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  5. Software engineering and design

Software engineering and design

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An image to illustrate studying software engineering and design with The Open University

The Centre for Research in Computing’s research in software engineering is concerned with how software is specified and developed in the real world. We have a large, active research group looking at requirement elicitation, analysis and specification, software architectures, and design. We research software engineering in the human context: we want to understand how professionals develop software effectively, and how software changes over time in response to changing requirements. We research foundations, techniques, processes, and applications, using both formal and informal techniques drawn from mathematics, logic, and the social sciences. This diversity drives stimulating dialogues and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Qualifications available:

PhD or MPhil

Fees:

For detailed information on current fees visit Fees and funding.

Entry requirements:

Minimum 2:1 (or equivalent)

Potential research projects

  • Agile software development
  • Automated software engineering
  • Professional design practice
  • Empirical studies of software development
  • End-user software engineering and scientific computing
  • Mobile distributed systems
  • Problem structuring and analysis
  • Requirements engineering
  • Security and privacy
  • Software and engineering design
  • Software architecture
  • Software evolution

Further information

If you have an enquiry specific to this research area please contact:

Email:
crc-phd-enquiries@open.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0)1908 655682

For general enquiries please contact the Research Degrees Team via the link under ‘Your questions’ on the right of the page.

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