April 04, 2019

Castro Welcomes $492K NSF Grant to UTSA for Computer Code Research

SAN ANTONIO—Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committee, today announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $492,358 to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) for a five-year project led by Dr. Xiaoyin Wang seeking to improve the creation, maintenance, and repair of computer code elements that can shorten the time needed to develop, test, and improve new software:

“Technology continues to impact our daily lives, and shapes the way we conduct business and communicate. Computer coding has become a common practice that is used across all major industries. Given that, it’s vital our future professionals better understand how computer coding truly works,” said Rep. Castro. “We must ensure that we remain at the forefront of computer science and consistently improve our nation’s capabilities. I am pleased that the University of Texas at San Antonio has taken steps to better understand computer coding while improving methods to build software. UTSA’s research will inform our technological acumen moving forward. I commend UTSA and Dr. Wang on the award and look forward to the results of their research.”

Background: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced its intent to award $492,358 over the next five years to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) for a project seeking to improve the creation, maintenance, and repair of computer code elements that can shorten the time needed to develop, test, and improve new software. This awarded project is titled “CAREER: Analysis and Repair of Build Scripts for DevOps Software Practice,” and is led by Dr. Xiaoyin Wang, of the Department of Computer Science. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is an effort across the NSF’s research topic divisions to support faculty early on in their career who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education within their field. Dr. Wang’s research has been recognized as having the potential to improve on techniques related to the creation and maintenance of build scripts, which are key coding elements for automating aspects of software development and testing in order to more quickly deliver new features, fixes, and updates. The methodology of combining software development and information technology operations is referred to as DevOps. This project will analyze common challenges related to DevOps, such as defect detection, quality assurance, and integration delays, and will seek to develop a framework to assist developers in addressing these challenges. The award is projected to last from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2024.

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