Research

Our research advances the field of software engineering through empirical studies, tool development, and evidence-based methodologies that address real-world challenges in software quality and maintenance. We publish our findings in top-tier venues and develop open-source tools that practitioners can use to improve their software development processes.

Use the search tool below to explore our publications and discover the insights driving our work.

Research Publications

2025

On the structure and semantics of identifier names containing closed syntactic category words

Christian D. Newman, Anthony Peruma, Eman Abdullah AlOmar, Mahie Crabbe, Syreen Banabilah, …, Michael J. Decker, Farhad Akhbardeh, Marcos Zampieri, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Jonathan I. Maletic

Empirical Software Engineering · 24 Jul 2025 · doi:10.1007/s10664-025-10699-x

Scalar: A Part-of-Speech Tagger for Identifiers

Christian D. Newman, Brandon Scholten, Sophia Testa, Joshua A. C. Behler, Syreen Banabilah, …, Marcos Zampieri, Eman Abdullah AlOmar, Reem Alsuhaibani, Anthony Peruma, Jonathan I. Maletic

2025 IEEE/ACM 33rd International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC) · 27 Apr 2025 · doi:10.1109/icpc66645.2025.00045

Method Names in Jupyter Notebooks: An Exploratory Study

Carol Wong, Gunnar Larsen, Rocky Huang, Bonita Sharif, Anthony Peruma

2025 IEEE/ACM 33rd International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC) · 27 Apr 2025 · doi:10.1109/icpc66645.2025.00044

Exploring Code Comprehension in Scientific Programming: Preliminary Insights from Research Scientists

Alyssia Chen, Carol Wong, Bonita Sharif, Anthony Peruma

2025 IEEE/ACM 33rd International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC) · 27 Apr 2025 · doi:10.1109/icpc66645.2025.00043

Exploring Accessibility Trends and Challenges in Mobile App Development: A Study of Stack Overflow Questions

Amila Indika, Christopher Lee, Haochen Wang, Justin Lisoway, Anthony Peruma, Rick Kazman

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 01 Jan 2025 · doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.885

Mobile App Security Trends and Topics: An Examination of Questions From Stack Overflow

Timothy Huo, Ana Araújo, Jake Imanaka, Anthony Peruma, Rick Kazman

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 01 Jan 2025 · doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.873

The Impact of Generative AI-Powered Code Generation Tools on Software Engineer Hiring: Recruiters' Experiences, Perceptions, and Strategies

Alyssia Chen, Timothy Huo, Yunhee Nam, Anthony Peruma, Daniel Port

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 01 Jan 2025 · doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.864

Exploring Large Language Models for Analyzing and Improving Method Names in Scientific Code

Gunnar Larsen, Carol Wong, Anthony Peruma

arXiv · 01 Jan 2025 · doi:10.48550/ARXIV.2507.16439

Identifier Name Similarities: An Exploratory Study

Carol Wong, Mai Abe, Silvia De Benedictis, Marissa Halim, Anthony Peruma

arXiv · 01 Jan 2025 · doi:10.48550/ARXIV.2507.18081

2024

On the Rationale and Use of Assertion Messages in Test Code: Insights from Software Practitioners

Anthony Peruma, Taryn Takebayashi, Rocky Huang, Joseph Carmelo Averion, Veronica Hodapp, Christian D. Newman, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer

2024 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) · 06 Oct 2024 · doi:10.1109/icsme58944.2024.00055

A Developer-Centric Study Exploring Mobile Application Security Practices and Challenges

Anthony Peruma, Timothy Huo, Ana Catarina Araújo, Jake Imanmka, Rick Kazman

2024 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) · 06 Oct 2024 · doi:10.1109/icsme58944.2024.00081

Insights from the Field: Exploring Students' Perspectives on Bad Unit Testing Practices

Anthony Peruma, Eman Abdullah AlOmar, Wajdi Aljedaani, Christian D. Newman, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer

Proceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 · 03 Jul 2024 · doi:10.1145/3649217.3653643

How Is Software Reuse Discussed in Stack Overflow?

Eman Abdullah AlOmar, Anthony Peruma, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian Newman, Ali Ouni

Conference on Systems Engineering Research Series · 01 Jan 2024 · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-49179-5_24

Making Team Projects with Novices More Effective: An Experience Report

Carlos Paradis, Rick Kazman, Anthony Peruma

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 01 Jan 2024 · doi:10.24251/hicss.2024.924

Impostor Syndrome in Final Year Computer Science Students: An Eye Tracking and Biometrics Study

Alyssia Chen, Carol Wong, Katy Tarrit, Anthony Peruma

Lecture Notes in Computer Science · 01 Jan 2024 · doi:/10.1007/978-3-031-61569-6_2

2023

An Exploratory Study on the Occurrence of Self-Admitted Technical Debt in Android Apps

Gregory Wilder, Riley Miyamoto, Samuel Watson, Rick Kazman, Anthony Peruma

2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt) · 01 May 2023 · doi:10.1109/TechDebt59074.2023.00007

An Exploratory Study on the Usage and Readability of Messages Within Assertion Methods of Test Cases

Taryn Takebayashi, Anthony Peruma, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian D. Newman

2023 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Natural Language-Based Software Engineering (NLBSE) · 01 May 2023 · doi:10.1109/NLBSE59153.2023.00015

Performance Comparison of Binary Machine Learning Classifiers in Identifying Code Comment Types: An Exploratory Study

Amila Indika, Peter Y. Washington, Anthony Peruma

2023 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Natural Language-Based Software Engineering (NLBSE) · 01 May 2023 · doi:10.1109/NLBSE59153.2023.00012

Do the Test Smells Assertion Roulette and Eager Test Impact Students’ Troubleshooting and Debugging Capabilities?

Wajdi Aljedaani, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Anthony Peruma, Stephanie Ludi

2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET) · 01 May 2023 · doi:10.1109/ICSE-SEET58685.2023.00009

Rename Chains: An Exploratory Study on the Occurrence and Characteristics of Identifiers Undergoing Multiple Renamings

Anthony Peruma, Christian D. Newman

arXiv · 01 Jan 2023 · doi:10.48550/ARXIV.2302.11632