Laboratory for Software Design
Department of Computer Science
Iowa State University
226 Atanasoff Hall
Ames IA 50011-1041 USA

Research Lab: 116A Atanasoff Hall
Major Professor: Prof. Hridesh Rajan

Email:
Phone: +1-515-367-0762
Fax: +1-515-294-0258

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, Iowa State University, In progress
• MS in Computer Science, Iowa State University, December 2008
• BS in Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Iowa State University, December 2006

Research Interests

My current research interests are in software engineering and programming languages. I am interested in improving upon or developing new programming models to maintain the benefits of software engineering practices such as separation of concerns, agile software development, etc.

I am part of the Laboratory for Software Design research group. I am the lead researcher and engineer for the Boa language and infrastructure. Boa is a virtual laboratory for data-intensive research on open-source software development. Boa provides better abstractions for easily and efficiently mining ultra-large-scale software repositories.

Previously I worked on the Ptolemy language. Ptolemy provides the benefits of separation of cross-cutting concerns while maintaining the separate type-checking, compilation and reasoning properties of standard object-oriented languages. I helped develop the research compiler (based on the JastAdd compiler framework) as well as performed large-scale empirical studies on the language.

I have also worked on the Nu project, an aspect-oriented intermediate language. Nu adds two simple constructs to object-oriented programs and is capable of emulating most high-level constructs of languages like AspectJ, Eos, etc. This new model allows maintaining separation of cross-cutting concerns into the object code, potentially improving post-compilation processes such as incremental compilation, unit testing, debugging, tool support, etc.

Recent Publications

• NEW Robert Dyer, Hoan Anh Nguyen, Hridesh Rajan and Tien N. Nguyen, "Boa: A Language and Infrastructure for Analyzing Ultra-Large-Scale Software Repositories", In 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2013), May 22, 2013. San Francisco, CA. [PDF]
• NEW Robert Dyer, Hridesh Rajan and Yuanfang Cai, "Language Features for Software Evolution and Aspect-oriented Interfaces: An Exploratory Study", In Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (TAOSD), special edition: Best papers of AOSD'12, Vol. 10, Apr 01, 2013. [PDF]
  
  Previous version appeared as An Exploratory Study of the Design Impact of Language Features for Aspect-oriented Interfaces [ACM DL]
• Robert Dyer, Hoan Anh Nguyen, Hridesh Rajan and Tien N. Nguyen, "Analyzing Ultra-Large-Scale Code Corpus with Boa", Demonstration at the 3rd International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH 2012), Oct 22, 2012. Tucson, AZ. [ACM DL] [slides]
• Robert Dyer, Hoan Anh Nguyen, Hridesh Rajan and Tien N. Nguyen, "Boa: Analyzing Ultra-Large-Scale Code Corpus", Poster presentation at the 3rd International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH 2012), Oct 22, 2012. Tucson, AZ. [PDF]
• See more...

Teaching Experience

• Teaching Assistant, ComS 342, Principles of Programming Languages, Fall 2010
• Teaching Assistant, ComS 207, Introduction to Programming (non-majors), Fall 2009
• Teaching Assistant, ComS 562, Database Implementation, Fall 2007
• Teaching Assistant, ComS 440/540, Principles of Compiling, Spring 2007
• Teaching Assistant, Ex Sp 170, Taekwondo/Karate I
  • Fall 2007, Spring 2007, Fall 2006, Spring 2006, Fall 2005

Recent Professional Services

• Committee Member, OOPSLA ARTIFACTS, at SPLASH 2013, October 26-31, 2013
• Reviewer, Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (in 2010)
• Co-Organizer, 5^th Workshop on Virtual Machines and Intermediate Languages (VMIL 2011), at SPLASH 2011, October 24, 2011
• Co-Organizer and PC Member, 4^th Workshop on Virtual Machines and Intermediate Languages (VMIL 2010), at SPLASH 2010, October 17, 2010
• Co-Organizer and PC Member, 3^rd Workshop on Virtual Machines and Intermediate Languages (VMIL 2009), at OOPSLA 2009, October 26, 2009
• Co-Organizer and PC Member, 2^nd Workshop on Virtual Machines and Intermediate Languages for emerging modularization mechanisms (VMIL 2008), at OOPSLA 2008, October 19, 2008
• Student Volunteer, 29^th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2007), May 20-26, 2007
• Student Volunteer, 6^th International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD 2007), March 12-16, 2007

Other Interests

In addition to research, I am actively involved in martial arts. Since 2005, I have studied Taekwondo under the direction of Grand Master Yong Chin Pak and I am currently a member of the ISU Taekwondo Club. I have also studied Hapkido off and on.

Martial arts are about more than just kicking and punching. Martial arts are a way of life. The core teachings of Grand Master Pak involve the five tenants: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. I strive to apply these tenants to all parts of my daily routine, not just martial arts.