CSC News

April 24, 2017

Menzies’ PROMISE Earns Him International Accolades

Dr. Timothy Menzies, Professor of Computer Science at NC State, has been recognized for his major contributions in the field of mining software repositories with the inaugural Mining Software Repositories Foundational Contribution Award.  Menzies is the curator of the PROMISE repository, storage for Software Engineering project data.
 
Menzies’ “PROMISE project” first began in 2005, when Menzies and his students couldn’t get the data they needed for their work. Seeing this issue, the team went out to search for the data they needed. This project Menzies and his team first began in their spare time, quickly developed into an internationally recognized project, challenging the status-quo of data collection. Menzies explains just how much data collection has changed in this recent past, and holds onto the idea that sharing information leads to future successes in any field.
 
“In this age of connected information it may be a surprise to learn that there was a time where people just didn’t share data. Our thought process was: If you have anything, give it away.”
 
The project is composed of two parts: a repository to store data from papers from the conference, and an annual conference called “PROMISE” that’s currently co-located with ESEM (Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement). Both parts have created hundreds of papers, using dozens of students, resulting in some of the most cited papers within the field of Software Engineering.
 
Not only has the project made innumerable strides in the field of data collection, but thousands of connections have been made with students and the working world within their individual fields of study. Menzies remembers students studying abroad in Beijing, connecting with leaders in the industry on a Global level, and receiving valuable experience in their field of study.
 
Menzies will be receiving his award as part of the May 2017 International Conference on Software Engineering. For more details, see http://menzies.us/msraward17.html.
 
~scanlon~

Return To News Homepage