Carolin Brandt

Assistant Professor

Researcher

Software Developer

About Me

Hello! I’m Caro 🐳
I'm an Assistant Professor at the Software Engineering Research Group of TU Delft, where I lead the research line on Human- and Developer-centered Software Engineering. My research focuses on embedding the future users of software and automation tools more closely and responsibly into the software development process. In my PhD with my advisor Andy Zaidman, I investigated how to let automatic test amplification tools collaborate with developers to generate test cases that they can use to improve their test suites. 😊

News
My Research Interests
Developer Involvement

How do we use a developer's expertise in automated tools?

Automatic Software Quality

How do we improve software with as little developer effort as possible?

Visualization

How do we effectively use visual communication in software engineering?

Research Methods

How do we help SE researchers do rigorous, reproducible and impactful research?

Recent Publications
Shaken, Not Stirred. How Developers Like Their Amplified Tests
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Poster for Alice & Eve 2021
Alice & Eve 2021
Poster for Alice & Eve 2022 / ICT.Open 2023
Alice & Eve 2022 / ICT.Open 2023
Service
Academic
2024
ASE

Artifact Evaluation Committee

2024
MSR

PC Technical Track, PC Data and Tool Showcase

2024
VST

Program Committee

2023
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology

Reviewer

2023
MSR

Junior PC Technical Track, PC Data and Tool Showcase

2022
FUZZING

Artifact Evaluation Committee

2022
BENEVOL, TestVis

Program Committee

2022, 2023
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

Reviewer

2022
Journal of Systems and Software

Reviewer

2021
Journal of Software: Evolution and Process

Reviewer

2021
VISSOFT

Program Committee

2021
ISSTA

Artifact Evaluation Committee

Organization
2025
IDE Workshop

Co-Organizer

2025
ICST

Publicity Chair

2023+
DiversAbility TU Delft

Board Member

2022
Alice & Eve

Web Chair, Programm Committee

2022
ECOOP

Publicity Chair

2021
VISSOFT

Publicity Chair

2021
ICSE

Organization Committee, responsible for Watch Parties and Gather.Town

2020
ICSE

Student Volunteer, responsible for Streaming in the Europe Timeband

2020
ESEC/FSE, ASE

Student Volunteer

Education + Experience
Academic
2024 - current
Assistant Professor
Software Engineering Research Group, Delft University of Technology

Embedding the future users and current developers of software and automation tools more closely and responsibly into the software development process.

2024 - 2024
Post-Doc
Software Engineering Research Group, Delft University of Technology

Exploring other ways to support software engineers. Gaining experience in co-supervising and international / industry collaborations.

August - November 2023
Visiting PhD Student
Hamburg University, Applied Software Technology Group

Guest of Prof. Walid Maalej, exploring connections between software testing and requirements engineering research.

2020 - 2024
PhD Student
Software Engineering Research Group, Delft University of Technology

Generating tests for and with developers using test amplification and visualization. Part of the TestShift project, supervised by Andy Zaidman.

2017 - 2019
Elite Graduate Program Software Engineering
University of Augsburg, Technical University of Munich, Ludwigs-Maximilans-University Munich

For especially talented and motivated students. Advanced education in software engineering, formal methods, database systems, distributed systems and human-computer interaction. Highly selective admission: at most 20 students per year.

2016
Teaching Assistant
Technical University of Munich

Introduction to Software Engineering. Operating Systems and Embedded Programming.

2014 - 2017
Bachelor Computer Science: Games Engineering
Technical University of Munich

Computer science with a practical focus in games. Computer graphics, game physics, artificial intelligence, social games, human-computer interaction and usability.

Industry
2018
Research Industry Internship
Oracle Labs, Multilingual Engine Team

Transformed pandas data analysis operations to SQL. Benchmarked against python running within the database process using GraalVM.

2017 - 2018
Software Engineer
Qualicen GmbH

Extended ConQAT based analyses of requirements documents. Halved the code size by safely deleting no longer used research components. Developed automated UI test using Ranorex. Managed GitLab and development workflow.

My Skills
Prizes
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award
    at MSR 2024
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award
    at MSR 2023
  • Best "New Ideas and Work in Progress" Paper / Presentation
    at the SMILESENG Summer School in Cordoba 2022
  • Best Artifact Award
    at VISSOFT 2022
  • 2nd Place Poster Competition
    at Alice & Eve 2022
  • International Women in Technology Scholarship 2021
    from Zonta
Research Methods
  • Constructive Paper Review
  • Rigorous Research Design
  • Academic Writing
  • Open / Axial Coding
  • Interviews
Languages
  • German
  • English
  • Dutch
  • Japanese, French
Coding
  • Java
    90%
  • C#, Python, Ruby
    75%
  • The language fitting for the job
    65%
  • LaTeX
    85%
Get in Touch

Wanna have a chat about research ideas or collaboration possibilities?
I'm looking to extend my network and work together with other researchers on embedding users into software development, automated tools supporting developers and other fun software engineering topics (there are too many to name! 😉).
In working with me you can expect energetic initiative and clear structure, as well as a huge passion and focus on the developer's perspective and how our tools can actually be useful for their development reality.

If you are thinking about maybe working together or interested to ping-pong some ideas, shoot me an email!

  • Email: c.e.brandt@tudelft.nl
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolin-brandt/
  • Twitter: @laci_noire
  • Office: 1.W.880, Building 28
  • Address: Van Mourik Broekmanweg 6
    2628 XE Delft, The Netherlands