Our Mission
The mission of the Security and Software Engineering Research Center is to conduct a program of applied and basic research on software security, system security and software technology problems of interest to its members. The goal of this research is to enable security and software technology gains within member organizations.
SERC and S²ERC History
Approximately thirty-five years ago, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) Program to encourage cooperative research between academia and industry. The goal of the program was to establish self-sufficient research centers of excellence in areas of critical technology. The Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), now in its 24th year of operation, is one of over 100 I/UCRCs established by NSF, and the only one devoted to software engineering. SERC graduated from the I/UCRC program in 2004 and became a self-sustaining Center. As the research focus evolved within the Center to include more emphasis on software and system security, the NSF recognized the shift and invited the SERC to propose a new center within the I/UCRC program that formally recognizes the SERC security and software engineering research initiatives. The I/UCRC called the Center for Information Protection (CIP) at Iowa State and the SERC housed at Ball State combined their research strengths to form the new Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S2ERC). The SERC’s national and international identity and its 24-year commitment to research excellence in software engineering are still unmistakable in the newly formed center. As of February 1, 2010 the centers known as SERC and CIP transitioned into S2ERC, an NSF funded I/UCRC.
The researchers of the S²ERC are faculty and students from CS, EE, Industrial Engineering, Management, and Systems Engineering from Ball State University, DePaul University, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Iowa State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, St. Vincent College, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of West Florida, the University of Limerick, Ireland, and West Virginia University. These researchers work with non-academic practitioners at the participating industrial and government affiliate sites that provide guidance, feedback and funding. Current committed companies are Angie’s List, Bingham McHale, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Boeing Phantom Works, Intelligent Information Technologies, Iowa Department of Transportation, John Deere, Lockheed Martin, MacAulay Brown, NASA, Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane, Northrop Grumman, Ontario Systems, Palisade Systems, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, TIAA/CREF, Union Pacific, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.
The result of this collaboration is a powerful approach to improve the software process and product. The researchers gain by having access to real-world data and experienced practitioners to validate their models and guide their research, and by gaining access to stable, long-term funding for their work. The organizations gain by having immediate access to innovative research that is often outside areas they might normally support. Each affiliate can designate their research dollars to a project that fits a technical need in their company. Thus
customized software engineering research projects are typically the norm in S²ERC. In short, the S²ERC is a model partnership between academia and industry that benefits both sides of the technology transfer equation.
The S²ERC NSF Primary Sites are:
- Ball State University
- Iowa State University
Other Universities Expecting to Become NSF Primary Sites:
- Purdue University/ Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- Penn State University
- University of West Florida
We also have active research associations with faculty and students at:
- DePaul University
- St. Vincent College, PA
- West Virginia University
- University of Limerick, Ireland
- Bournemouth University, England
During its twenty-four year history, SERC’s research has been focused by industrial affiliates who dictate that research project have a 2-to-4 year time horizon. Some of the SERC’s most successful projects are in the areas of design metrics, testing, process modeling, security and maintenance. NSF recognized SERC’s 20-year commitment to software engineering research excellence with the NSF Excellence Award presented to the SERC Director, Dr. Wayne Zage, by three NSF participants at the SERC Showcase held in November 2005 at Ball State University. Continuing in the SERC tradition, S²ERC’s research delivers unprecedented value-added capabilities for creativity, imagination, reasoning, and communication through customized research projects.
SERC research advances have been described in over 300 S²ERC technical reports and thousands of journals and refereed conference papers over the past 24 years. Many papers submitted by SERC researchers and students, sometimes with an affiliate practitioner as a co-author, have won awards such as best conference paper, or even best paper in a specific area over a decade. One research direction, software design metrics, has won the prestigious national award entitled the Alexander Schwarzkopf Award for Technological Innovation in 2007. (See http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108284&org=ENG&from=news.)
S²ERC attracts the high-energy creative researchers who represent the best in their field. S²ERC has researchers from various academic departments and institutions, including national research prize winners, NSF Career Award winners, patent holders, chairpersons or co-chairpersons of major software conferences, and editors of major publications in software engineering. When a need in a specific field or subject area arises, S²ERC’s reputation draws in viable and respected researchers to address that need. S²ERC has no shortage of eager and knowledgeable research talent.
For a complete introduction to S²ERC, we recommend you download our 35 page informational handout. Click Here
