“With hardware advances, it’s now more feasible to apply software to analyze models of real-world systems, and we’re working to make the process more efficient.”
Allison Sullivan
Assistant Professor
University of Texas at Arlington
…on improving efficiency in testing software updates.
Sullivan, an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UT Arlington, was recently awarded a three-year, $490,000 grant from the National Science Foundation “to explore testing software updates without testing unchanged parts of the code.”
Why is that important? Because software developers use “modeling” to test reliability. And as we all now from countless messages on our computers, software gets updated all the time. Modeling future versions of the software can take both lots of time and lots of money.
“Software is growing more and more complex,” Sullivan explained in a statement. “It’s hard to create a software model with millions of lines of code and multiple developers. So if all we’ve done is added a feature, can we just run a model on that change? If so, we can cut the time it takes to test code from several hours overnight to maybe just an hour.”
Sullivan is using Alloy modeling software to explore three ways of interacting with a model: writing, testing, and synthesizing.
CSE Department Chair Hong Jiang sees great potential in Sullivan’s work.
“Software models are the gold standard for testing, but writing a model correctly and applying it to immense amounts of code, no matter how small a change, is time-consuming and inefficient,” Jiang said. “Dr. Sullivan’s work has the potential to make testing easier and better, which will improve quality.”
For more on what’s new and next in North Texas, check out Every Last Word.
Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.
Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.
R E A D N E X T
-
The program enables student entrepreneurs to earn national recognition and startup resources through a national network. Here's a look at several innovations students have developed within the program—from 3D-printed rock-climbing grips to autonomous drone software and more.
-
UT Dallas marketing professor emeritus Brian Ratchford and his team explored the effects of social media on crowdfunding across nearly 440 GoFundMe campaigns. They found that social media is most helpful in the first 10 days of a campaign. “If a campaign doesn't do well at the outset, it is unlikely to succeed,” Ratchford said.
-
$61,000 in total MavPitch Award funding was awarded to the startups, which include a maker of 3D-printed homes, a designer of hydrogen-powered drones that can fly for six hours; an after-school day care service that focuses on technology overuse by kids, and more.
-
The $120 million Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building, supported by a gift from Dallas-based Texas Instruments, will focus on advancing transformational bioengineering research that can find solutions to unmet medical needs. It's set to open in 2023.
-
From Lockheed Martin to NASA to SpaceX, Texas is a hotbed of aerospace activity. Now UT Arlington and Texas A&M want to make that hotbed even hotter—by collaborating to advance the state's aerospace defense manufacturing community.
