Brock Tubre

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology used in various domains such as medicine, psychotherapy, architecture, and gaming. Recently, software engineering researchers have started to explore virtual reality as a tool for programmers. However, few studies examine source code comprehension in VR. This paper explores the human experience of comprehending source code in VR and compares it to source code comprehension in a desktop environment. We conducted a study with 26 graduate student… Show more

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology used in various domains such as medicine, psychotherapy, architecture, and gaming. Recently, software engineering researchers have started to explore virtual reality as a tool for programmers. However, few studies examine source code comprehension in VR. This paper explores the human experience of comprehending source code in VR and compares it to source code comprehension in a desktop environment. We conducted a study with 26 graduate student programmers. We measured actual productivity, perceived productivity and used the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) survey to measure various factors such as mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration. We found that the programmers experienced more physical demand, effort, and overall task load when reading and comprehending code in VR. However, we did not observe any statistically significant differences in the programmers’ measured productivity or perceived productivity between VR and desktop comprehension. Show less

Advances in artificial intelligence are constantly increasing its validity as a team member enabling it to effectively work alongside humans and other artificial teammates. Unfortunately, the digital nature of artificial teammates and their restrictive communication and coordination requirements complicate the interaction patterns that exist. In light of this challenge, we create a theoretical framework that details the possible interactions in human-agent teams, emphasizing interactions… Show more

Advances in artificial intelligence are constantly increasing its validity as a team member enabling it to effectively work alongside humans and other artificial teammates. Unfortunately, the digital nature of artificial teammates and their restrictive communication and coordination requirements complicate the interaction patterns that exist. In light of this challenge, we create a theoretical framework that details the possible interactions in human-agent teams, emphasizing interactions through groupware, which is based on literature regarding groupware and human-agent teamwork. As artificial intelligence changes and advances, the interaction in human-agent teams will also advance, meaning interaction frameworks and groupware must adapt to these changes. We provide examples and a discussion of the frameworks ability to adapt based on advancements in relevant research areas like natural language processing and artificial general intelligence. The results are a framework that detail human-agent interaction throughout the coming years, which can be used to guide groupware development. Show less

There are many benefits of migrating applications to the cloud, including highly available and elastic compute power, unlimited backup and storage, fully managed services, and overall cost savings. However, there are many challenges that software engineers face when migrating applications to the cloud. Even more challenges during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of this paper is to shed light on the challenges software engineers face performing cloud migrations during a global pandemic… Show more

There are many benefits of migrating applications to the cloud, including highly available and elastic compute power, unlimited backup and storage, fully managed services, and overall cost savings. However, there are many challenges that software engineers face when migrating applications to the cloud. Even more challenges during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of this paper is to shed light on the challenges software engineers face performing cloud migrations during a global pandemic. A proposed set of research questions will be used to determine the challenges remote software engineers face, as well as the tools and methodologies used during the cloud migration process. Future work will consist of building a process model by examining the current state of cloud migration approaches as well as new approaches due to a global pandemic. Show less

There are many benefits to pair programming, including increased knowledge transfer, higher quality code, increased code comprehension, and team bonding. Unfortunately, when programmers work remotely, it becomes more challenging to collaborate. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has become increasingly popular in domains outside of software engineering. It allows humans to experience increased social presence, a key for collaboration, while still working remotely. In the last few years, and even… Show more

There are many benefits to pair programming, including increased knowledge transfer, higher quality code, increased code comprehension, and team bonding. Unfortunately, when programmers work remotely, it becomes more challenging to collaborate. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has become increasingly popular in domains outside of software engineering. It allows humans to experience increased social presence, a key for collaboration, while still working remotely. In the last few years, and even more so recently, remote work has become very common for software engineers. In this paper, we explore remote pair programming and code comprehension in virtual reality. We conducted remote pair programming experiments with a total of 40 professional programmers. Half of the participants pair programmed using VR as a tool and the other half used a screen sharing system to collaborate. We found that programmers solved almost twice as many bugs using VR. We also found that the time taken to solve bugs was, on average, reduced when working in the VR environment than using the state of the art. Show less

Virtual reality is an emerging technology for various domains such as medicine, psychotherapy, architecture, and gaming. Recently, software engineering researchers have started to explore virtual reality as a tool for programmers. However, few studies examine source code comprehension in a virtual reality (VR) environment. In this paper, we explore the human experience of comprehending source code in VR. We conducted a study with 26 graduate students. We found that the programmers experienced… Show more

Virtual reality is an emerging technology for various domains such as medicine, psychotherapy, architecture, and gaming. Recently, software engineering researchers have started to explore virtual reality as a tool for programmers. However, few studies examine source code comprehension in a virtual reality (VR) environment. In this paper, we explore the human experience of comprehending source code in VR. We conducted a study with 26 graduate students. We found that the programmers experienced more challenges when reading and comprehending code in VR. We found no statistically significant difference in the programmers' perceived productivity between our VR and traditional comprehension studies. Show less