REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Software Engineering and Service Composition

Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Texas Tech University Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site program provides opportunities for ten undergraduate students each summer to conduct research on two of the most crucial aspects of computing, software engineering and service composition. This REU Site project meets the needs for an undergraduate computing research environment in the Texas South Plains and contributes to producing graduate students in two essential sub-disciplines of computer science. The overall basis for this REU Site is for research efforts that improve the development of software and service-oriented systems in a wide variety of application domains. There are three major objectives for the proposed REU Site: increase the percentage of women and underrepresented minority students; improve the retention of computer science students; and increase those undergraduate students entering into graduate computing education degree programs. These objectives are met through research that addresses a broad spectrum of means for improving software development. The projects address: software specification generation based on user input and output; construction of a self-managed embedded software system using software specifications; and dynamic techniques for service composition and recovery in a service-oriented environment. The undergraduate student research topics include language development, software tool design and implementation, application development in a variety of application domains to demonstrate applicability, and measurement of the improvements. The technical results of the research efforts with undergraduate students will be disseminated in a broad set of publications. The broadening participation aspects of the broader impacts will be in the women and underrepresented minority students that are recruited for the program, the achievement of success at conducting research, and then continuation on to graduate school.