Congratulations to Dr. Gregory M. Kapfhammer

The Department extends its congratulations to Dr. Gregory M. Kapfhammer, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on 19 April, 2007 at the University of Pittsburgh to an audience consisting of his thesis committee, over a dozen students and faculty from the Allegheny College Department of Computer Science, and various other guests from the University of Pittsburgh community. Dr. Kapfhammer's thesis, "A Comprehensive Framework for Testing Database-Centric Software Applications," (abstract follows) was supervised by Dr. Mary Lou Soffa, University of Virginia.

Abstract:

The database is a critical component of many modern software applications. Recent reports indicate that the vast majority of database use occurs from within an application program. Indeed, database-centric applications have been implemented to create digital libraries, scientific data repositories, and electronic commerce applications. However, a database-centric application is very different from a traditional software system because it interacts with a database that has a complex state and structure. This dissertation formulates a comprehensive framework to address the challenges that are associated with the efficient and effective testing of database-centric applications. The database-aware approach to testing includes: (i) a fault model, (ii) several unified representations of a program's database interactions, (iii) a family of test adequacy criteria, (iv) a test coverage monitoring component, and (v) tools for reducing and re-ordering a test suite during regression testing.