[aosd-announce] PhD Studentship in Aspect-Oriented Software Assessment

[Alessandro Garcia]

The Computing Department at Lancaster University invites
applications for a PhD studentship on “Aspect-Oriented
Software Assessment” available from October 2007. The
studentship is embedded in the Department’s high profile
research activity in Software Engineering. In particular,
we are looking for a strong, dynamic individual with
research interests related to our existing strengths on
the interplay of aspect-oriented software development (AOSD),
empirical studies, and software measurement.

AOSD Research @ Lancaster
--------------------------

The Computing Department 
(<http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/>http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk) is
consistently ranked as one of the leading UK research
institutions in computer science. The Department was also
recently ranked 7th in the UK by the Guardian Education
Guide. The department offers a highly collegiate and
stimulating environment with around 30 faculty, 53
researchers and a team of technical and administrative
support staff including research support. We have a very
large PhD programme with over 100 participants, and hold
approximately £10m in research funding from a diverse range
of sources including from EPSRC and EU sponsored research
projects and direct from industry. The department is housed
in InfoLab21, a state-of-the-art building dedicated to world
class research and technology transfer in
ICT (<http://infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/>http://infolab21.lancs.ac.uk/).

The Department has also an international reputation for
its research in aspect-oriented software engineering. We
are at the forefront of several key research areas such
as metrics-based evaluation of aspect-oriented systems,
empirical studies on AOSD, aspect-oriented requirements
engineering and architecture design, aspect-oriented
middleware, aspect-oriented databases and aspect variability
for product line engineering. We also lead the European
Commission funded European Network of Excellence on
Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD-Europe) and
are actively involved in organisation of international
events on the topic including the Aspect-Oriented
Software Development Conference that we successfully
hosted in 2004.


The Studentship
----------------

The studentship is open, due to the nature of funding,
to UK nationals or EU nationals who have completed their
undergraduate studies in the UK. Applicants should have
an excellent first degree in a relevant discipline. EU
nationals who have not been resident in the UK for three
years will be eligible for fees only. The studentship
is fully-funded (i.e. pay tuition fees at the
UK/EU rate as well as a tax-free maintenance stipend
of £12,600 p.a. for 2007/8; £12,900 p.a. for 2008/9;
£13,200 p.a. for 2009/10). In the first instance, applicants
should send a curriculum vitae, with a cover letter detailing
their specific research interest, to:
Dr. Alessandro Garcia 
(<mailto:garciaa at comp.lancs.ac.uk>garciaa at comp.lancs.ac.uk). In a second
step, a formal application should be submitted to the
Lancaster University PhD Programme until 10 August 2007
(hard deadline). Information is available at
<https://www.pgapps.lancs.ac.uk/>https://www.pgapps.lancs.ac.uk/


The PhD Research Theme
-----------------------

A plethora of new aspect-oriented techniques are emerging
to cope with the challenges of contemporary software
development, thereby addressing shortcomings of established
paradigms, such as object-oriented and component-based
software engineering. Even though the proponents of new
aspect-oriented languages such as AspectJ, CaesarJ and
Hyper/J claim that they entail the production of software
with superior modularity, there is not much empirical
knowledge about their advantages and side effects on system
reusability, evolvability, and reliability. This research will
investigate measurement frameworks that foster the effective
assessment and well-informed adoption and comparison
of such aspect-oriented techniques.

It is desirable that the applicant demonstrates, through
his/her CV, previous experience on at least one of the core
topics of this research project: (i) aspect-oriented programming,
(ii) software measurement, or (iii) empirical software
engineering. The research will be conducted in cooperation with a
team recognized as one of the international leaders in the area:
<http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/aop/index.htm>http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/aop/index.htm.