Prof. Dr. Thorsten Berger

Professor / Head of Chair

Chair of Software Engineering
Ruhr University Bochum
Bochum, Germany

Office: MC 4.101, RUB campus
Phone: +49 (0) 234 32 25975
Mobile: +49 (0) 160 926 878 10
E-Mail: thorsten.berger@rub.de
Skype: tberger.work

Awards and Honors

  • Most Influential Paper Award at 17th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS) 2023
  • Received Distinguished Reviewer Award, 26th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award, 42nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering, 2020
  • Reached final round with final score ‘A’ (highest): ERC starting Grant 2020, ranking 45-47% close to obtaining funding
  • Wallenberg Academy Fellowship, one of the highest recognitions in Sweden, awarded collaboratively by Wallenberg Foundation, Royal Academy of Sciences and Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences.
  • Most Influential Paper Award at 14th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS) 2020
  • Reached final round with final score ‘A’ (highest): ERC starting Grant 2019 (first proposal), ranking of 52-54% close to obtaining funding
  • Reached final round: SSF Future Research Leader grant
  • Distinguished Reviewer Award, 33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2018
  • Listed as one of the most impactful software-engineering researchers in a JSS journal article on top scholars
  • VR Starting Grant, awarded by the Swedish Research Council, highly competitive early career award, 2016
  • Best Paper Award, 14th International Conference on Modularity (ACM SIGPLAN MODULARITY), 2015
  • Best Paper Award, 17th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR, now IEEE SANER), 2013
  • Scholarship, German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), competitive scholarship (the foundation funds the top 0.5% of German students), 2009
  • Scholarship, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, at University of Leipzig, Germany, 2008
  • Other recognition:
    • Dagstuhl: Initiator and main organizer of Dagstuhl seminar 19191 (Software Evolution in Time and Space: Unifying Version and Variability Management), Invited to Dagstuhl seminars 25392 (Specification Engineering: Foundations for the Future of Software Development), 23492 (Model Learning for Improved Trustworthiness in Autonomous Systems), 23181 (Empirical Evaluation of Secure Development Processes), 11021 (Feature-Oriented Software Development) and 13091 (Analysis, Test and Verification in The Presence of Variability). Invited to Dagstuhl events 14193 (FOSD-Treffen) and 13092 (FOSD-Treffen)

Service

  • Editorial board memberships: Science of Computer Programming (SCP) journal
  • Dagstuhl Seminar 19191 ‘Software Evolution in Time and Space: Unifying Version and Variability Management,’ organizer, 2019
  • FOSD Meeting 2018 in Gothenburg, organizer
  • SPLC’18: 22nd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference in Gothenburg, PC Chair and co-organizer
  • Chairing: SPLC’21 Industry Track PC, SPLC’20 Journal First, SPLC’18 Research Track PC, MODELS’18 Workshops, FOSD’18, Euromicro DSD/SEAA’17 SPLSeco research track, SPLC’16 Tools track, FOSD’14 PC
  • PC memberships: ICSE’25, FSE/IVR’24, ICSE’23, ASE’23, SPLC’23, ASE’22, FASE’22, VaMoS’22, SPLC’22 Industry, ICSE’21, MODELS’21, VaMoS’21, ICSE’20, FSE’20, ICSE/SEIP’20, VaMoS’20, MODEVAR’20, SPLC’19, SPLC’19 journal first, ICSA/NEMI’19, MISE’19, VaMoS’19, MODEVAR’19, ASE’18, ICSE/NIER’18, VaMoS’18, MORSE’18, MSPLC’17, REFSQ’17, VaMoS’17, WAMA’17, ASE’16, SPLC’16, MODULARITY’16 Visions, FMSPLE’16, Euromicro DSD/SEAA’16 SPLSeco, VaMoS’16, WAMA’16, Euromicro DSD/SEAA’15 SPLSeco, VaMoS’15, VaMoS’14, Euromicro DSD/SEAA’14 SPLSeco
  • Journal reviewing: ASE, TSE, ESE, JSS, JSME, SoSyM, IST, JOT, JWE, CAI

Funded Research Projects

  • PI: Novel Techniques for Data-Driven Root-Cause Analysis and Variability Management, funded by Volkswagen Infotainment (VWIF)
  • PI: Properties, Property Description Languages, and Verification Techniques for Behavior Trees, funded by Phoenix Contact Foundation
  • PI: PrivacyE2E: Privacy-by-Design Framework for Enduser-Oriented AI-enabled Systems, funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • PI: Modeling and Tracing Security Concerns, funded by German Research Council, Cluster of Excellence CASA
  • PI: Variability Management and Mission Specification Languages, funded via scholarshop by German Academic Exchange Service
  • PI: Safety and Mission Assurance for Mobile Robots, funded by Wallenberg Autonomous Systems Program (WASP)
  • Participant (Co-Supervisor of a PhD student): Collaborative and Autonomous Robots Under Uncertainty, funded by Wallenberg Autonomous Systems Program (WASP)
  • PI: Wallenberg Academy Fellowship, funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
  • PI: Virtual Platform – Flexible and Truly Incremental Engineering of Highly Configurable Systems, funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR, Vetenskapsradet)
  • PI and Country Lead, Swedish Consortium of the EU ITEA3 project REVaMP2 – Round-trip Engineering and Variability Management Platform and Process, funded by Vinnova Sweden
  • Co-PI: CO4ROBOTS – Achieving Complex Collaborative Missions via Decentralized Control and Coordination of Interacting Robots, funded by the European Union (H2020)
  • PI: Software Center project 36, goal-driven adoption of model-based systems engineering, funded by Software Center Sweden
  • Participant (Supervisor of a PhD student and a Postdoc): BRIGHT – collaboration project with two universities in Uganda, funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
  • Participant: NECSIS – Managing Variability and Configurability in an MDE Development Process, research network, funded by Automotive Partnership Canada
  • Participant: Model-integrated Software Service Engineering, funded by ORF-RE (Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence)
  • Participant: VARIES – Variability in Safety-critical Embedded Systems, EU Artemis funded
  • Participant: EUMONIS – model-driven development and software product line engineering in the regenerative energy domain, funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
  • Participant: iAssess.Sax – Developing the prerequisites for broader adoption of eAssessment at Saxon universities (Schaffung der Voraussetzungen für einen breiteren Einsatz von E-Assessments an den sächsischen Hochschulen)
  • Participant: SoftWiki – Distributed, End-user Centered Requirements Engineering for Evolutionary Software Development, funded by the german Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • Participant: PreBIS – Pre-Built Information Space, funded by the german Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology

Memberships