SimSE - A Simulation Environment for Software Engineering Education

Poster and Demonstration

Students: Emily Oh Navarro, Beverly Chan, Calvin Lee

Abstract: The common practice of teaching software engineering through a series of lectures and an associated class project is insufficient, on its own, to effectively communicate the complex, fundamental dynamics of real-world software engineering processes. In particular, lectures allow only passive participation by students, and class projects are inherently constrained by time, scope, and a dominating focus on deliverables. To address this problem, we introduce a new software engineering educational tool that teaches the software process in a practical manner without the constraints of an actual class project. Specifically, we have started to design and build a detailed, graphical, fully interactive educational software engineering simulation environment, called SimSE. When completed, we anticipate that this tool will enable students to form a concrete understanding of the software process by providing direct, graphical feedback; allowing its users to explore different approaches to managing the software process; and giving them insight into the complex cause and effect relationships underlying the process.

Bio: Emily Oh Navarro is a third-year Ph.D. student in the School of Information and Computer Science at UC Irvine, specializing in software engineering. Her research interests lie in software engineering education, namely, how to apply simulation game-based learning to teaching software engineering. She received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine in 1998. She has published papers in the International Conference on Software Engineering, the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, and the Frontiers in Education Conference, among others.