Cultivating Performance-Aware Software Engineers

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing curricular materials that utilize problem-based learning to improve student knowledge of software performance engineering. Performance and capacity are desirable properties of every software system. Despite this, performance seldom receives adequate attention when software systems are developed, resulting in software that when overloaded crashes and causes system outages. Fixing software performance issues can be very expensive, and often, requires significant redesign and re-implementation. These issues may lead to cost and schedule overruns and even project cancellations. The performance implications of software design choices are often only incidentally mentioned in undergraduate courses and are rarely taught in a systematic way. Most undergraduate students lack awareness of the performance implications for designing and constructing software as well as the associated quantitative skills for planning for and analyzing typical performance issues. The goal of this project is to develop innovative and systematic approaches to enhance performance engineering skills in existing undergraduate curricula. Project outcomes will include college graduates who are better prepared for careers as professional software engineers. This project will integrate innovative problem-based learning technologies to engage and enable student learning of software performance engineering (SPE) concepts and skills in undergraduate courses. It will bring together software engineering faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology with education researchers and industry leaders in the field of software performance engineering to develop a systematic approach for instilling essential knowledge, skills, and techniques for software performance modeling and analysis into learning outcomes. In particular, the project will design and implement a set of curricular units and problem-based learning activities that can be easily adopted in a variety of undergraduate course settings. The research and evaluation of the project will focus on engaging faculty in the implementation of the curricular units and improving student learning outcomes. This project has potential to make important contributions to the field of software engineering education through increasing knowledge on understanding the value of SPE and the development of engaging problem-based learning activities for cultivating proactive SPE mindset and competency skills in undergraduate students. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.