Enterprise AI Analysis

Abstract

Software engineering has been a crucial discipline to support the advancement of our modern world, since software systems power all segments of society. This is possible due to the development of the discipline in the last decades, to a state in which we have qualified people (software engineers, practitioners, and researchers), proper processes, and cutting-edge technologies. To achieve this current state, the discipline of software engineering has been advanced by private companies, open-source communities, government agencies, and universities. What do all those different institutions have in common? They have talented, smart, and creative people. The doctoral degree is the highest academic degree, focusing on educating and preparing talented, smart, and creative people. While the discipline of software engineering has seen great development, the new demands from society and the emergence of new technologies (e.g., generative artificial intelligence, quantum computing, Internet of Things) create new challenges and uncover old ones. In this context, the current generation of doctoral students will be in charge of taming such new technologies to meet the demands for the benefit of humanity. Given this crucial role of doctoral students in the future of software engineering, we need to discuss what the expectations, responsibilities, benefits, and barriers are faced by a doctoral student. In this talk, I share my experiences as a software developer, doctoral student, post-doc researcher, and professor directly working with software engineering in the past 20 years. This talk aims to inspire and guide students as they navigate the complexities and milestones of their doctoral studies. The topics of talk involve collaboration with your pairs, publication of your work results, understanding your community (e.g., researchers and practitioners working on the domain of variability and systematic reuse), what students should do and what they should not do, and some provocative discussion to motivate critical thinking by the audience. After the talk, the students will be equipped with practical suggestions and advice so that they can avoid pitfalls, recognize good opportunities to grow, and plan their future careers.