Colloquium Computer Science - Prof. Daniela Damian, University of Victoria, BC

Title: The Inclusive Developer: Perspectives and Considerations for Building Inclusive Software

Abstract:

As software has become ubiquitous and influences our society in unprecedented ways, it is becoming imperative to understand how it can be inclusive of diverse end-user needs. The software industry is, however, in a diversity crisis as software teams lack the breadth of knowledge, skills and perspectives afforded by diverse membership. As the software products that teams build reflect the diversity of understanding and experiences of the teams, research needs to carefully consider the relationship between the team, its development processes and the software it develops -- rightly so, existing literature has focused on aspects of diversity in software teams as drivers for more inclusive software products. In this talk, I take the next step and argue that our focus should be on inclusivity in software teams, and what design processes, tools and education environments can support diverse teams become inclusive in order to develop more inclusive software.

Bio:

Daniela is Professor of Software Engineering in University of Victoria’s Department of Computer Science and ECS-CAPI Chair for Inclusive Science, Technology and Engineering. She also leads research in the Software Engineering Global interAction Laboratory. Her work studies the human and social aspects of software development, at the intersection of Requirements Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering and Global Software Development. Recently she founded the INSPIRE:STEM for Social Impact Program (inspireuvic.org) at the University of Victoria and which facilitates and studies experiential-learning science and engineering projects in community-led and society-impactful projects. Daniela was Program Co-Chair of SEIS 2014, Program Chair for ICSE 2022, and has served on the editorial boards of Transactions on Software Engineering and the Journal of Requirements Engineering. She is serving on the Advisory Board at the Empirical Software Engineering Journal and as the Human Aspects Area Editor for the Journal of Software and Systems.