Researcher Profile
Emine Aydal
Research topic: Model-based Testing
I am a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science. After my master degree in Software Engineering, I was offered a scholarship for a PhD study, and stayed to pursue research in Model-based Testing.
My journey in the Department of Computer Science at the University of York began in October, 2004. After having received an MSc in Software Engineering degree with distinction in 2005, I have been offered a scholarship for a PhD study, and stayed to pursue research in Model-based Testing.
What made my journey an exciting one have been the opportunities provided by the department, and the people in the department with whom I could share my interests both technically and socially.
During the last 3 years, my research interests have been shifted from one subject to another, and it took me more than 18months to actually pinpoint the current specialised area that my PhD thesis will discuss in detail. Studying the intricate details of one subject for more than 3 years, and trying to find that original contribution you are destined to discover are certainly not easy tasks, and there are always ups and downs. However, what made my journey an exciting one have been the opportunities provided by the department, and the people in the department with whom I could share my interests both technically and socially.
The quality of research and teaching in the department is kept high with the procedures in place, and even without such procedures, the enthusiasm and the drive to produce more is maintained through a common spirit. The regular seminars and discussion groups are also great resources to follow the progress in the technological arena. In addition, there are scholarship opportunities provided to PhD students which open doors to the research labs outside the department during PhD. I had the chance to receive the Gibbs Award in 2007 and visited University of Waikato(NZ) to work with Dr. Mark Utting. I believe such awards are invaluable assets both in terms of improving the work in progress and learning how to collaborate with the rest of the research community.
As a separate note, when I started studying in the department, I met many people who had been in the department for more than 10 years, and I used to think that working in the same environment for such a long period of time may not be exciting, however, after being in the department for 5 years, I can easily say that the environment in the department is so dynamic and challenging that there is almost no time to pronounce the word 'boredom'.
Want to know more?
Visit the High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE) research group pages.