Mary Shaw, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

Mary Shaw is the Alan J. Perlis University Professor of Computer Science and a member of the Institute for Software Research, the Computer Science Department, and the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. She has been a member of this faculty since completing the Ph.D. degree at Carnegie-Mellon in 1972. From 2001 to 2006 she served as Co-Director of the Sloan Software Industry Center. From 1992 to 1999 she served as the Associate Dean for Professional Education. In 1997-98 she was a Fellow of the Center for Innovation in Learning. From 1984 to 1987 she served as Chief Scientist of CMU's Software Engineering Institute. She had previously earned a B.A (cum laude) from Rice University and worked in systems programming and research at the Research Analysis Corporation and Rice University.

Her research interests in computer science lie primarily in the areas of software engineering and programming systems, particularly software architecture, end user software engineering, cybersociotechnical systems, and software design. Particular areas of interest and projects have included software design at the architectural level (Vitruvius, UniCon, adaptive software), reliable software development (everyday software, strong typing and modularity), evaluation techniques for software (predictive design evaluation, performance specification, compiler contraction, software metrics), program organization for quality human interfaces (Descartes), technology transition (SEI), abstraction techniques for advanced programming methodologies (abstract data types, generic definitions), programming language design (Alphard, Tartan), and analysis of algorithms (polynomial derivative evaluation).

She has participated in developing innovative curricula in Computer Science from the introductory to the doctoral level, including the Immigration Course (1971), a complete undergraduate curriculum design (1984), a system of professional masters programs (1993-8), and courses in data abstraction (1979), software engineering (1990), software architecture (1995), software engineering research (2000) and software design (2003-5).

Dr. Shaw is an author or editor of seven books and more than two hundred papers and technical reports. She is co-author of "Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline" and is considered to be one of the founders of the field of software architecture . She has received the ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research AWARD, the IEEE Computer Society TCSE's Distinguished Educator Award, CSEE&T's Nancy Mead Award for Excellence in Software Engineering Education, the Stevens Award for instrumental contributions in the development and recognition of software architecture as a discipline and the Warnier prize for contributions to software engineering. She is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is also a member of the Society of the Sigma Xi, the New York Academy of Sciences, Working Group 2.10 (Software Architecture) of the International Federation of Information Processing Societies (IFIPS) and a member emeritus of Working Group 2.4 (System Implementation Languages) of IFIPS . She is a past member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and DARPA ISAT study group. In addition, she has served on a number of advisory and review panels, conference program committees, and editorial boards.