Apr 28
CS Tea: Phyllis Frankl
Someone put a database in my software testing problem
Thoroughly testing software is notoriously difficult. Traditionally, software testers select a set of inputs to the program under test, execute the program on those inputs, and examine the program's outputs to see if they conform to the program's specification. Many techniques and tools have been developed for selecting tests, checking results, deciding whether a program has been tested thoroughly, among other problems. Database application programs present additional challenges, as the program's behavior depends on the state of the database and judging whether the program has behaved correctly on the tests may require examination of how the database state has been transformed. In this talk, I'll summarize several approaches to testing database applications.
Biography: Phyllis Frankl is a Professor Emerita of Computer Science at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Vassar College. She has a BA in Mathematics and Physics from Brandeis University, MA in Math from Columbia, and PhD in Computer Science from the NYU Courant Institute. Her research focuses primarily on software testing and analysis and has been supported by numerous grants from the National Science Foundation and other sources. She has taught a wide variety of computer science courses and has been active in curriculum development. She has also been active in promoting the inclusion of women and other under-represented students in STEM.