In below, I review the last year’s resolution 2014 of Waseda University Global Software Engineering Laboratory. Moreover I send you New Year’s Resolution 2015 regarding Group Organization, Research Achievements, and Event and Community Contribution.

*Group Organization*
2014: As I expected on last January, we have several international students from China, Thailand and Singapore in 2014.

2015: Like last year, we expect some students come from several countries. Our group is growing and having more diversity in national origins, backgrounds and mindsets. Such diversity contributes to our group in various aspects such as creativity.

*Research Achievement*
2014: We published 3 journal papers (2 international and 1 domestic) and 26 international conference and workshop papers (1 at CORE Rank A conference, 11 at Rank B, 3 at Rank C, and 11 at conferences without CORE Rank). On 1st Jan 2014, I stated that we hoped to publish 7 journal papers (incl. 3+ international) and 20 international conference and workshop papers (2+ at CORE Rank A and 10+ at Rank B). Although we got paper acceptances at international conferences and workshops more than expected, the numbers about journals and CORE Rank A conferences are smaller than expected. However actually we have 3 papers to be published at journals in 2015 so that our publish record was mostly good against the Last Year’s resolution. Moreover, most of the research achievements are obtained by joint research with 13 industrial and academic partners; through these partners our achievements were started to be used!

2015: Having the same clear vision “establishing software development practices based on solid engineering theory”, we will push forward with research on novel and actionable software engineering methods and tools based on well-defined and validated theory to contribute to software engineering industry and academia in collaboration with 13+ local and global partners and funds. We aim to publish impactful papers at better places: at least 7 journal papers (incl. 3+international) and 20 international conference papers (2+ at CORE Rank A and 10+ at Rank B). Fortunately we already have 3 papers to be published at journals and 1 paper at international conference in 2015. Many of our research achievements in the form of methods, practices and tools shall be actually used and produce values through our research partners. Regarding the partnership, I have a plan to stay at a good research university École Polytechnique de Montréal around 3 months in the second part of 2015; it will accelerate and strengthen our research from a global perspective. Of course during my stay, our usual study meetings including the journal club will be continued via Online meeting systems.

*Event and Community Contribution*
2014: Thanks to many collaborators and supporters, we organized or contributed to many major programming and engineering contests: ACM ICPC 2014 Asia Tokyo Regional Contest, ET Robocon 2014 Tokyo Regional Contest, Hack U Waseda 2014, and IPSJ SamurAI Coding 2014-15. Moreover we organized or hosted various conferences and meetings including AsianPLoP 2014, XP-Festival (i.e. Matsuri) and SEMAT Japan Chapter meeting.

2015: We continue to contribute to IPSJ SamurAI Coding 2014-15. Moreover we will host or organize various conferences and meetings including Waseda & Fraunfoher IESE & IPA/SEC Seminar on IT Management and Software Quality on February 19, AsianPLoP 2015 on March 5-7, and, 32nd JSSST National Convention on September 8-11th at Waseda University. These event and community organizations give us good opportunities to publicize our research achievements and contribute to the outer world and expand our network. Moreover today I become Chair of IEEE Computer Society Japan Chapter; through events and awards by the chapter, I promote activities of IEEE CS and contribute to ICT research and industry.

Hironori Washizaki
Head of Global Software Engineering Laboratory, Waseda University