Project title:
Human-Agentic AI software engineering teams
Project description:
This line of research will develop a transformative paradigm in software engineering, where Artificial Intelligence, embodied in fully autonomous
agents, becomes the primary driver of the core software development activities. We aim to introduce a new class of software engineering
agents, empowered by Large Language Models and equipped with beliefs, desires, intentions, and memory to enable human-like reasoning.
These agents collaborate with humans and other agents to design, implement, test, and deploy software systems with a level of speed,
reliability, and adaptability far beyond the current software development processes. Their coordination and collaboration are governed by norms
that regulate interactions and ensure regulatory compliance. These innovations will establish a scalable, transparent and trustworthy framework for
future Human-AI software engineering teams. If
you are interested in this project theme, please feel free
to contact me, and we can discuss to formulate a specific
project in this theme that you are keen to work on.
Project title:
Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering
Project description:
As software products become pervasive in all areas of our
society, building high-quality software in a productive
manner becomes crucial to the software industry. The rise of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is potentially a game changer
in improving software quality, accelerating productivity and
increasing project success rates. This project theme is to
explore and develop AI-powered capabilities (e.g.
algorithms, models and prototype tools) which can assist
software teams in some specific areas of software
development (e.g. requirements, design, implementation,
testing and maintenance and evolution). This AI support can
be in various forms, from automating routine tasks to
providing project analytics and actionable recommendations,
and even making decisions for software development teams. If
you are interested in this project theme, please feel free
to contact me, and we can discuss to formulate a specific
project in this theme that you are keen to work on.
Project title:
Quantum Software Engineering
Project
description: Quantum computing is an emerging computational paradigm that exploits principles of quantum mechanics
to address certain classes of problems more efficiently than classical computing systems.
Quantum Software Engineering (QSE) is an evolving discipline concerned with the design, development,
testing, and maintenance of software for quantum computers, as well as the integration of quantum algorithms
within hybrid classical–quantum systems. It draws on computer science, quantum physics, and software engineering to
address the distinctive challenges of quantum computation, including superposition, entanglement, and inherently
probabilistic measurement outcomes. Unlike conventional software engineering, QSE requires novel programming abstractions,
specialised languages and frameworks such as Q#, Qiskit, and Cirq, and fundamentally different approaches to
debugging, verification, and validation, since quantum states cannot be observed directly without altering their behaviour.
As a result, QSE plays a critical role in bridging theoretical quantum algorithms and real-world applications, which enables progress
in areas such as cryptography, optimisation, machine learning, and the simulation of complex physical systems. If you are interested in this
project theme, please feel free to contact me, and we can
discuss to formulate a specific project in this theme that
you are keen to work on.
Project title:
Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity engineering
Project
description: Cyberattacks are one of the
greatest existential threats to national security, economy
and society. Cyberattacks are often formed by exploiting
vulnerabilities in software applications. Existing
techniques and tools for security analysis are no longer
able to cope with the significant increase in the size and
complexity of applications, resulting in a massive number of
attack-prone vulnerabilities reported in recent years. This
project theme is to explore and develop a novel set of
AI-powered automated solutions which tackling security
vulnerabilities throughout the software lifecycle. We will
develop AI machine learners that are capable of recognizing
vulnerability threats (e.g. detect malwares in apps or
detect vulnerabilities in code) and suggesting fixes for the
detected vulnerabilities. If you are interested in this
project theme, please feel free to contact me, and we can
discuss to formulate a specific project in this theme that
you are keen to work on.
Project title: Engineering
AI-powered systems (AI Engineering)
Project description:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has started making a
substantial impact to many parts of our society. However,
engineering reliable AI systems that are deployed in
industrial settings is still challenging for many
organisations. AI Engineering covers a broad range of many
activities such as: creating/evolving Machine Learning/Deep
Learning models, assembling datasets, training and testing
models, setting up date pipelines, integrating models and
components, reusing pre-developed models, managing multiple
models, and data quality management. This project theme is
to explore new solutions to address challenges that are
unique to AI Engineering, including AI architectures,
interpretability, representation, scalability and
verification and validation for AI assurance. If you are
interested in this project theme, please feel free to
contact me, and we can discuss to formulate a specific
project in this theme that you are keen to work on.