Doctoral Pilot in Software Engineering

Here you can find the list of potential supervisors in Doctoral Pilot in Software Engineering. If you're interested in applying for a position in the thematic field of the pilot, you should contact a possible supervisor as soon as possible.

Software engineering research focuses on principles, processes and tools for designing, maintaining, testing, and managing software systems. The research in software engineering aims at improving the quality and efficiency of software. The role of software engineering is essential in most areas of business and society, and a high level of software engineering knowledge and expertise is needed for success. With this background, the Doctoral pilot in Software Engineering improves doctoral education in software engineering, aligns it with real-world industry needs, and promotes deeper academic-industry collaboration. 

The pilot consortium consists of all nine universities that offer doctoral education in software engineering in Finland and creates a national environment for high-quality academic work with industrial relevance. 

At the University of Helsinki, we are looking for 5 doctoral researchers for 3-year positions on the following themes:

  • Conceptual modelling for data-driven software engineering
  • Software architecture for AI-enabled software-intensive systems
  • Research for software engineering education, such as tools, learning analytics, and industry relevance of SE education
  • Machine learning engineering
  • Quantum software engineering
  • Anomaly detection in software operations
  • Automated support in software engineering research, e.g., for SLRs

Requirements:

  • The research plan needs to be focused on software engineering research, with the results to be published in high-quality software engineering forums (including journals such as ACM TOSEM, EMSE, JSS, IST, IEEE Software, Automated Software Engineering, and Software Quality Journal and conferences such as ICSE, ESEM, SPLC, ICSA, ECSA, ICSM, MSR, SANER, ASE).
  • The doctoral researcher should be willing to collaborate with an industrial partner. The consortium has excellent contacts with the industry and will actively support industrial collaboration with the intention of a post-doctoral career in industry. 

The consortium of the Doctoral Pilot in Software Engineering consists of all software engineering (SE) research groups in Finland. In the pilot, the consortium will form an active community of doctoral researchers, supervisors and industrial partners. SE supervisors and SE thesis topics must be at the core of the pilot. Supervisory teams should include personnel with a clear SE publication record, and theses completed in the pilot must clearly be about SE and include results that can be published in high-level SE forums. 

To be accepted into the pilot, prospective doctoral researchers must select a main supervisor from the “core SE” supervisor pool. It is also possible to select secondary supervisor(s) that cover a multi-disciplinary topic. 
Core SE supervisors 

Petri Kettunen - Software Engineering

  •  Agile software engineering • Sustainable software engineering • AI in software engineering

Matti Luukkainen  

  • Our research focuses on software engineering education, such as tools, learning analytics, and the industry relevance of SE education.

Tomi Männistö - Empirical Software Engineering

  • Our research includes conceptual modelling for data-driven software engineering, software architecture for AI-enabled software-intensive systems, and research for software engineering education.

Mika Mäntylä - Software Anomaly Detection

  • We work on software anomaly detection using deep learning and classical machine learning techniques. We utilize data from microservice-based software systems. Additionally, we are engaged in automating systematic literature reviews with large language models

Jukka K Nurminen - Engineering of advanced software

  • Engineering of machine learning systems, quantum computing software, green computing.

Mikko Raatikainen 

  • Our research centres on examining the construction, maintenance, and communication of envisioned digital services and their interactions. We conduct empirical research relevant to both academia and practical applications, with a focus on the value and dependability of digital services.

Antti-Pekka Tuovinen - Software Engineering

  • We address software engineering research problems and challenges with industrial relevance or origin. We emphasise the empirical aspect of the research by applying research methods that enable us to gain deep understanding of software development.

 

Possible secondary supervisors (not primarily SE, but may co-supervise with a core SE supervisor)

Kjell Lemström - music visualisation software

  • We develop algorithms for processing large data sets of musical data.

Jiaheng Lu - Database system, Quantum Algorithms and Software Engineering

  • We study database systems and quantum computing. We use quantum circuit and AI technology to enhance the performance of databases.

Matti Nelimarkka - social data science

  • We study applications of data science/AI for social science research questions and explore data practices and the engineering of AI systems.

Petteri Nurmi - IoT systems engineering, AI for wearable systems

  • My research focuses on using intelligent, sensor-enabled everyday devices (IoT, smart devices, drones, etc.) for supporting sciences. The main focus areas are improving quality of data, and the scale of data; see http://pds.cs.helsinki.fi