About SERC
Our Mission
The mission of the Software Engineering Research Center is to conduct a program
of applied and basic research on software technology problems of interest to
its members. The goal of this research is to enable software technology gains
within member organizations.
SERC History
Approximately twenty years ago, the National Science Foundation established
a program to encourage cooperative research between academia and industry. The
goal of the program was to establish self-sufficient research centers of excellence
in areas of critical technology. These centers would be located at universities
and staffed principally by faculty and student researchers. Those researchers
would cooperate closely with scientists and engineers at partner US industrial
concerns and government agencies.
The idea was simple enough -- non-academic researchers would provide guidance
and feedback, funding, and some cooperative research. Most importantly, they
would provide real-world data and experience to help the academic researchers
in their work. Meanwhile, these university researchers would contribute their
time and talent, using (mostly) the research facilities of their universities,
to conduct innovative investigations into topics that the companies and agencies
were interested in but not able (or currently willing) to pursue.
The researchers gain from this because they get access to real-world data and
experience to validate their models and guide their research. They get to explore
ideas they might not otherwise get to investigate. Furthermore, they gain in
the interaction with researchers at affiliate organizations, and they gain access
to some stable, long-term funding for their work. The organizations gain by
having immediate access to innovative research that is often outside the areas
they can support. They get to interact with some world-class researchers, and
they often get to take advantage of new graduates, summer internships, and possibilities
of sending their personnel for advanced degrees while working on company-specific
projects.
The SERC is one of over 50 such centers established by NSF, and the only one
devoted to software engineering. It was founded in 1986. The program is known
at NSF as the Industry-University Cooperative Research Center program (IUCRC
for short).
SERC University Participants
Ball
State University
Butler
University
Depaul University
Indiana
University Purdue University Indianapolis
Ohio University
Pennsylvania State University
Purdue
University
Portland
State University
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Limerick
University
of West Florida
West
Virginia University
The researchers of the SERC are faculty and students from CS, EE, Industrial
Engineering, Management, and Systems Engineering. The past projects include
prototyping, user interfaces, CASE technology, design methods, software testing,
program debugging, reuse technology, heterogeneous databases, reverse engineering,
maintenance tools, management-oriented metrics, real-time analysis, management
methods, object-oriented design, and more. Our research is also supported by
outside funding sources as well as our affiliates.
We've got lots of other things we've been doing, too, including an extensive
publications series, seminars, participations and sponsorship in workshops and
symposia and national boards.
Why you should become a SERC affiliate
SERC remains the cost effective source for cutting edge research. Opportunities
resulting from membership in SERC include:
- Influence selection of Research Projects
- Exploit innovations that may lead to new products
- Improve software quality and productivity of software engineers
- New software engineering technology ... access to expertise
- Use of unique laboratories and facilities with low overhead costs
- Satisfy corporate commitment to support university research
- Networking opportunities with leaders of industry and government
- Technical reports
- On-site short courses and seminars
- Summer interns, potential future employees
- Conduct customized research through your own request for proposals
If you would like more information about SERC please click contact
us or call 765-285-8642
