January 1st, 2025

Hironori Washizaki

Below, I review last year’s resolution, 2024, and describe New Year’s Resolution, 2025, in terms of Community and Professional Contributions, Projects, Achievements, and Team Organization.  The Japanese version is also available.

• Summary of 2024: Year of International Advancement
  1. Society/Community: IEEE-CS President-Elect, IPSJ SIGSE Chair, ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC7/WG20 Convenor; IEEE COMPSAC/SIoT Chair, IISA Chair, FATTW Chair, AI-Patterns Chair, IEEE ISSRE Support, AsianPLoP Support; SWEBOK Guide V4 published, IEEE CS Juniors program established, ISO/IEC 24773 series publication completed.
  2. Research and Education Projects: JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ML Patterns, JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Machine Learning Support Software Maintenance and Evolution (ME-ML), JST Future Society eAI Framework, Smart SE, K-12 STEM Education (Sayama et al., IEEE CS Juniors). In addition, more than 5 industry support projects. Started leading W-SPRING-AI, a university-based doctoral student development program in the field of Next Generation AI (adopted by JST BOOST).
  3. Publications: 10+5 journal papers, 18 international conference/workshop papers, 7 books (editing and chapter contribution), 24 keynote/invited lectures, and 13 awards.
  4. Team: Professor Ubayashi has joined the team, strengthening the research supervision and management. Increase in the number of doctoral students. Numerous gatherings and get-togethers, including sports and BBQs.

• Vision for 2025: Year of International Leadership
  1. Society/Community: As IEEE-CS President, engaging members, engaging industry, and leading new areas such as AI and Society (details: Leadership and Engagement: IEEE Computer Society 2025, Key Strategies). IEEE SWEBOK Summit, IEEE Generative AI Innovation Summit, and other new initiatives; IPSJ SIGSE Chair (until March), ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC7/WG20 Convenor; Organizing and contributing to IEEE COMPSAC/SIoT, IEEE ICST, AsianPLoP, and SWEBOK-related activities.
  2. Research and Education Projects: JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ML Patterns, JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Machine Learning Support Software Maintenance and Evolution (ME-ML), Smart-SEE, K-12 STEM Education, etc. In addition, more than five industrial support projects. Synergy with international professional societies and community activities.
  3. Publicity and Achievements: to be recognized internationally as a community-leading research team in smart and intelligent software engineering for systems, business, and society by promoting research broadly while strengthening industrial and international collaboration, obtaining more funding, and, as a result, providing more value to society,  and contribute to the bodies of knowledge.
  4. Team: Promote domestic and international collaboration. Diversity through having various students, including international students and doctoral students.

1. Community and Professional Contributions

2024: As President-Elect of the IEEE Computer Society, Professor Washizaki, under the leadership of President Jyotika, published the SWEBOK Guide V4, promoted it through a webinar series, and initiated the CS Juniors Program for K-12 in various regions and other professional activities, and led the direction of the IEEE Computer Society and its activities. He also contributed to other societies as IPSJ SIGSE Chair and ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC7/WG20 Convenor to lead the domestic and international software engineering community and dealt with standardization of professional certification schemes in the area of systems and software engineering. Completed the publication of all parts of the ISO/IEC 24773 series. He has served as an outside director and advisor to eXmotion and SI&C, as well as a visiting professor at the National Institute of Informatics and advisor to the University of Human Environments, furthering industry-academia collaboration and domestic and international cooperation. He also served as FATTW 2024 Chair, AI-Patterns Co-Chair, IISA 2024 General Co-Chair, IEEE ISSRE 2024 Advisory Member, AsianPLoP 2024 Advisory Chair, COMPSAC/SIoT 2024 PC Chair, APSEC 2024 Education track Co-Chair, and many other positions to lead the international community.

2025: As President of the IEEE Computer Society, Professor Washizaki will send a clear message to the membership and society, with a vision to engage members, engage industry, and lead new areas such as AI and Society. He will strategically lead the entire effort, with the support and participation of the Board of Governors and numerous volunteers, to grow and innovate the Society and increasingly contribute to humanity through computing. For more information, see Leadership and Engagement: IEEE Computer Society 2025 Key Strategies. New initiatives include the IEEE SWEBOK Summit and the IEEE Generative AI Innovation Summit. Professor Washizaki will also continue to lead domestic and international conferences and standardization activities as IPSJ SIGSE Chair (until March) and ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC7/WG20 Convenor. Professor Washizaki will continue to serve as an outside director and advisor to eXmotion and SI&C, as well as a visiting professor at the National Institute of Informatics and advisor to the University of Human Environments further to promote industry-academia collaboration and domestic and international cooperation. He will expand international collaboration and lead community development as AsianPLoP 2025 Conference Co-Chair, ICST 2025 Journal First Co-Chair, and COMPSAC/SIoT 2024 PC Chair.

2. Research and Educational Projects

2024: More than 10 research and educational projects have been successfully pursued, some funded, some supported by industry, and some based on international collaborations. In addition, W-SPRING-AI, the university’s doctoral student development program in the field of Next Generation AI, was adopted by JST BOOST, and I have begun leading the program.

2025: By integrating AI/LLM/Machine Learning/Natural Language Processing and others into software development and operation, we will deepen and expand smart and intelligent software engineering for systems, businesses, and society in this dynamic and uncertain era, mainly through international and industrial joint research. We will promote innovative and innovative research and educational projects that contribute to global expansion through synergies with international academic and community activities by applying research results to scholarly activities, incorporating perspectives in the community into transformative and innovative research activities, and promoting joint research based on community networks.

• Reliable AI/LLM Engineering Continuum (2020-): Multidimensional modeling and pattern and MLOps integrated engineering environment for development and operation of reliable machine learning systems in JST MIRAI-funded project eAI, and its development through complex and continuous distributed AI/LLM agents and human collaborative engineering foundation for software system environment
• JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ML Patterns Project (2023-): Extraction, detection, and application engineering of machine learning software engineering patterns
• JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ME-ML (2021-): Data-driven NLP/ML-empowered software maintenance and evolution engineering
• Smart SE (2017-): Recurrent and lifelong education program in IoT, AI, and DX areas
• K-12 STEM Education (2015-): ICT club activities, workshops on introductory programming, AI and related fields

In addition, we will continue implementing 5+ industry support projects, including Agile Metrics and Developer Experience, Log Analysis and UX Improvement, Code Metrics, Bug Report Processing, Knowledge Management, and Standards. Furthermore, Prof. Washizaki continues to lead W-SPRING-AI, the university’s doctoral student development program in next-generation AI.

3. Publicity and Achievements (List of publications)

2024: As a laboratory, we have published 10 papers in journals (Future Generation Computer Systems, Software Quality Journal, IEEE Access, etc.) and received 5 additional acceptances (ACM Trans. Architecture and Code Optimization, IEEE IT Professional, etc.). Presented 18 papers and posters at international conferences and workshops. Prof. Washizaki editted and contributed to 7 books (SWEBOK Guide V4.0, etc.). Prof. Washizaki gave 24 keynote speeches and invited talks. Our activities were frequently reported in many news media. As a laboratory and the team, students and members received a total of 13 awards. We have almost achieved the goals we set last January. Still, by 2025, we will make the project larger, deeper, and more internationalized, aiming for activities with more impact and more contributions to society and humanity.

2025: We will promote our research broadly and creatively to be recognized as a top-class, internationally community-leading research team in smart and intelligent software engineering for systems, businesses, and society while building synergy with international professional societies and community activities and will work with industry. We will work to obtain more funding, provide more value to society, and contribute to the knowledge system while strengthening our international collaborations. We will work to ensure that many of our research results in the form of methods, practices, and tools are continually used to create substantial value through local and global partners. Regarding the publication of results, we will emphasize top-tier international conferences and journals or venues that lead to in-depth discussions and collaborations rather than quantitative goals, such as a number of publications.

4. Team Organization

2024: Professor Ubayashi has joined our team, strengthened the research supervision and management, making us stronger as a research team, and deepening and broadening joint research collaborations and research themes. The number of doctoral and international students has also increased, adding to the diversity and depth of the group, and one student has received his doctoral degree. The team enjoyed various activities, not limited to research, including sports, BBQs, and many other gatherings and get-togethers.

2025: We will continue to promote domestic and international collaboration and become increasingly diverse as a research team through the addition of new international students and doctoral students. Our team has grown and has more nationalities, backgrounds, and perspectives. This diversity contributes to the team’s creativity and professional contribution to the above projects.

• 2 Professor, 1 Visiting Professor, 1 Visiting Associate Professor (tentative, subject to change)
• 5-7 Doctoral students
• 15+ Master’s students, 9+ Undergraduates
• 10+ Project Research Students
• Numerous collaborators including invited researchers