Too many things happened since my last post. Married. Baby. Job. School. Most are good :)

I will present the following paper at the Working Conference on Reverse Engineering 2010 - Oct 13-16, 2010 in Beverly, MA:
Nguyen, T. H. D., Adams, B. and Hassan, A. E. 2010. A Case Study of Bias in Bug-Fix Datasets. In Working Conference on Reverse Engineering, Beverly, Massachusetts, Accepted.

Abstract:

Software quality researchers build software quality models by recovering traceability links between bug reports in issue tracking repositories and source code files. However, all too often the data stored in issue tracking repositories is not explicitly tagged or linked to source code. Researchers have to resort to heuristics to tag the data (e.g., to determine if an issue is a bug report or a work item), or to link a piece of code to a particular issue or bug.

Recent studies by Bird et al. and by Antoniol et al. suggest that software models based on imperfect datasets with missing links to the code and incorrect tagging of issues, exhibit biases that compromise the validity and generality of the quality models built on top of the datasets. In this study, we verify the effects of such biases for a commercial project that enforces strict development guidelines and rules on the quality of the data in its issue tracking repository. Our results show that even in such a perfect setting, with a near-ideal dataset, biases do exist -- leading us to conjecture that biases are more likely a symptom of the underlying software development process instead of being due to the used heuristics.

Hope to see you there.

I will present the following paper at the International Conference in Software Maintenance 2010 - Sep 10-18, 2010:
Nguyen, T. H. D., Adams, B. and Hassan, A. E. 2010. Studying the impact of dependency network measures on software quality. In International Conference on Software Maintenance, Timișoara, Romania, submitted.

Abstract: Dependency network measures capture various facets of the dependencies among software modules. For example, betweenness centrality measures how much information flows through a module compared to the rest of the network. Prior studies have shown that these measures are good predictors of post-release failures. However, these studies did not explore the causes for such good performance and did not provide guidance for practitioners to avoid future bugs. In this paper, we closely examine the causes for such performance by replicating prior studies using data from the Eclipse project. Our study shows that a small subset of dependency network measures have a large impact on post-release failure, while other network measures have a very limited impact. We also analyze the benefit of bug prediction in reducing testing cost. Finally, we explore the practical implications of the important network measures.

Hope to see you there.

I finally finished the course requirements for my PhD. Now it is all research. I spent April and May reporting my research findings from last year.

I am now looking for a new research direction. Here are what I've been considering:
-Collaborative software engineering: My original interest in software engineering. I believe that there are simple collaboration rules/patterns that determine a successful software project.
-Performance/Load testing: A lot of the data mining techniques I've been learning in the past can be applied in this field. Although I feel there maybe a lot of work in this field already. A few colleague of mine in SAIL have already successfully exploring the applications of these techniques.
-Cost/Utility Analysis: There is a paper from Boehm and Sullivan in COFES2000 saying that although cost have been studied in the past, not many people look at the utility of software production.

I am also attending the MSR summer school 2010 at Queens: msrcanada.org. It is a great opportunity to learn from experts in the fields such as Ahmed Hassan, Daniel German, Michael Godfrey, Thomas Zimmermann, Tim Menzies, Audris Mockus, Tao Xie, and etc. It is a good opportunity to learn new statistical and data mining technique for your project and share research ideas and results with your fellow students.

The term so far has been busy as expected. I had two classes (semantics and fuzzy logic) and two projects from last term to report. I was hoping the courses are less demanding than the three last term and writing up for the two projects from last term won't take much time. But work expands as time does so I am still very busy. The two theory courses are pretty interesting though. I also auditing a stats course so I've been learning more about statistics. Feel like I need to retake some serious 2nd year stats course again though. Maybe next term.

My application for PR was approved! So after living in Canada for the last nine years, I finally got to stay! No more visa, SIN card, or care card to renew. Also, no b*s*t with the university. I've been feeling like a cash cow at Queens.

After getting panic about the registration deadline at Queens, I called UVic Graduate Studies and Department of Computer Science several time last week. Finally got responses on Monday. They couldn't find my transcript until Tuesday. I though that I would made the deadline. But I got a phone call from Graduate Studies said that my transcript did not show my grade. Turned out that, at Queens, there is a date when the grades get released which is Jan 8 for me. I asked the person at Graduate Studies here at Queens on Jan 07 if I should order the transcript. She said yes!

So I got more panic. I was so stressed, the -18C didn't bother me at all. So on Wednesday, I went and got a replacement transcript first thing in the morning. I couriered it overnight to Victoria. By morning on Thursday, UPS tracking said it won't be there on time. I got more panic because, if it get there on Friday, there will be only four hours of overlapping time because when Victoria starts, it is noon here already. I started thinking about packing and finding jobs... But thanks to some miracle, UPS actually delivered it by noon on Thursday. The clerk there processed it in the afternoon and faxed it. I finally got admitted to Queens on Friday morning, the deadline day. Phew... I was so relieve.

It was a crazy week. But thanks to very helpful staff at UVic's CSC and Graduate Record, it is over. I don't have to deal with this for another four years! Now, back to projects and papers....

This term is the official first term I am at Queens. So I have to transfer my course last Fall here back to UVic and get a degree completion letter to register. I found out that UVic Grad Record has not received it last week.  There was a lot of admission documents so they couldn't find my transcript. So I panic and call them several times. No one answer me at all. Turns out the person who supposed to take of my file was away. So now she is trying to find the transcript. I can't really do anything. If it is not done before Friday, I won't be able to take course or work here at Queens. :-( I can't really do research and study like this. Why everything have to be so complicated?

Also, because I am now an official student at Queens, I have to officially move to Ontario. Moving from one province of Canada to another is harder than moving to another country. I have to switch study permit, health insurance, car registration, car insurance... it's just nuts.

After a wonderful time with family and friends in Vietnam, I am back to Kingston. Although I was very exhausted because of the traveling and the weather in Ho Chi Minh City, the trip remind me how wonderful it is to be with loved ones. It was very sad flying back to Canada. Sometime I wonder why am I here.

But now back to reality. This term, I am taking two courses to finish my course requirement and try to publish a study I did last term. I will also learn more statistics. Particularly, I want to learn how to predict extremely odd cases. I also have to short our insurance and immigration paper.

After a long trip I am finally back in Vietnam for the holiday. The weather is very very nice considered the temperature in Kingston. Yesterday I went to Vung Tau for a day. Highly recommended for any one who want to visit Vietnam. There was surf-able wave at the beach. A bit to rough for just swimming.

I almost finish  two of the three term reports I have this term. What's a relief. Although the last one is the most difficult one because I haven't finish the analysis yet. My analysis showed very bad results. It is not because the hypotheses are bad but because the distribution of the data doesn't work for those hypotheses. So I have to raise the level of analysis. At least I have two weeks to work on this paper. And then home sweet home.