Jo Atlee receives 2020 IEEE TCSE Distinguished WISE Leadership Award

Monday, May 11, 2020

Professor has received the . This prestigious recognition is presented annually to an individual for outstanding and sustained leadership in the software engineering community to encourage women to explore science and engineering careers.

photo of Professor Jo Atlee

Professor Jo Atlee鈥檚聽research interests are in software engineering with a particular focus on improving the quality of software.

Much of her work focuses on modelling software in terms of its features and on detecting, resolving聽and managing feature interactions,聽where the goal is to support the rapid development of new features, services and聽modular components that are oblivious of each other yet interoperate well. Applications of this work include feature-rich systems, systems-of-systems, and Internet of Things.

Her group develops theories of composition, analyses to detect feature interactions, architectures to coordinate features and resolve interactions, and proof systems for interoperability.

鈥淭he award recognizes your extensive contributions to software engineering and software engineering education, your exemplary mentorship role as the Director of Women in Computer Science at the University of 蓝莓视频, and your remarkable efforts promoting diversity and increasing the number of women and other underrepresented groups in software engineering and computer science,鈥 wrote Grace Lewis, Chair of the WISE Leadership Award, in her letter to Professor Atlee.

Professor Atlee鈥檚 expertise is in specification of requirements for software systems and automated analysis of requirements to ensure intended behaviour in software systems. She has published foundational works in applying model checking to software and analyzing interactions between software. With Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, she co-authored a textbook titled Software Engineering: Theory and Practice, a volume now in its fourth edition that has been cited more than 1,700 times in Google Scholar.

鈥淛o Atlee was the School鈥檚 and was instrumental in encouraging and supporting women in computer science and software engineering鈥 said Mark Giesbrecht, Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. 鈥淛o was also instrumental in bringing to 蓝莓视频 Region a global entrepreneurship competition for girls and young women known as Technovation, which encourages and supports the next-generation to use technology solve real-world problems. At 蓝莓视频 and the Cheriton School of Computer Science her work has inspired undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty alike.鈥

Among Professor Atlee鈥檚 many activities to promote diversity and inclusion is the course module on diversity that she has delivered to more 3,400 computer science students over the past four years. She also designed and implemented a sexism response workshop series for students, faculty and staff, in which attendees discuss strategies to intervene and respond constructively to sexist comments.

At the national level, Professor Atlee has co-organized meetings of computer science faculty members at all . The first meeting culminated in a report that summarized roundtable discussions on issues and recommendations to improve the status of female undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and administrators. Internationally, she is one of the three ACM SIGSOFT Diversity and Inclusion initiative leaders, a professional committee that works to increase diversity, inclusion and belonging.

鈥淗er positive contributions to increase the number of women, and individuals of additional underrepresented groups, in software engineering and computer science are deep and broad,鈥 wrote Gail Murphy, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, in her nomination letter. 鈥淥ur field is indeed a better place given her efforts and leadership.鈥 Professor Atlee鈥檚 award will be presented virtually at , the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering, in Seoul, South Korea in July 2020.