Research and Faculty
At Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering PhD program, our researchers are at the forefront of redefining software engineering, consistently delivering groundbreaking work that shapes the field and impacts the world. Our faculty and students regularly present at top-tier software engineering conferences like ICSE and FSE, but also in venues of neighboring and related fields like OOPSLA, POPL, CAV, CHI, CSCW, NeurIPS, ACL, ASSETS, or ICLR. They are earning prestigious recognitions such as the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award and 10- year impact awards. As a PhD student at CMU, you’ll join a legacy of innovation that bridges rigorous theory with real-world applications, working alongside world-class faculty to tackle the most pressing challenges in software engineering. Your research here will not only advance the state of the art but also contribute to a tradition of excellence that inspires global academic and industry discourse.
Our research improves the reliability, resilience, safety, and security of software systems that matter, even those with AI
This includes research on formal methods, tools, testing, software engineering for AI, distributed systems, privacy, policy and legal aspects, software architecture, self-adaptive systems, security and privacy, software engineering for robotics, and much more. For example, provide debugging features and strong security guarantees for WebAssembly, automatically fixing bugs for $8 each, find bugs in data science code, and find concurrency bugs in multi-threaded software.
Our research helps people create software more productively (with and without AI) and follow evidence-based best practices
This includes research on AI for software engineering, programming languages, program repair, analytics, usability research for programming languages and programming tools, education, and much more. For example, show how software agents are more effective at creating good regression tests, how to design more usable APIs, and which continuous integration practices do and do not work.
Our research improves the reliable, scalable delivery of high-quality software projects that meet the user’s needs now and in the future
This includes software architecture, requirements, testing, correctness, design, and much more. For example, we develop robots that automatically adapt to changing conditions, test error handling in large scale microservice architectures, formalize accountability standards by which we measure whether software adheres to the privacy and security regulations.
Our research supports developers and their teams in their specific needs to work effectively
This includes open source, accessibility, teamwork, collaboration, education, and much more. For example, show how communities can learn from each other about managing breaking APIs, help data scientists and software engineers work together effectively, study whether more diverse teams are more productive, and how to improve teamwork in SE education.
Our research advances a wide range of methods
- Our research advances AI-based automation in software engineering
- Our research develops tools that find bugs or guarantee correctness, security, privacy, …
- Our research develops languages and abstractions that have guarantees built in and that put quality front and center
- Our research spans the whole spectrum from formal guarantees to pragmatics
- Our research makes recommendations based on strong empirical evidence rather than vibes
- Our research embraces the future and cuts through the hype
Why This Matters for You
At CMU, you’ll work on research that not only advances software engineering but also addresses real-world challenges with global impact. Our faculty are leaders in their fields, our projects are at the cutting edge, and our collaborative environment ensures you’ll thrive. Compared to programs at UC Irvine, University of Washington, and MIT, CMU offers unparalleled access to interdisciplinary resources, industry partnerships, and a legacy of innovation in software engineering.