Faculty

Dr. Clemente Izurieta (Director)

Dr. Izurieta is an Associate Professor in the Gianforte School of Computing department at Montana State University. Born in Santiago, Chile, his research interests include empirical software engineering, design and architecture of software systems, design patterns, the measurement of software quality and cybersecurity. Dr. Izurieta has approximately 16 years experience working for various R&D labs at Hewlett Packard and Intel Corporation. When not teaching, Clem and his wife (Sharlyn) can be found in the local trails, running, hiking or snow shoeing!

Post-doctoral Researchers

Derek Reimanis

Dr. Derek Reimanis is currently a course assistant for the Empirical Software Engineering course at Montana State University, while eagerly awaiting funding to be finalized for a post-doc project focusing on cyber-security research. His research interests center around software quality assurance, incorporating software process automation, software design, technical debt, and empirical software engineering. Derek has lived in Colorado and Montana most of his life. He is an avid backpacker, aspiring mountaineer, and skier.

Graduate Students

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson is a masters student at the Gianforte School of Computing. He has lived in Washington, California, and Montana, but decided to stay in Montana for his undergraduate degree in Helena, then come to Bozeman to continue his education. His research focuses on quality analysis, binary analysis, and cybersecurity.

Grant Nelson

Grant Nelson is a doctoral student at the Gianforte School of Computing. He has an interest in software design, technical debt analysis, software quality assurance, and embedded software. His research focus is technical debt. He has been employed as a senior software engineer at Workiva since 2014. At Workiva, he researches and develops collaborative distributed systems with a large team. Grant has a love of hiking and camping as well as graphical software and game design.

Karishma Rahman

Karishma Rahman is an international graduate student from Bangladesh, currently pursuing her Masters degree at the Gianforte School of Computing. After getting her Bachelors’s degree in computer science from BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she decided to endeavor for her graduate studies, which led her to Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Her research focus is on the automation of software testing. She is going to defend her master’s thesis in Spring 2020. Afterward, she plans to continue her research in pursuit of a doctorate in computer science. Karishma enjoys traveling, cooking, baking, and painting.

Faqeer Rehman

Faqeer ur Rehman is originally from Pakistan and is currently a doctoral student in Computer Science at the Gianforte School of Computing. He has 7 years of experience working in the software industry. He loves to work on designing and developing large scale web-based solutions having a special focus on a flexible architecture, optimization and security. Along with his team , he designed and developed a first-ever web-based E-Ticketing solution for Pakistan Railways that is currently in use across Pakistan. Along with his interests in software engineering, Faqeer also enjoys the development of Machine Learning systems and their testing using the Metamorphic testing (MT) technique.

Read more about his project here

David Rice

David Rice is a master’s student at the Gianforte School of Computing. Coming from Seattle, WA and also living in Kalispell, MT and Bozeman, MT, he considers the Northwest his home and loves all things that are fast and outdoors. David has interest in everything software engineering with a love of good design and architecture. His research focuses on quality analysis, assessment, tool support, the subjectivity of quality, and developing a robust framework for experimentation in software quality.

Nate Woods

Nate Woods is currently a doctoral student in the Computer Science Department at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Nate holds a M.S. in Computer Science from Montana State University and a B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics with a Minor in Physics from Carroll College. Nate’s current research focus is on software engineering, specifically the development and evolution of distributed systems.

Payton Harrison

Payton Harrison is a master’s student at the Gianforte School of Computing. She is from Billings, Montana and came to Bozeman for her undergraduate degree and to continue her education. Her research focus is on software quality assurance and cybersecurity.

Undergraduate Students

Blake Stanger

Blake Stanger is an undergraduate student of computer science, Montana State University. Blake is consumed by a sense of discovery and exploration. He has traveled extensively in several countries including India, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Iceland, Sweden, and Vietnam. Interesting economic times have led Blake to try his hand at many fields.

He graduated with honors in 2013 with an English Teaching degree from Montana State University. Blake led a small classroom in Anaconda, Montana. He taught all levels, remedial reading all the way to advanced placement English for his small community. Blake has also led a team of diesel mechanics at the family business to repair and rebuild one of his favorite marvels of endurance: the diesel engine. Next Blake built farming irrigation systems. He is particularly proud of an entirely gravity fed thirty thousand gallon system built from scratch that operates in northern California on 500 acres. One influence was strong in all these fields. Computer science has been and will be a massive influence in our society. Once Blake understood the profound power technology will have in the coming years he returned to study at MSU in 2018.

Blake loves to understand complex systems, and explain those systems to others. Blake values efficiency. He hopes to fuse his knowledge of education, machines, and technology to positively contribute to society. Blake is grateful to those who have taken the time to teach him and looks forward to helping others with their education.

In his spare time Blake loves to write and is thirty thousand words into creating a novel, a story about adventure and coming of age in the modern American West. He also loves mountain biking, nature, and hunting.

Alumni of the Lab

Rachael (Luhr) Reimanis

Rachael (Luhr) Reimanis is a Montana native with interests in applied technical debt management as well as software management strategies. Rachael graduated with her Master’s degree in Spring 2015, the topic of her thesis pertaining to technical debt management in scientific software systems. Rachael is employed as a senior software engineer at Workiva Inc., a leader in financial reporting software. Rachael enjoys backpacking, hiking, running, cooking, baking, and traveling the world!