Computer science professors receive grant
Samantha Bozel
Issue date: 9/8/09 Section: News
Professors David Binkley, Ph.D., and Dawn Lawrie, Ph.D., are making great strides toward advancements in the field of computer science, more specifically, software and programming. The Loyola University Maryland Computer Science Department recently received a grant worth $309,757.
The grant was bestowed upon them by the National Science Foundation after a long application process. The contributions made by the NSF will go toward Binkley and Lawrie's forthcoming project, "Making Sense of Source Code: Improving Software through Information Retrieval."
The title of the project is verbose, but Dr. Dawn explained simply, "The aim is to help improve the ability to retrieve information. And to help other researchers get better results from the tools that have already been built."
Binkley explained that the language of computers is in code. The research in this project will be made towards the development of tools to make programs in reading code more effective.
Dr. Binkley said, "The pie in the sky is improved software."
In response as to what the grand total of $309,757 will be put toward, Binkley said, "Well, I'm thinking about buying a Lamborghini."
Writing a program can become strenuous and extremely complex. Programs are written in thousands of lines of text in code. Now, modern systems can have up to millions of lines of code. Binkley said that these codes can become almost impossible to understand.
"Do you use version one of anything?" asked Binkley. "The answer is no. No one uses the very first version because it becomes updated into something newer and better."
"It will have two effects on the Loyola community. Directly, a collection of students have been working with us on the project, which gives them exposure and helps those who are graduate-school bound. Indirectly, the rest of students will be exposed to working on problems and helping them is more current," continued Binkley.
There are two different phases to programming: construction and maintenance. There needs to be the initial tools to create the programs but also research and development for regular upgrades and changes in order to improve performance.
The grant was bestowed upon them by the National Science Foundation after a long application process. The contributions made by the NSF will go toward Binkley and Lawrie's forthcoming project, "Making Sense of Source Code: Improving Software through Information Retrieval."
The title of the project is verbose, but Dr. Dawn explained simply, "The aim is to help improve the ability to retrieve information. And to help other researchers get better results from the tools that have already been built."
Binkley explained that the language of computers is in code. The research in this project will be made towards the development of tools to make programs in reading code more effective.
Dr. Binkley said, "The pie in the sky is improved software."
In response as to what the grand total of $309,757 will be put toward, Binkley said, "Well, I'm thinking about buying a Lamborghini."
Writing a program can become strenuous and extremely complex. Programs are written in thousands of lines of text in code. Now, modern systems can have up to millions of lines of code. Binkley said that these codes can become almost impossible to understand.
"Do you use version one of anything?" asked Binkley. "The answer is no. No one uses the very first version because it becomes updated into something newer and better."
"It will have two effects on the Loyola community. Directly, a collection of students have been working with us on the project, which gives them exposure and helps those who are graduate-school bound. Indirectly, the rest of students will be exposed to working on problems and helping them is more current," continued Binkley.
There are two different phases to programming: construction and maintenance. There needs to be the initial tools to create the programs but also research and development for regular upgrades and changes in order to improve performance.
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