NSF ADVANCE Professorships :: Mary Jean Harrold

MARY JEAN HARROLD NSF ADVANCE Professor of Computing

Research Activities
Harrold has used the termed-professor funds to start a new project that is develop a new approach for continuous improvement of software systems after their deployment. The project will exploit the opportunities brought about by the dramatic growth of the number of users of software systems, and the continuously increasing connectivity of software and hardware systems. By considering this large number of users as potential analyzers and testers, the project is developing a new technology that utilizes this enormous computational power and human resources for software analysis and testing.

This technology will enable software producers to (1) perform continuous, minimally intrusive monitoring of their software's behavior as the software is used by real users, and (2) use the information thus gathered to improve and evolve their software. The project will develop techniques that gather and integrate the information gleaned from monitoring many running copies of a software product. Harrold is also developing analytical tools that use the information to facilitate activities such as error detection and fixing, performance tuning, and feature evolution. The technology will let software producers effectively analyze and test deployed products, as well as respond promptly and effectively to errors in the products.

ADVANCE Activities
Harrold aims to work with faculty and administrators to advance women in the College of Computing (CoC) as follows:

A. Assess the status of women faculty in CoC. Work to achieve a better gender balance on the faculty by understanding issues that hinder the recruitment and promotion of women. The assessment will include meetings with female faculty members in CoC, research into recruitment and hiring trends in the College, and a survey of best practices at other universities.

B. Work with chairs and deans on policy issues concerning women faculty. To understand the issues and provide assistance in institutional transformation, Harrold will solicit input from the women faculty members in CoC through lunch meetings and gatherings.

C. Help recruit women faculty to CoC, at both the junior and senior levels. Help mentor women faculty members to assist in retention.

D. Work to incorporate best practices formulated by the Computing Research Association Committee on the Status of Women in Computing into College and Institute policies.

Related Websites
Harrold’s Biography (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~harrold/)
Georgia Tech College of Computing Homepage (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/)
Georgia Tech Women at CoC (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/people/women.html)
Aristotle Research Group (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/aristotle/)
Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (http://cra.org/Activities/craw/index.html)
National Center for Women and Information Technology (http://www.ncwit.org)
Institute for Women and Technology (http://www.iwt.org/)