Nasir Eisty / Research

Research

SAIL Lab Logo
Research Group

SAIL

Software Engineering and Analytics Lab

University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Min H. Kao Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

01

Current Students

Ph.D. Student
Tiancheng Ma
Fall 2025 – Present
Ph.D. Student
Sheikh Md. Mushfiqur Rahman
Spring 2023 – Present
Ph.D. Student
Alex Curtis
Summer 2023 – Present
Ph.D. Student
Ariful Islam Malik
Fall 2023 – Present
Co-advising at University of Alabama
Ph.D. Student
Shane Panter
Spring 2024 – Present
Ph.D. Student
Eric Melin
Fall 2023 – Present
Undergraduate
Rey Ortiz
Spring 2023 – Present
02

Alumni

Ph.D. Alumni
Sharif Ahmed
Graduated Summer 2025 — Boise State
First position: Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Central Arkansas
Ph.D. Alumni
Shariful Alam
Graduated Summer 2025 — Boise State
First position: Software Engineer, Marvel Technology, Silicon Valley, CA
M.S. Alumni
Saznin Sultana
Graduated Spring 2025 — Boise State
Next: Ph.D. Program, Ohio University
03

Publications

Google Scholar →
Journal Articles
J11
Scientific Software in the Age of Vibe Coding CiSE
Gabrielle O’Brien, Nasir U. Eisty
Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 112–116, Jan.–Mar. 2026. doi: 10.1109/MCSE.2026.3661610
J10
Bridging Two Worlds: Introducing the Software Engineering and Scientific Computing Department CiSE
Nasir Eisty, Todd Evans
Computing in Science & Engineering, 2026
J9
Shaky Structures: The Wobbly World of Causal Graphs in Software Analytics EMSE
James Hulse, Nasir Eisty, Tim Menzies
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), 2025
J8
PVAC: Package Version Activity Categorizer, Leveraging Semantic Versioning in a Heterogeneous System EMSE
Shane Panter, Leron Hindman, Nasir Eisty
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), 2025
J7
Ten Simple Rules for Catalyzing Collaborations and Building Bridges between Research Software Engineers and Software Engineering Researchers CiSE
Nasir U. Eisty, Jeffrey C. Carver, Jamil Cohoon, Ian A. Cosden, Carole Goble, Sandra Grayson, et al.
Computing in Science & Engineering, 2025
J6
Better Architecture, Better Software, Better Research CiSE
Stephan Druskat, Nasir U. Eisty, Robert Chisholm, Neil Chue Hong, Richard C. Cocking, Maximilian B. Cohen, et al.
Computing in Science & Engineering, 2025
J5
Testing Research Software: An In-Depth Survey of Practices, Methods, and Tools EMSE
Nasir Eisty, Upulee Kanewala, Jeffrey Carver
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), January 2025
J4
Hold On! Is My Feedback Useful? Evaluating the Usefulness of Code Review Comments EMSE
Sharif Ahmed, Nasir Eisty
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), January 2025
J3
Special Issue on the Future of Research Software Engineers in the United States — Part I CiSE
Jeffrey C. Carver, Nasir Eisty, Hai Ah Nam, Irina Tezaur
Computing in Science & Engineering, 2023
J2
Testing of Research Software: A Survey EMSE
Nasir Eisty, Jeffrey Carver
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), May 2022
J1
Developers’ Perceptions of Peer Code Review in Research Software Development EMSE
Nasir Eisty, Jeffrey Carver
Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), October 2021
Conference, Workshop & Poster Papers
C27
Exploring Sustainability in Scientific Software through Code Quality & Test Coverage Metrics PASC 2026
Sheikh Md. Mushfiqur Rahman, Gregory Watson, Nasir Eisty
Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) 2026, Bern, Switzerland
C26
Multi-Artifact Analysis of Self-Admitted Technical Debt in Scientific Software PASC 2026
Eric Melin, Nasir Eisty, Gregory Watson, Addi Malviya Thakur
Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) 2026, Bern, Switzerland
C25
Characterizing the Usefulness of Code Review Comments in Scientific Software for Software Quality and Scientific Rigor PASC 2026
Sharif Ahmed, Nasir Eisty
Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) 2026, Bern, Switzerland
C24
Self-Admitted Technical Debt in Scientific Software: Prioritization, Sentiment, and Propagation Across Artifacts PEARC 2026
Eric Melin, Nasir Eisty, Addi Thakur, Greg Watson
Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) 2026, Minneapolis, MN, USA
C23
Peer Code Review in Research Software: Practices, Improvements, and Implementation Challenges from Interviews of RSEs PEARC 2026
Ariful Malik, Jeffrey Carver, Nasir Eisty
Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) 2026, Minneapolis, MN, USA
C22
Technical Lag as Latent Technical Debt: A Rapid Review TechDebt 2026
Shane Panter, Nasir Eisty
International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt) 2026
C21
LLMs in Code Vulnerability Analysis: A Proof of Concept SVM 2026
Saznin Sultana, Sadia Afreen, Nasir Eisty
4th International Workshop on Software Vulnerability Management (SVM) 2026
C20
The Kubernetes Security Landscape: AI-Driven Insights from Developer Discussions SERA 2025
James A. Curtis, Nasir U. Eisty
23rd IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), 2025
C19
Exploring the Advances in Using Machine Learning to Identify Technical Debt and Self-Admitted Technical Debt SERA 2025
Eric L. Melin, Nasir U. Eisty
23rd IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), 2025
C18
Introducing Ensemble Machine Learning Algorithms for Automatic Test Case Generation Using Learning-Based Testing SERA 2025
Sheikh Md. Mushfiqur Rahman, Nasir U. Eisty
23rd IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), 2025
C17
Rusty Linux: Advances in Rust for Linux Kernel Development ESEM 2024
Shane Panter, Nasir Eisty
18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), October 24–25, 2024, Barcelona, Spain
C16
Decade-long Utilization Patterns of ICSE Technical Papers and Associated Artifacts SERA 2024
Sharif Ahmed, Rey Ortiz, Nasir Eisty
22nd IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 30–June 1, 2024, Honolulu, USA
C15
Exploiting CPU Clock Modulation for Covert Communication Channel SERA 2024
Shariful Alam, Jidong Xiao, Nasir Eisty
22nd IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 30–June 1, 2024, Honolulu, USA
C14
Understanding Emojis :) in Useful Code Review Comments NLBSE@ICSE 2024
Sharif Ahmed, Nasir Eisty
3rd International Workshop on NL-based Software Engineering (NLBSE), co-located with ICSE 2024, April 20, 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
C13
Software Testing Practices for Reproducible Open Science AGU 2024
A. Koufos, Nasir Eisty, M. Mundt
AGU Fall Meeting, Washington D.C., 2024 — Poster
C12
Exploring the Advances in Identifying Useful Code Review Comments ESEM 2023
Sharif Ahmed, Nasir Eisty
17th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), October 23–27, 2023, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
C11
Evaluating Code Metrics in GitHub Repositories Related to Fake News and Misinformation SERA 2023
Jason Duran, Mostofa Najmus Sakib, Nasir U. Eisty, Francesca Spezzano
21st IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 23–25, 2023, Orlando, USA
C10
Analyzing the Effects of CI/CD on Open Source Repositories in GitHub and GitLab SERA 2023
Jeffrey Fairbanks, Akshharaa Tharigonda, Nasir U. Eisty
21st IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 23–25, 2023, Orlando, USA
C9
Applications of Causality and Causal Inference in Software Engineering SERA 2023
Patrick Chadbourne, Nasir U. Eisty
21st IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 23–25, 2023, Orlando, USA
C8
Analysis of Software Engineering Practices in General Software and Machine Learning Startups SERA 2023
Bishal Lakha, Kalyan Bhetwal, Nasir U. Eisty
21st IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 23–25, 2023, Orlando, USA
C7
A Systematic Literature Review on Optimizing Documentation Effort in Agile Software Development SERA 2023
Md Athikul Islam, Rizbanul Hasan, Nasir U. Eisty
21st IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management, and Applications (SERA), May 23–25, 2023, Orlando, USA
C6
Automatic Transformation of Natural to Unified Modeling Language: A Systematic Review SERA 2022
Sharif Ahmed, Arif Ahmed, Nasir Eisty
20th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA), May 25–27, 2022, Las Vegas, USA
C5
Software Engineering Approaches for TinyML based IoT Embedded Vision: A Systematic Literature Review SERP4IoT@ICSE 2022
Shashank Bangalore Lakshman, Nasir Eisty
4th International Workshop on Software Engineering Research & Practices for the Internet of Things (SERP4IoT), co-located with ICSE 2022, May 10, 2022, Pittsburgh, USA
C4
Testing Research Software: A Case Study SE4Science 2020
Nasir Eisty, Danny Perez, Jeffrey C. Carver, J. David Moulton, Hai Ah Nam
International Workshop on Software Engineering for Computational Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 3–5, 2020
C3
Use of Software Process in Research Software Development: A Survey EASE 2019
Nasir Eisty, George Thiruvathukal, Jeffrey Carver
Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE’19), Copenhagen, Denmark, April 15–17, 2019
C2
A Survey of Software Metric Use in Research Software Development eScience 2018
Nasir Eisty, George Thiruvathukal, Jeffrey Carver
14th eScience IEEE International Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct 29–Nov 1, 2018
C1
Improving the Permission Model to Protect Smartphone Users’ Privacy and Applying it on Android SAM 2018
Nasir U. Eisty, Anthony Payne
International Conference on Security and Management (SAM), 2018
Preprints & Technical Reports
P6
Integrating APK Image and Text Data for Enhanced Threat Detection: A Multimodal Deep Learning Approach to Android Malware
Md. Mashrur Arifin, Sheikh Md. Mushfiqur Rahman, Nasir U. Eisty
arXiv:2601.08959, 2026
P5
P4
Exploring Requirements Elicitation from App Store User Reviews Using Large Language Models
Tanvir Kabir Ghosh, Atharva Pargaonkar, Nasir U. Eisty
arXiv:2409.15473, 2024
P3
Leveraging Large Language Models for Predicting Cost and Duration in Software Engineering Projects
James Carpenter, Chia-Yi Wu, Nasir U. Eisty
arXiv:2409.09617, 2024
P2
Code Vulnerability Detection: A Comparative Analysis of Emerging Large Language Models
Saznin Sultana, Sadia Afreen, Nasir U. Eisty
arXiv:2409.10490, 2024
P1
Sentiment Analysis of ML Projects: Bridging Emotional Intelligence and Code Quality
Md Shoaib Ahmed, Dongjin Park, Nasir U. Eisty
arXiv:2409.17885, 2024
04

Blog Posts

B3
Use of Software Metrics in Research Software BSSw
Better Scientific Software Blog — U.S. Department of Energy, April 10, 2021
B2
Testing Non-Deterministic Research Software BSSw
Better Scientific Software Blog — U.S. Department of Energy, October 13, 2020
B1
Making Software a First-Class Citizen in Research SSI
Software Sustainability Institute Blog, November 28, 2018
05

Grants & Funding

Program Specifications to the Scientific Computing Community
NSF $249,000 Co-Principal Investigator 2023 – 2025
Code Review in Research Software — The RSE Experience
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation $250,000 Co-Principal Investigator 2023 – 2025
Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education (R-EDGE) Grant
California Polytechnic State University $18,000 Principal Investigator 2021 – 2022
Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Fellowship
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) $35,489 Fellow 2020 – 2021
06

Dissertation Committee Memberships

Diego Ferrer
Advisor: Dr. Ahmedullah Aziz
Ph.D.
Ongoing
Ikteder Udoy
Advisor: Dr. Omiya Hassan
Ph.D.
Ongoing
Kyle Schwab
Advisor: Dr. Elena Sherman
Ph.D.
Ongoing
Madhu Chinnambeti
Advisor: Dr. Edoardo Serra
Ph.D.
Ongoing
Md Shoaib Ahmed
Advisor: Dr. Francesca Spezzano
Ph.D.
Ongoing
Everest K.C.
Advisor: Dr. Jyh-haw Yeh
M.S.
Graduated Spring 2026
Jeffrey Fairbanks
Advisor: Dr. Edoardo Serra
Ph.D.
Graduated Spring 2026
Rubal Goyal
Advisor: Dr. Elena Sherman
M.S.
Graduated Spring 2025
Sadia Afreen
Advisor: Dr. Elena Sherman
M.S.
Graduated Spring 2025
Akshey Sigdel
Advisor: Dr. Gaby Dagher
M.S.
Graduated Fall 2024
Royal Pathak
Advisor: Dr. Francesca Spezzano
Ph.D.
Graduated Fall 2024
Chibuzo Ukegbu
Advisor: Dr. Hoda Mehrpouyan
Ph.D.
Graduated Summer 2024
Yoonso Ra
Advisor: Dr. Gaby Dagher
M.S.
Graduated Fall 2023
Rizbanul Hasan
Advisor: Dr. Cathie Olschanowsky
M.S.
Graduated Spring 2023
Rohan Raut
Advisor: Dr. Francesca Spezzano
M.S.
Graduated Fall 2022
Mostofa Najmus Sakib
Advisor: Dr. Francesca Spezzano
M.S.
Graduated Summer 2022