Presentation by Assistant Professor Meiyappan Nagappan (University of Waterloo) (10/02/2019)
Assistant Professor Meiyappan Nagappan from University of Waterloo at Canada gave a talk.
Title:
Software Engineering for Mobile Apps
Abstract:
There has been tremendous growth in the use of mobile
devices over the last few years. This growth has fueled the
development of millions of software applications for these mobile
devices often called as 'apps'. Current estimates indicate that there
are hundreds of thousands of mobile app development teams, and
hundreds of millions of mobile app users, with billions of dollars at
stake. Therefore, studying mobile apps has the potential for
tremendous impact.
In addition to the impact, mobile apps have three key differences to
the other kinds of software that have traditionally been examined in
SE research - (a) They are almost exclusively distributed through an
app store, which allows for any developer to easily release their
apps; (b) The users are able to give direct feedback to the developers
through the review mechanism; and (c) Mobile apps are often free to
download and are monetized through advertisements.
I will structure this talk with my research contributions around the
above three differences. More specifically, I will talk about when a
developer should release their app, what issues bother the users the
most, how developers can prioritize their testing efforts and are
advertisements the best monetization strategy. I will conclude my talk
with some of my ongoing projects and future opportunities and
challenges that exist in this line of research.