dual-degreeby program, “This model allows others to teach in new advances offering courses was developed in consultation with the ECE department (with very high quality courses in their home country rather than Dr. Don Thomas, ECE professor, leading at ECE), a curriculum while reinventing the wheel.

It also allows us to are further disseminate the engineers in school, that addressed both the hardware and software aspects of the principled approach to software engineering that we teach.” engineering embedded software systems. In September 2006,them for future challenges. A bette the Master of Science in Information Technology – Embedded We also initiated two notable collaborative educational Software Engineering launched. partnerships since 2006. The first, with the University of Coimbra engineers with models, skills, and ana in Portugal, resulted in more than 45 MSIT-SE and MSE graduates A second CMU specialized degree program, the Master of over the five year partnership. program wasto highlyevaluate lauded throughout their The career e Science in Information Technology – Software Engineering by those at Carnegie Mellon as well as our partners at the Management (MSIT-SEM) launched shortly thereafter with the cessfully University of Coimbra. Secondly, an educational ventureones was adapt appropriate to t Heinz College. Additionally, the cross-disciplinary Master of launched in 2014 with Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in Information Technology Strategy (MITS) collaborative program gineers, Chennai, India.then, Although thewould plan of studyact is for theas MSIT-ESE, agents o launched with partners from the Dietrich College of Humanities the program is nearly identical to other educational partnerships Carnegie Mellon University and Social Sciences and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. in that students complete core coursework in Chennai priorhas bee to coming to Pittsburgh to complete elective and project curriculum in its master of soft In addition to establishing several internal collaborations, the requirements. program branched out to include several new international process, collaborations due in great part to the success of these early EVER ONWARD… the university has had t licensed distance delivery models. Relationships were developed would fromof degree traditional whereby core courseware was licensed to the University of As is evidenced by the differ growth in the number Queensland in Brisbane, Australia in 2007 and the European programs, the evolution of the curriculum, and the promotion experience would becomeoffered Software Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2011. In both instances, of international collaborations, the MSE program has a faculty from these institutions came to Pittsburgh to train long way in twenty five years. This is due, in no small part, to tosupports require.

The result is a alongside MSE faculty developers in specific core courses. the community that it. The faculty, staff, mentors, The model, says Director David Garlan, is an effective one for partners, alumni, and friends who have given their time, their tobuiltcultivate lea institutions that can’t manage the logistical overhead of a expertise, and their sweat the program to whatfuture it is today. neering. It combines software “In the early days, the program taught a way of being moretored productive in software development. We didn’t spend a lot of time differentiatingp r o j between the domains. Today, this can’t be the case.”

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come up given the rapid changes in the discipline; questions that I believe will guide our thinking in the next five years.”

A second issue is one of program expansion. Says Dr. Garlan: to“We need to look at ways in which we can leverage our programs to reach a broader set of people through shorter, non-degree of rapidly programs.” Options that readily come to mind are certificate programs, executive education, and intensive workshop formats. technology, engi“There‘s a wide range of professionals who could benefit from what we teach but aren’t able to take a year or more off to h new methods, tools, pursue a formal degree program. In some sense, this is in our roots. The question is, though, how do we do it ourselves? ons, and software markets.

What is the best model, and what approach is the most realistic?

It’s important to uphold our high standards and educational underscores the need for principles, but how does that translate in the offering of a short course to industry or to a partner institution?” that not only teaches current Finally, Dr. Garlan stresses the importance of refining the process ngineers to adapt quickly to new by which we collaborate with internal CMU partners, specifically g them to anticipate and exploit the need to codify the practices and administrative methods so essential to managing collaborative programs. “The important their products and processes. The thing for many people today is not just Software Engineering, but rather, Software Engineering plus something else. This engineers abreast of technologicalis connected to the issue of specialization. And when you specialize, you often need to go beyond your discipline and your w techniques and tools. This is finedepartments to find the courses and people that are important in that area.” but it doesn’t necessarily prepare Whether that is through innovative cross-disciplinary initiatives, er approach would be to provide the valuable curricular redesigns, or expansive international collaborations, our commitment to the founding principles of Sajjan Gundapuneedi (MSIT-ESE ‘14) demos the hardware for their alytical techniques that they can use the program remain intact. We continue to develop software Studio project during End-of-Semester Presentations. The presentations professionals for the purpose of driving change in their - now a hallmark of the program - challenge the students to present emerging technologies and then sucrespective organizations. And at the same time, we seek the on their progress, findings, and justify decisions made throughout the multi-semester project. between a principled foundation and our response their organization’s needs. These en-balance to the needs and demands of an ever-changing industry. This Our campus community today is formed by more than 80 balanced approach to the work that we do has allowed of change. the past ninethe 1,000 years,mindful, students fromOver nine nations.

Our alumni are nearing us to succeed for twenty five years and is what will enable us to mark and serve as change agents in more than 280 organizations do it for a quarter century more. en developing andeducational refining such a worldwide. We have valued partners in India, Portugal, Mexico, Korea, Bulgaria, Australia, and beyond. And we twarehaveengineering program.

Inbusinesses the worked with numerous project sponsors whose hail from every corner of the ever-expanding IT landscape. to determine how the curriculum But, in the spirit of Carnegie Mellon, we are hardly the type ones, kinds hands onare to restwhat on our laurels.

The futureof is promising, but there Relive. Reconnect. Reengage. challenges too. Dr. Garlan points to specialization as one key area andof how specialization interest formuch the program, “What it means to be a software Join us at the engineer today may be dependent upon the domain in which a novel approach that aims one is working. For example, if you’re working in embedded MSE 25th Anniversary you’re probably going to be doing very different things aderssystems, inif yousoftware engithan are working in enterprise systems. In the early days, the program taught a way of being more productive in software March 20-21, 2015 a long-term mendevelopment. We didn’t spend a lot of time differentiating between the domains. Today, this can’t be the case. The e development domains have very different demands and techniques.” Mindful the diversity of interests and targeted industry needs, what j e c tofis the For more details or to RSVP, right curriculum framework that provides learners with

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foundational knowledge but at the same time, allows for the flexibility to specialize? “These are interesting questions that

visit mse.isri.cmu.edu MSE UPDATE | 8

Shared Core

A DISCUSSION WITH FINO CONSULTING’S CHRISTIAN JUNGERS (MSE ‘03) Christian Jungers is the Chief Technical Officer of Fino Consulting, a boutique software consulting firm based in New York City. A 2003 graduate of the Masters of Software Engineering program, Christian spoke with us recently about his path postgraduation including starting his own company, a merger with a similar organization, and how a principled approach to software drives their business.

So, Christian, tell me about Fino. Give us your elevator pitch.

What is Fino, what do you do, and how do you do it better?

Despite the word ‘consulting’ in our name, we are essentially a full-service software development company. We build software solutions for people in businesses of all sizes. We bring the technical expertise to accomplish virtually any solution and work closely with our clients and their subject matter/business expertise to shape the right solution.

This allows us to have very long-term relationships with our clients, with a goal of 5+ years. It often takes a year before we acquire business from a client. But that is a year where we are working with them to explore their business challenges and to identify solutions that are worthwhile investments to execute.

Often, projects we do execute weren’t initially on our client’s radar. There‘s a terrific quote: “The biggest advances in any given field are made by those outside the field.” When one isn’t engrained in an industry or its thinking, simple questions get raised that reveal assumptions. Historically, this has put Fino in a powerful position.

I like that quote. And it resonates well with some of the ideas that come from the MSE, namely that you have to probe deep by asking simple questions that draw out insightful underpinnings of a technical challenge. It’s apparent that this concept has stuck with you. Can you identify other significant takeaways from the MSE program?

Actually, I had a revelation about just that sort of thing some time ago. So, one day, I was doing some coding. And the thought occurred to me, “You know, if I were doing this right, I should really do X”. And, as soon as I had that thought, I realized I had no choice but to go do X. By driving in those core principles and that core approach, it makes it second nature such that, when you are doing the work, you almost have no choice but to do things the right way. I found that once I had an awareness of best practices I could no longer look at the situation and think “I should really do X” and not do it. It doesn’t matter the situation; I’d find the time and make it work because I knew that was how it needed to go.

The MSE was the only program that offered a core, fundamental skillset. When I applied to graduate programs, I looked at a range of CS disciplines. What it came down to is that you can build software from any number of perspectives, but you need to be able to build that software well. That’s what the MSE offered: a more fundamental toolset from a practice and technical perspective.

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Tell us what you did immediately after graduation and leading up to the founding of CM3.

Following graduation, I went to work with an enterprise networking company, Cabletron Systems, that later became Enterasys Networks. I took the position because I wanted to expand my development toolkit and to be able to make good software. A networking company allowed me to get closer to hardware and to better understand embedded development.

I was there for 4 years, right up to the dotcom bust. There I was with my severance package trying to figure out my next move when my friend and fellow CMU grad, Scott Ziolko (HSS ’01), called with the proposition: “Have you ever thought about starting your own company?” We started up our own company pretty much overnight, and were joined shortly afterwards by

another Carnegie Mellon friend, Chris Stratis (HSS ’01, TPR ’05).

That was the beginning of CM3 Consulting which, by the way, stands for Carnegie Mellon 3, a name that was graciously given to us by another group of CMU grads who’d conjured it up for their industrial design company!

Founding your own company is not for the faint of heart. What was it that drove you to take the leap?

When you work at big companies, you don’t have much control or power. Coming out the MSE program, I knew I had this great toolbox. I had new skills and a suitcase of lessonslearned. I had a stack of white papers rolling around in my head about approaches to specific problems, assessments of those approaches, and suggestions on how one might tackle this or that problem going forward. Coupled with all that, I now understood process and possessed technical skills to fullyexecute.

But in the real world, you don’t have an opportunity to apply these best practices. You’re stuck in someone else’s process or hierarchy. Opportunities to do the great things that you know you should be doing – that you know would improve the product, the solution, and the company, are either scarce or nonexistent. In part, this is why I jumped at the chance to start CM3 – so that I could put my knowledge and best practices to good use.

How did CM3 and Fino come together?

You have a vision of how want to do your work better. Whether it’s providing a service or designing a product, you have an idea of how to do things RIGHT. Inevitably, if you are doing things in a particular manner, you’re going to come across folks who are doing things similarly.

CM3 and Fino connected through two degrees of separation.

A mutual colleague connected us and I ended up working on a project with Fino’s Founder and CEO, Brian Fino. It became obvious that both companies were trying to solve problems in a common way. As Fino grew, the company folded in CM3 so that it could move forward as a more robust organization.

Exactly 10 years to the day (March 2013) after founding CM3, we were integrated into Fino.

You mention that CM3 and Fino had a shared vision. Can you articulate what that vision might be?

I can certainly try! We work really hard to find what we truly believe to be the right solution for a given problem. There are two reasons why CM3 and Fino worked so well together.

First, with both CM3 and Fino, it is really about trying to encapsulate a common set of best-practices for our teams.

Especially in the consulting world where we are often contracted in the 11th hour or with the impossible, you don’t always have the time or the ability to follow as many of the best-practices as you’d like. If you have a common understanding across your team of what those best practices are, though, then at the very least you are working towards them in whatever ways the project/client/timeline allows.

Second, we share a common outlook on corporate culture.

For example, having a sense of ownership is important to us.

Everyone at Fino – from consultants to contractors, etc. – feels an extreme sense of ownership over the work that they are doing. That doesn’t mean that we expect 80 hour weeks, because we don’t. But occasionally, there will be 80 hour weeks because, sometimes, that’s what it takes to really deliver on exactly what it is that will make a product successful.

At the same time that sense of ownership has an interesting flip side, and that is that we need to fight for what we’re doing and owning. Sometimes the client wants something that is not a good choice for them, and we need to be confident and clear when we tell them that it’s not the right approach to take. Because we become a part of the product, the work, the team, we fight for it as if it were our own, no matter the actual stake.

We are even pushing some boundaries in terms of the organizational structure of our company. So, really, at any level of the traditional organizational process, we are attempting to empower everybody so that sense of ownership applies as much to our own company as it does to the work that we do.

To this end, we’re developing an approach similar to Holacracy, where small working groups across many levels of the company determine the internal policies and workings of the organization.

Our commitment to a culture of ownership runs that deep.

Fino was named as one of Fortune Magazine’s 500 fastest growing companies in America. Moreover, you are the #2 fastest growing software company in New York. That’s a tremendous achievement. However, how do you scale development efforts and operations without sacrificing quality?

We have grown quickly. But we absolutely could have grown quicker still. Our focus remains on the quality of the work, not the quantity.

We make sure that we are hiring the right people. We pay extremely close attention to the teams we build. There have been times when someone is brought onboard only for it to become apparent to everyone, themselves included, that the fit MSE UPDATE | 10

may not be right. It comes back to those shared principles and the approach to the work; we look very closely for individuals who hopefully will mesh well with our culture and share our ideas about best practices.

We also place a significant emphasis on capacity rather than experience. Those who do well at Fino are those who are comfortable with – or at the least capable of – functioning outside of their sphere of knowledge. If I am interviewing someone on the software side and I can’t push them past what they know, I am less confident in hiring them. We really value individuals who are willing and eager to reach beyond their experiences. We want to build teams that work well together, problem solve together, and seek solutions together. Those who prefer to ponder a problem solo in an effort to find a single, fully-formed perfect answer probably aren’t good fits for our organization.

I read that Fino boasts a significant number of CMU grads. It’s pretty obvious that you recruit heavily out of CMU and are now targeting MSE specifically. Why? About 1/6th of our company went to Carnegie Mellon actually.

CMU is one of only a handful of schools where we actively recruit, and the only one outside of the New York area. That is by design. We want hands-on software people. I’m the CTO and the chief architect for one of our major clients. I still write code whenever I can. We need people – at whatever level they are– to be software capable. CMU and the MSE educate REAL software people, those who appreciate best practices, and who share a common foundational and cultural synergy with the type of company that we are.

Just to wrap things up on a fun note; what is your favorite memory from your time in the program?

This is a fun memory. So, we were stuck in the Cave working really hard. It was close to some sort of deadline. I happened to go check the weather and I pulled up this Doppler image. This was the summer of 1998 when there were tornados and crazy flash-floods in Pittsburgh. So, I look at this Doppler image and it’s nothing but red across the entire screen. I get everyone’s attention and said something along the lines of “There is an insane storm outside right now!” And we all ran up to the 4th floor of Wean Hall to look out the doorway that heads back towards Hammerschlag only to see that the sky was pretty much falling. It was torrential. It was so funny that there we all were, working away and totally unaware that there was a massive flood going on outside. That’s the MSE for you!

11 | Spring 2014

MSE UPDATE | 2

Photos courtesy of Fino Consulting, LLC

Sitting in Two Boats

ALUMNI PROFILE: AMIT BOOB (MSIT-SE ‘07) After graduating in 2007 from the SSN India MSIT-SE collaborative degree program , Amit Boob started his own company. Well-meaning friends cautioned him against such a bold move, advising him to take a job, start the company in parallel if need be, and be prepared with a backup plan should things not go as expected. Not one to “sit in two boats” simultaneously, he returned to India with his newly-acquired knowledge and skills, confident in his future success.

It’s difficult to get your arms around Boob Softwares N Solutions. Unlike Amit, the business sits comfortably in two boats by providing its customers with “a solution for every problem and every need.” Amit’s business approach ties in directly to his experience in the MSIT program. As a student, he observed that generally his professors at SSN had backgrounds in the service industry whereas the CMU professors had government, military, or product based industrial backgrounds. “I’m guessing I got double what I would have had I attended” a degree program based entirely in one country. “Two different perspectives from a collaborative program with two distinct partners helped me immensely. I’m now in the service industry, but I also provide numerous products.”

In 2004, while an undergraduate at Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Amit and a group of friends patented a method that allowed mobile phone users to share data and send group messages. Although it was a terrific idea for a startup and he had the ambition to create one, he lacked the confidence to make it a reality. Instead, he investigated advanced degree programs that could prepare him take the next step. Carnegie Mellon’s MSIT-SE closely aligned with his short and long-term goals, which made the decision all the more apparent.

It was while learning about the technical and managerial details of software engineering that Amit gained the confidence he needed. “Each course gave me the confidence that [starting my own company] was something I could do, and that I could do it alone. The program provided me with not only technical expertise but managerial skills and exposure to international business practices as well.” Along the way, he realized that his being “tied to the local market” wasn’t a constraint after all, and that he was both capable and uniquely positioned to do business internationally.

“People thought I was a fool to return to India from the US and to start my own venture at the very beginning of my career. Hopefully they will recognize that it wasn’t a bad decision after all. The choices that I made were good ones for me. And for this, I’m very happy even today.”

“Each course gave me the confidence that starting my own company was something I could do, and that I could do it alone.”

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My Heart is in the Work ALUMNI PROFILE: NINA PATEL (MSE ‘10)

Nina Patel, a 2010 graduate of the MSE program, has many passions—space exploration, art, technology, social enterprise— and she’s not afraid to boldly go where her passion takes her.

While growing up in Ahmedabad, India, Nina saw the “vast divide between rich and poor in every facet of life.” From the milk deliveryman to the vegetable vendor to the alley bike repair shop to the local repairman mending the shoes of pedestrians, her day was full of people working hard to survive while maintaining compassion for the community they lived in.

“I always wished that they would progress upward in society despite the competition and discrimination they faced. I realized that these people were not looking for sympathy but rather an opportunity to capitalize on their entrepreneurial skills.”

During her undergraduate years at Penn State, Nina studied abroad at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. During her travels throughout Southeast Asia, she saw “reflections of my childhood—small local struggling businesses, child labor, people’s motivation to succeed if given the opportunity. People lived in poor conditions but with a sense of community, helping each other despite discrimination from the rest of society for being poor.”

Though compelled by the need to do something in the area of international development, she first needed to follow her childhood dream “to work at NASA and help uncover the secrets of the universe, and maybe travel to outer space one day.” An opportunity to pursue that dream came when she was awarded an internship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This eventually led to a full time Computer Scientist position at NASA that allowed her to “work with the technologies of the future.” And she loved it.

“I recognized the power of microfinance, a pure human connection and endless, selfless cycle of giving, receiving, and growing using web 2.0 technology.

I wanted to be part of it.”

Before long, Nina was introduced to an organization that would ultimately move her away from her dream job. In 2006, she saw an interview with Mohammad Yunnus, founder of Grameen Bank, that talked about Kiva’s role in allieviating poverty.

“I recognized the power of microfinance, a pure human connection and endless, selfless cycle of giving, receiving, and growing using web 2.0 technology. I wanted to be part of it.” She started by becoming a Kiva Lender and then quickly became a volunteer. A year later, she learned of the Kiva Fellowship program. The program remained in the back of her mind until the timing was more appropriate. She thought, “Maybe someday I can help this great cause. Even then, their mission was close to my heart.”

Years later, Nina re-assessed her life. She loved NASA but didn’t feel that she was meeting her full potential. She wasn’t as fulfilled as before. After considerable self-reflection, and with encouragement from her family, Nina decided to leave NASA to explore her passion for social justice. She applied for, and was awarded, a Kiva Fellowship. After an extensive interview process, she was sent to Kenya where she worked “with the M-PESA technology (Kenya’s largest peer-to-peer mobile money) team to establish strategies, specifications, and platform integration to automate Kiva Zip’s loan repayments and disbursement operations.”

Now that the fellowship has concluded, Nina’s plan is to explore different passions. “I love art and technology, and how the combination of the two can result in beautiful products. I’m going to give that a try (at the Deloitte Digital Studio in London). And then who knows. Perhaps I can combine my passion for art, technology, and social enterprise and create my own non-profit start-up.

For now though, I’m going to enjoy what the world offers me.”

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15 | Spring 2014

2014 Student Projects MSE PROJECTS 2014 SMART GRAINS Deepak Kuttykrishnan, Rishi Maharaj, Rujuta Marathe, Hao Zhang Team members developed an intelligent parking system for SmartGrains’ ParkSense parking lot monitoring sensors and resource management system. Primarily for use at shopping malls, the SDK application provides mall customers and owners with information on peak lot usage and suggests optimal times when they can locate parking.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST) Douglas Rew, Abhishek Sharma, Weimin Tan, Sudarshan Wadkar Team members developed an end-to-end open source software environment to automate numerous aspects of generating combinatorial tests including input modeling, covering array generation using ACTS, combinatorial coverage measurement using CCM, and code coverage measurement for standard measures.

NATURE BRIDGE Abdulmajeed Alibrahim, Diana Esteves, Kasipan Kanniah Team members designed and developed a comprehensive Customer Revenue Analysis Suite and extensive data migration pipelines to combine several disparate legacy systems into a unified solution for tracking and analyzing prospective donor affiliations, affinities, and interactions.

SSN MSIT-SE PROJECTS 2014 Software Engineering Institute - Hadoop Performance Calibration Suite Adithya Ganeshun, Kaviya Vasantha Nammalwar, Sreevatson Mahabalipuram Chakravarthy, Pratyusha Tiruveedhula Team members developed an automated Hadoop performance calibration suite in order to provide deep performance insights and facilitate the accurate prediction and analysis of impacts and design trade-offs for Hadoop applications running on shared clusters.

Robotics Institute - Tablet-Based Interface for Mobile Robots Mownica Kanakamedala, Mahesh Kantharaj, Muralikrishnan Muthuvelautham Sampathkumar, Anshuman Krishnakumar Team members developed and implemented a mobile application to allow direct teleoperation of an autonomous astrobiological robot (“Zoe”) including planning/mapping functionality for existing high-level autonomy software as well as robot state and health visualization interfaces.

Rewyndr Dileeshvar Radhakrishnan, Rajaraman Raghunathan, Satish Ravi, Yathindran Parthasarathy Team members developed a product for Rewynder’s photo sharing application, Reflect, which enables users to bring new communities and users into the application via participation in real-world social events. Team members built on the existing Reflect platform to implement the creation of events, uploading/sharing of events images, and incorporation of image metatagging.

MSIT-ESE PROJECTS 2014 G3 Zizhou Deng, Sajjan Gundapuneedi, Jianan Lu, Vasudeva Pai Melgangolli, Priyanka Sharma, Vaibhav Suresh Kumar Building on prior projects by MSE and MSIT teams, the G3 team members co-developed a near infra-red light therapy waveform generation device and embedded software controller to interface with a collaboration service in order to provide a hardware/software solution for collaborative light therapy research.

MSE UPDATE | 16

MSIT-SE PROJECTS 2014 NUTRIMMUNE Artur Gaifutdinov, Ilya Shimchik, Tianqi Tong Team members designed and developed a collaboration service to facilitate interaction between users of a proprietary light therapy platform through the sharing of configuration settings and experimental frequency protocols.

GIFTCARDS.COM Yury Chernushenko, Xingchi Liu, Yingda Luo, Konstantin Urysov Team members developed an online giftcard transaction service for mobile devices that allows users to receive push-notifications of nearby savings opportunities via MyGiftcards.com gift codes and mobile geo-location. The service also allows multiple offers to be combined into a single QR code for rapid checkout.

COBOT Sammy Mudede, Evgenia Trofimova, Kirill Sevastyanenko Team members built on previous MSE and MSIT-SE projects in order to refine the user experience of a remote telepresence platform (“CoBot”). The team developed an architectural layer to enable tasking and capability extension, provided additional facilities for CoBot control via existing web interfaces, and designed overall improvements to the task composition UI. JOHN HOPKINS APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY Vasilii Artemev, Alexandr Naumchev, Amey Ghadigaonka, Fusheng Yuan Building upon a prior MSIT project, the team furthered development of a toolset to facilitate powerful static and dynamic analyses of C source code and software written in C. This toolset can enable a variety of applications, including those used to identify currently undetected bugs prior to compiling, those to detect defects at run-time, and the enforcement of new, flexible security policies.

INSTITUTE FOR SOFTWARE RESEARCH - SCIENTIFIC SOCIAL NETWORK MAP Nikita Chepanov, Svyatoslav Kovtunenko, Biao Ma Team members developed a REST-style web service to collect, store, and analyze usage data pertaining to the co-utilization and workflows of scientific software in use by laboratories. Insights for this service could be used to drive the evolution and tuning of particular software ecosystems and application APIs. RAINBOW Denis Anisimov, Zachary Sweigart, Anastasia Timoshenko Team members developed a user interface for self-adaptive systems to provide operators with information regarding system state, self-adaptive system decisionmaking, and impacts of the system’s decision. The team’s interface also enabled operators to intervene in system operations, alter system decisions, and provide supplemental information to the system.

REWYNDR Zakhar Gerych, Pranav Saxena, Ulyana Skladchikova, Mengyan Wang Team members designed and developed an Android application of Rewynder’s photo sharing application, Reflect. The application allows users to upload and share photos based around memories or a specific event. The final product enabled the full functionality of Reflect, including boundary detection, the ability to tag image regions, and associate regions with audio files.

Project sponsorship is a great way to remain involved with the programs.

If you or your organization may be interested in sponsoring an mse studio or msit project, please contact matt bass (mbass@andrew.cmu.edu) 17 | Spring 2014

MSE UPDATE | 18

International Collaborations INNOPOLIS UNIVERSITY

This year saw the arrival of the second cohort of students sponsored by Innopolis University in Kazan, Russia. In August 2014, 13 13 INO-sponsored students earned their MSIT-SE degree from Carnegie Mellon. For AY14-15, 9 students began their MSIT-SE program in the fall semester. Additionally, 14 INO-sponsored students registered for full time distance education courses in the fall 2014 term.

SSN

This May will mark the 15th year of collaboration with SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering in Chennai, India. Started in 2001, more than 140 MSIT-SE and MIST-ESE students have earned their graduate degree at Carnegie Mellon. Upon graduation, they have assumed leadership roles in a variety of companies, including Salesforce, Google, IBM, and Oracle.

SRM

The Master of Software Engineering Professional Programs is pleased to announce that Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University (SRM) launched its pilot MSIT-ESE program in Chennai, India.

SRM is one of India’s most highly rated schools for technical instruction; regularly ranking among its best engineer schools. Working with the MSE Programs, the SRM-CMU venture will offer students the opportunity to pursue a Masters of Information Technology – Embedded Software Engineering (MSITESE) degree. Using the MSE’s highly successful model of joint education, the program will see students complete the MSIT-ESE core coursework – taught by CMU-trained SRM faculty – in Chennai ahead of two semesters of study onsite in Pittsburgh.

The Program is very pleased to be partnering with one of India’s finest institutions of higher technical learning and excited by the progress of this newest international collaborative education venture.

Executive Educational Collaborations AJOU UNIVERSITY

Summer semester brought 35 students from Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea to Pittsburgh to take part in an intensive program in Software Architecture. Over the 5-week residence period, Ajou students not only completed coursework but also took on a full-stack development project to build an automated, robotic warehouse order fulfillment system. Anthony Lattanze, lead coordinator of the program, notes that the pilot cohort performed despite the tight time constraints and heavy workload.

“By any measure, the program was a success.”

Ajou University is one of South Korea’s preeminent higher educational institutions in Engineering and Information Technology. These students are among the first from Ajou’s newly christened Graduate School of Software which aims to produce human –centered, secure and real-time embedded systems software professionals.

UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA The program has re-engaged with the University of Coimbra to discuss the possibility of an executive education program. The dual-degree collaborative program that began in 2008 concluded in 2012.

During that period, more than 40 students spent a one-semester residence period at Carnegie Mellon and earned MSE or MSIT-SE degrees. The proposed executive education program allows for a summer semester residential period with a condensed course of study. Although discussions are ongoing, they remain in the preliminary stages. We’ll be certain to update the community as planning unfolds.

19 | Spring 2014

Photo courtesy of SRM University

MSE UPDATE | 20

2014 alumni speakers This past year, numerous alumni returned for professional talks. The talks included information sessions on their companies, presentations pertaining to technical challenges in their particular domains, recruiting events, and shared discourse on best practices and takeaways from the program.

LUIS DAVID MAYA (MSE ’05) delivered a guest lecture last spring on continuous-deployment infrastructure design, development metrics, and lessons learned in the program. Luis also provided students with an overview of his company, Google’s, approach to crosscutting Quality Assurance efforts in a highly agile development/ops ecosystem.

NEEL MULLICK (MSE ’04) spoke to students during the summer semester regarding his company, TrustedFamily.

A social networking and support solution for Family Offices, Neel discussed the company’s unique position in the marketplace, the requirements of social networking solutions, and the importance of sound architectural thinking in the face of strict privacy and security requirements.

ASHWIN GAYASH (MSIT-SE ’08) returned to 300 South Craig in September as part of the TOC and presented on work being done at Cisco Systems. Taking a wider view of the organization, Ashwin spoke to students about the ongoing evolution of the IT landscape, Cisco’s adapting role in the marketplace, the various divisions within the organization, and the impact of the products they develop.

AMMAR ALRASHED (MSE ’12) delivered a talk to students this fall on his company, Informatica, and lessonslearned both during his time in the program as well as over the two years since his graduation. Ammar emphasized the critical need for both professional skill sets as well as ongoing personal development, such as diving deep into a problem before attempting to design a solution, and the importance of building and maintaining working relationships over time.

CHRISTIAN JUNGERS (MSE ’03) visited the Cave in September to speak to students regarding his New York Citybased organization, Fino Consulting. Rated as one of the fastest growing companies in America, Christian discussed Fino’s position in the market, career paths, organizational structure, and emphasis on strong software engineering practices.

VARUN GUPTA (MSIT-SE ’06) delivered a talk to students this fall on Multi-Tenant vs. Single Tenant Cloud Infrastructures. Drawing on his experience with Salesforce and his current role as Sr. Engineering Manager with ServiceNow, Varun provided an overview of cloud-based infrastructures, discussed the design trade-offs between Single/Multitenant architectures, and shared insights into the approach ServiceNow has taken in this respect to become one of Silicon Valley’s most successful new Enterprise IT companies.

SHAILENDRA MISHRA (MSE ’03) met with students in November in an informal lunchtime Q&A session regarding the work he does as a part of Microsoft’s Xbox team. A Senior Software Development Engineer, Shailu spoke to students about the lessons he learned in the program that he finds valuable in the workplace and the role of software engineering in the gaming industry.

We invite all of our alumni to return and share your insights about the industrial arena. Whether you are interested in recruiting students, sharing your experiences in industry, or talking about your insights and take-aways from your time here, we would be delighted to help you do so. If interested, contact Josh Quicksall (jquicksa@cs.cmu.edu)

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Faculty and Staff News DAVID GARLAN Dr. David Garlan, Director of the Software Engineering Professional Programs, travelled throughout his sabbatical this past year to appear at numerous conferences and universities. In March, he travelled to the Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies in Italy to present An Architectural Approach to Cyber-Physical Systems. In May, he delivered a talk titled Software Architecture: A Travelogue at the International Conference on Software Engineering, the Future of Software Engineering Track in Hyderabad, India. In July, Dr. Garlan was invited by Beihang University in Peking, China to give a talk titled Software Architecture: Past, Present, and Future. And in October, at the Central and Eastern European Software Engineering Conference in Moscow, Russia, he delivered the keynote address, Self-healing Systems.

Dr.Garlan was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for “contributions to the development of software architecture as a discipline in software engineering”. The ACM Fellow is the organization’s most prestigious award; with less than 1% of ACM members receiving the honor. ACM Fellows are recognized for their significant and lasting contributions to computing, information technology, and service to the wider computing community.

MARY SHAW HONORED AT WHITE HOUSE CEMEMONY Dr. Mary Shaw, the Alan J. Perlis University Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, was selected by President Obama to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The award represents the United States of America’s highest honor for achievements in the field of technology, innovation, and invention.

Dr. Shaw has served as a member of the Carnegie Mellon University faculty since 1971, and was instrumental in the design of the Master of Software Engineering Professional program curriculum. She has remained committed to the program’s evolution and enduring principles throughout the last twentyfive years. She is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (AMC), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and is co-recipient (with colleague David Garlan) of the 2011 Outstanding Research Award from the ACM’s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering.

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Faculty and Staff News NANCY MEAD Dr. Nancy Mead, Principal Researcher at CERT Secure Software and Systems and Adjunct Professor of Software Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, was invited to give a talk titled, Master of Software Assurance Curriculum: A Path to Professional Competency, at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in February.

In addition, she was co-chair of the Evolving Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering Workshop, co-located with the 22nd International IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference held in Karlskrona, Sweden, and a presenter at the conference. Dr. Mead, along with Mike Konrad delivered a tutorial, “Eliciting Unstated Requirements”, in which they discussed “the traditional KJ method for eliciting unstated user needs, as well as the extensions made to allow KJ to be used in a virtual environment.”

CHRIS KEMERER MSE associate faculty member, Dr. Chris Kemerer, was named a Distinguished Fellow of the NFORMS Information Systems Society. The primary aim of the ISS Distinguished Fellow Award is to recognize individuals who have made intellectual contributions to the information systems discipline.

Additionally, Dr. Kemerer was awarded the Executive MBA Program Distinguished Professor of the Year Award. An honor bestowed upon him by students at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Kemerer wrote an article with Dr. Narayan Ramasubbu, Managing Technical Debt in Enterprise Software Packages, for the August 2014 issue of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering outlining the evolutionary model and theory of software technical debt they developed to “facilitate a rigorous and balanced analysis of it’s benefits and costs in the context of a large commercial enterprise software package.”

TRAVIS BREAUX Dr. Travis D. Breaux, Hanan Hibshi, and Ashwini Rao recently published their article Eddy, a formal language for specifying and analyzing data flow specifications for conflicting privacy requirements in the September 2014 issue of Requirements Engineering. In the article, they “report results from multiple analysts in a literal replication study, which includes a refined methodology and set of heuristics that we used to extract privacy requirements from policy texts.”

Dr. Breaux had three papers accepted to the 22nd International IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference held in Karlskrona, Sweden. The first, Scaling Requirements Extraction to the Crowd: Experiments on Privacy Policies, co-authored with Florian Schaub, reports on three experiments they conducted to “evaluate crowdsourcing a manual requirements extraction task to a larger number of untrained workers.” The second, Managing Security Requirements Patterns Using Feature Diagram Hierarchies, a collaboration with Rocky Slavin, Jean-Michel Lehker, and Jianwei Niu, proposes “a new method that combines an inquiry-based approach with the feature diagram to review only relevant patterns and quickly select the most appropriate patterns for the situation.” The third, The Role of Legal Expertise in Interpretation of Legal Requirements and Definitions, written with former student David G. Gordon, reports on a study they conducted to “assess the ability of laypersons, technical professionals, and legal experts to judge the similarity between legal coverage conditions and requirements.”

In addition, Dr. Breaux wrote a column, Privacy Requirements in an Age of Increased Sharing, for the journal IEEE Software in which he “examines the increasing importance of privacy in emerging software ecosystems, legal and standards compliance, and software design practice.” A podcast of the column is available on the IEEE website.

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EDUARDO MIRANDA Dr. Eduardo Miranda recently traveled to Bulgaria to deliver two lectures on combinatorial testing and release planning. The talks were hosted by Sofia University and the New Bulgarian University, respectively; the talks were exceptionally well attended and received.

ELLEN SAXON This year, the program bid farewell to one of the community’s most valuable and beloved members, Ellen Saxon, as she moved ahead to a much deserved retirement.

Ellen was here from the beginning, working with the late Jim Tomayko to launch the MSE program in 1989. For the next 24 years, Ellen diligently served as the MSE program’s sole administrator. She tirelessly supported the program as it grew, evolved, and multiplied. From answering every imaginable student question to the processing of mountains of paperwork, Ellen ever and always put the students first.

We miss her, and we know that you will join us in wishing her well in her next 24 years.

LAUREN MARTINKO In July 2014, the program welcomed Lauren Martinko as its newest member of the MSE staff.

Lauren holds a BS in Psychology and an MA in Higher Education Administration—College Student Personnel from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the MSE, she worked in Carnegie Mellon’s Undergraduate Admissions Office where she helped in the processing thousands of undergraduate admission applications. In her new position as Masters Programs Administrator, Lauren supports the program’s students from admission through degree certification. Lauren's experience, professional demeanor, appreciation for the rigors of graduate study, and overall can-do attitude are all terrific assets in this most important and vital role as student liaison.

CLAIRE L E GOUES In 2013, Dr. Claire Le Goues joined the faculty of the Institute for Software Research. Before undertaking her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Virginia, Dr. Le Goues spent a year as a Software Engineer at IBM in Cambridge, MA where she specialized in rapid XML processing.

Though her time in industry was brief, nonetheless it affected the types of research problems she finds intriguing. Claire is broadly interested in software engineering and programming languages, and more specifically the ways in which engineers construct, maintain, and evolve high-quality, real-world systems. Her primary research focuses on automatic error repair. Claire co-teaches the Analysis for Software Artifacts core course with Dr. Eduardo Miranda. Her experience, enthusiasm, and dedication make her a welcomed and valued new addition to our community.

MSE UPDATE | 24

Awards and Commendations SAMMY MUDEDE | JAMES E. TOMAYKO SCHOLARSHIP The 2013-14 James E. Tomayko Scholarship was awarded to Sammy Mudede (MSIT-SE ’14). Originally hailing from the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, Sammy completed his undergraduate in Computer Science from Houston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX. As a Houston-Tilloton scholarship recipient, Sammy was involved in the Beta Kappa Chi Honor Society and was a founding member of the Houston-Tillotson Chapter of the National Society for Black Engineers.

As a student in the MSIT-SE program, Sammy distinguished himself by his dedication to the MSE community. Serving on the Master of Software Engineering Leadership Initiative, Sammy helped to organize and carry out social and professional development programs for the Software Engineering student body. His strong academic performance and warm demeanor made him an outstanding ambassador for the program across campus.

Upon his graduation in August 2014, Sammy returned to Austin for a staff engineer position with Dell in their Software Architecture Team. It’s our sincere pleasure to again congratulate Sammy, and to thank him for his effort and dedication!

SUDARSHAN WADKAR | MSE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP We are happy to announce that Sudarshan Wadkar (MSE ’14) has been selected as our 2015 MSE Research Fellow. Starting in January 2015, Sudhi will divide his time between research and specific MSE assignments. Sudhi’s fellowship is sponsored in part

by Dr. Travis Breaux, whose research explores methods for the systematic inspection of laws and policies in order to formally investigate legal requirements for regulatory compliance.

As an MSE student, Sudhi excelled not only academically, he contributed as a leader and ambassador of the program. His unanimous endorsement by MSE faculty and administration speaks to his contributions thus far, and the program’s belief in his future accomplishments. It is our pleasure to congratulate Sudhi, and to welcome him as our 2015 MSE Fellowship!

25 | Spring 2014

our greatest asset Whether you want to ensure extraordinary students are capable of getting an MSE or MSIT degree, facilitate the growth and evolution of curricula through professional development, or drive the realization of new program initiatives, making a gift to the Software Engineering Professional Programs is the quickest and easiest way to make a lasting difference.

Charitable contributions to the program go to support a wide range of mission-critical activities to enrich the educational experience of our students and advance the ongoing development of faculty, staff, and the curriculum.

Making a gift is simple and easy. Simply visit https://www.cmu.edu/campaign/ways/online.html To make sure your gift goes to support the programs, there are two available funds to which you can designate your gift: *In the designation drop-down box, select “Other” and then enter one of the two funds below in the “Preferred Designation” field.

THE JAMES E. TOMAYKO SCHOLARSHIP

Established in 2006 in remembrance of the much beloved MSE program founder and long-time director, James E. “Coach” Tomayko, the Tomayko Scholarship supports one or two exceptional students annually via tuition relief. Chosen recipients embody the essence of Coach – hard work, intellectual curiosity, leadership, community mindedness, and an overarching sense of commitment to the program. The scholarship allows the program to recognize exemplary performance and otherwise retain/recruit exceptional students otherwise in need of financial support.

MASTERS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROGRAM ENDOWMENT FUND

As a program-wide endowment, this discretionary fund provides the flexibility and capability to support a wide range of programmatic needs. Historically, the endowment has been used to establish special projects, launch new program initiatives, and provide professional development opportunities for both students and faculty.

Stay Connected Keeping your record with the university current is a great way to ensure that the program keeps you informed via the yearly newsletter, announcements of regional alumni gatherings, and more.

If you let us know where you work, and in what role, we can connect you with current students and fellow alumni.

If you haven’t heard from us in a while, recently moved, changed your email, or got a new job – consider taking a moment to update your alumni record by visiting the link below.

OR

Email Josh Quicksall (jquicksa@cs.cmu.edu), with the following information: Your Name Year of Graduation Your Program (MSE, MSIT-SE, MSIT-ESE, etc) Current Address Preferred Email Preferred Phone Current Employer Current Position

MSE UPDATE | 26

2014 Regional Alumni Events recap Throughout the past year, the program hosted five separate regional alumni gatherings. In total, more than 100 MSE and MSIT alumni turned out at events in the Bay Area, Boston, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. This represents an almost 100% increase over alumni attendance at events last year!

Feedback from these events has been overwhelmingly positive. Alumni stated that not only were they able to enjoy the great company of their MSE and MSIT peers, they also leveraged connections forged at the events to discover new opportunities in terms of career progression and professional collaborations.

Thank you for reconnecting with us and with old and new friends from near and far. And to those who were not yet able to attend, we hope we’ll see you at the next scheduled event near to you.

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MSE UPDATE | 28

We’ll see you at the 25th !

MARCH 20 & 21, 2015 // PITTSBURGH, PA

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly twenty-five years since the Master of Software Engineering program was conceived at CMU. But it’s true! In spring 2015, we’ll celebrate this remarkable milestone here in Pittsburgh with an MSE-wide community reunion.

The two day event kicks off the evening of Friday, March 20 with an all-classes cocktail reception at the Senator John Heinz Historical Center (pictured left) in Pittsburgh’s famous Strip District. Then on Saturday (3/21), we’ll return to campus for talks, panels, and social networking events designed to inform and Photo by Nakarosky at en.wikipedia / CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) engage our entire community. Alumni and guests will have plenty of time to share experiences and lessons learned, network with MSE/MSIT graduates from around the globe, and contribute to the shape of the Software Engineering Professional Programs going forward.

Hotel and Transportation ACCOMMODATIONS We have placed a block of hotel rooms on reserve at the Pittsburgh Wyndham University Center for the discounted rate of $149.00/night.

The Wyndham is conveniently located a short walk to Carnegie Mellon’s campus and offers onsite parking ($10/night). To reserve a room at the group rate, call (412) 682-6200. Reference the group name: “MSE 25th Anniversary”.

TRANSPORTATION FRIDAY Buses will be provided for the Friday night cocktail reception at the Heinz History Center as well as the Saturday field trip.

Paid Parking is also available.

SATURDAY For on campus parking guests can park free of charge in either the Morewood Parking Lot or the East Campus Garage all day on Saturday.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP, VISIT MSE.ISRI.CMU.EDU AND CLICK ON 25TH BUTTON ON THE RIGHT 29 | Spring 2014

schedule of events FRIDAY, MARCH 20 4:30 PM

GATES HILLMAN CENTER GUIDED TOUR

5:30 PM

CAVE RECEPTION/LEAVE FOR HEINZ RECEPTION All guests and alumni will gather in the Cave for a brief reception before boarding buses to the social event at the Heinz History Center

7:00 PM

ALL-CLASSES COCKTAIL RECEPTION Senator John Heinz History Center, Great Hall 1212 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

SATURDAY, MARCH 21 7:30 AM

CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST AND REGISTRATION

8:30 AM

WELCOMING TALKS

9:00 AM

CURRENT STATE OF THE MSE

9:30 AM

BREAK

9:45 AM

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE EDUCATION: A Panel Discussion of the History and Future of International Software Engineering Education

11:15 AM

ALUMNI MINI-TALKS A host of MSE and MSIT alumni will deliver short "mini-talks" on a topic of interest to themselves and the MSE community.

12:15 PM

FREEFORM NETWORKING LUNCH

1:15 pm

RECONNECT/REENGAGE/REINVIGORATE: Alumni Involvement and the MSE

1:30 PM

PROGRAM FEEDBACK ROUNDTABLES

2:30PM

NETWORKING FIELD TRIP Alumni and guests will have the option to travel together to visit the National Robotics Engineering Center or remain on campus to chat and network.

MSE UPDATE | 30

Masters of Software Engineering Professional Programs 300 South Craig Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213

stay in touch // stay involved // Stay connected // mse.isri.cmu.edu