Neil Walkinshaw
Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, at the University of Sheffield.
Department of Computer Science,
Regent Court,
211 Portobello Street
Sheffield, S1 4DP
My research and teaching focus on software quality assurance. My research has a particular emphasis on “black-box” components - software units that lack documentation and cannot be scrutinised internally. I specialise in applying Machine Learning and other data analysis algorithms to the specific activities of testing, reverse-engineering, and safety-case assessment.
I studied my Ph.D. (2002-2005) at the University of Strathclyde on the use of static analysis to support software inspections. I subsequently spent five years (2005-2010) as a postdoc at the University of Sheffield, working on state machine inference and software testing (an area in which I am still active). This was followed by 8 years as a Lecturer then Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of Leicester. I took up my current position as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield in 2018.
Current PC and Organisational Duties
- Publication Chair for the International Conference on Software Testing ICST 2024
- PC member for the International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering ISSRE 2024
news
| Jan 8, 2024 | Delighted that our paper “Do maternal haemodynamics have a causal influence on treatment for gestational diabetes?” has been accepted into the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Michael Foster and I did the causal analysis on this, and it was a collaboration with colleagues at Leicester, Bristol, and St. Georges in London. |
| Dec 6, 2023 | Delighted that Michael Foster’s paper (co-authored with myself and Rob Hierons) “Causal Test Adequacy” has been accepted to ICST 2024. See you there! |
| Nov 28, 2023 | A huge congratulations to Andy Clark for successfully passing his Ph.D. viva on the relationship Causal Inference and Metamorphic Testing! His TOSEM paper on the topic can be found here. |
| Nov 12, 2023 | I and my colleague James Law are currently advertising a fully funded Ph.D. opportunity to link testing with Machine Learning. This will be closely aligned with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), providing a strong industrial foundation for the research. The details on the project and how to apply can be found here. Please contact me with any questions! Deadline is 24th of January, 2024. |
| Jul 20, 2023 | I shall be publication chair for ICST 2024. Hope to see you there! |
| Jul 10, 2023 | Roland Groz will be presenting our paper “Active Inference of Extended Finite State Models of Software Systems” at ICGI! This has been an enjoyable collaboration with Roland, Adenilso Simao, Catherine Oriat, German Vega, and Michael Foster. |
| Jun 21, 2023 | Our paper "Testing Causality in Scientific Modelling Software", led by Andy Clark, has just been accepted to ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology". |
| Apr 28, 2023 | I shall be on the PC for the ASE NIER track. Do consider submitting! |