Jacob Krüger

I am a software-engineering researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, specializing on the development and evolution of variant-rich software systems. Variant-rich systems exist in different customizable variants and have become the most widely existing form of software systems in all areas of society. My goal as a researcher is to improve our foundational understanding of how the respective software evolves, focusing on the interplay of human cognition and software quality. Evolving variant-rich systems is particularly challenging for developers and has been the focus of my PhD, which I obtained in 2021 from the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Leich and Prof. Gunter Saake. My dissertation (external reviewers: Prof. Jan Bosch and Prof. Rick Rabiser) focused on providing an empirics-based understanding of the re-engineering of variant-rich systems to support developers in the decision whether to rely on unsystematic or systematic software reuse. During these studies, I found that developers’ comprehension of their system is the most important factor to engineer high-quality (variant-rich) software. This topic has fascinated me ever since.

Checkout my research and publications sites or ask me if you want to learn more about these topics. If you are interested in collaborating or are looking for thesis projects in this area, please drop me a mail.

Short CV

During my research, I have worked in different (types of) universities and multiple countries, collaborating with various researchers and students.

Since 09/2022 Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
06/2021-08/2022 Academic Council, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
05/2018–06/2021 Research Associate, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany
01/2020–03/2020 Visiting researcher, University of Toronto, Canada
10/2017–09/2018 Visiting researcher, Chalmers and University of Gothenburg, Sweden
03/2016–04/2018 Research Associate, Harz University of Applied Sciences Wernigerode, Germany

I have published full papers at community as well as various top venues (e.g., ICSE, ESEC/FSE, ESE, JSS, ICSME, JCDL), see the research or publication site for overviews. For my research, I have been rewarded research awards (e.g., 2020 Research Award of the Faculty for Computer Science of the Otto-von-Guericke University, 2019 ACM SIGSOFT-SIGBED Frank Anger Memorial Award, 2017 Wernigeröder Research Award) and fellowships (e.g., IFI, research visit, and conference traveling fellowships of the German Academic Exchange Service), and have been involved in numerous workshops, conferences, and journals (e.g., organizer of VM4ModernTech workshop ‘21, ‘22; co-chair of SPLC ‘20 Tools Track; reviewer at ESEC/FSE’23, ASE ‘22, SPLC ‘22, VaMoS’23 ‘22, Empirical Software Engineering ‘19-‘21, Journal of Systems and Software ‘22).