In software development, ensuring code is secure and bug-free before it hits the market is crucial. That is where static analysis tools come in, which are designed to check the properties of real-world production code before starting deployment. However, these tools haven’t been fully embraced by the industry due to their complexity and the challenges in integrating them into everyday development workflows.

In his dissertation Automatically Detecting and Mitigating Issues in Program Analyzers, Muhammad Numair Mansur shows how to make static analyzers more accessible and effective. For his novel approach, he received the Ernst Denert Software-Engineering-Prize 2023 at an award ceremony during this year’s SE Conference from February 26 to March 1 in Linz, Austria. The prize is endowed with 5000 euros and is awarded annually for an outstanding research contribution by the Software Engineering Department of the GI in cooperation with the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) and the Swiss Informatics Society (SI). Mansur was supervised by Maria Christakis, Head of our Research Unit for Software Engineering.

Numair Mansurs thesis tackles two main problems: the risk of static analysis tools missing errors they should catch, and the challenge of balancing thoroughness with speed and efficiency. By introducing new techniques to improve the detection of errors and customizing tools to fit large codebases, this work promises to make static analyzers more reliable and efficient. An essential prerequisite for the Ernst Denert-Software-Engineering-Prize is applicability and practical orientation. Yet another reason why Mansur’s thesis sticks out: The practical impact of his research is shown in Amazon Web Services’ CodeGuru, where his new technique to horizontally scale analysis tools in cloud-based static analysis platforms is already implemented.

About Ernst Denert Software-Engineering-Prize 2023

The Ernst Denert Software-Engineering-Prize 2023 is awarded annually for an outstanding research contribution in the field of methods, tools, and procedures for software development by the Software Engineering Department of the GI in cooperation with the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) and the Swiss Informatics Society (SI). It is endowed with 5000 euros. An essential prerequisite for the award is applicability and practical orientation. The practical applicability must be proven by awardees, commercial products are excluded. Results that are published as open-source software or open data are welcome.

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