Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

I am interested in how information-rich computational systems can better support human discovery and learning, particularly through tools that enable more interpretable and collaborative forms of understanding and communication. Focus areas include:

• Intelligent systems for environmental and social challenges
• GIScience and spatial data science
• Representation across machine learning models, natural language, and domain-specific data
• Dynamic and automated scientific workflow systems
• Decentralized knowledge systems

Dr. Christoph Bartneck is a professor in the department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He has a background in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction, and his projects and studies have been published in leading journals, newspapers, and conferences. His interests lie in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, and Visual Design. More specifically, he focuses on the effect of anthropomorphism on human-robot interaction. As a secondary research interest he works on projects in the area of sport technology and the critical review on scientific processes and policies. In the field of Design Christoph investigates the history of product design, tessellations and photography.

He has worked for several international organizations including the Technology Centre of Hannover (Germany), LEGO (Denmark), Eagle River Interactive (USA), Philips Research (Netherlands), ATR (Japan), and The Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands). Christoph is an associate editor of the International Journal of Social Robotics. Christoph is a member of the ACM SIGCHI, The New Zealand Association Of Scientists and Academic Freedom Aotearoa. The press regularly reports on his work, including the New Scientist, Scientific American, Popular Science, Wired, New York Times, The Times, BBC, Huffington Post, Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Economist.

Andy Cockburn is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science & Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

His research concerns Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) --- designing, implementing, evaluating and modelling user interfaces, with a focus on understanding and exploiting specific underlying human factors to improve interaction. With over 200 publications, his contributions include many desktop and mobile interface designs that use human spatial memory to support  expertise development in basic tasks such as file retrieval, command invocation, window switching, and scrolling.

Andy has served on the Editorial Boards for leading HCI journals, including ACM ToCHI, the Human-Computer Interaction Journal, and Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction.   He served as papers co-chair for CHI 2014 and 2015, and as technical program co-chair for CHI 2020. In 2015 he was inducted to the ACM CHI Academy, which honours the principal leaders in the field.

Andy has consulted for many leading tech companies as an expert witness across various jurisdictions.

Dr. Hanwen Feng is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury's Faculty of Engineering. His research focuses on the foundations and techniques of secure distributed protocols, alongside broader topics in cryptography.

His work has appeared at top international venues in security/cryptography/distributed computing, including ACM CCS, IEEE S&P, CRYPTO, Journal of Cryptology, and ACM PODC.

Judith Fuchs graduated with a PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where she was part of the Human Aspects of Software Engineering Lab (https://hasel.auckland.ac.nz/). During her PhD, she worked on Software Quality, in particular on the topic “Modelling the Quantification of Technical Debt.” Her work was published in top-tier journals and conference proceedings such as Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology (TOSEM), International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) and Requirements Engineering (RE).

In parallel to her PhD, Judith worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and as a Research Assistant on multiple projects exploring topics such as “Veracity” and “Diversity & Inclusion.” Through these roles, she collaborated with researchers from several universities across New Zealand and industry partners.

As an early-career researcher, Judith successfully obtained a grant from the Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) National Science Challenge program to conduct her independently led project titled “Veracity Debt.” In this work, she applied the lens of Technical Debt from her PhD to the topic of veracity, which captures the notions of truth, trust, authenticity, and demonstrability. She supervised and mentored research assistants during this project. Some of her work can be found here: https://veracity.wgtn.ac.nz/.

Judith now works as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and continues to pursue research in areas such as Software Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering, Requirements Engineering, Software Quality and Human Aspects in Software Engineering. Driven by curiosity, she is committed to expanding her knowledge. She also wants to be a good example for aspiring young researchers.

Before her academic career, she gained experience as a Senior Software Engineer and Business Systems Analyst in the industry and continues to draw on those experiences in her teaching and research. 

She serves in leadership roles in many program committees of software engineering conferences and workshops, including ICSE, ICSME, EASE, ECSA, RE, and TechDebt. Furthermore, she conducts peer reviews for journals such as Empirical Software Engineering. She is also a member of the Software Innovation NZ (SI^NZ) group.

Her most recent achievement is the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, which enables her to bridge research collaborations between Germany and New Zealand.

For research collaborations or opportunities, please contact her via email: judith.fuchs@canterbury.ac.nz.

Fellowships, Grants and Funding:

• Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2026 - 2029
• SfTI Spearhead Project Enabling end-to-end veracity with value exchange ecosystems – Rangatahi Bolt on Grant, 2023 - 2024
• Travel Grant, RE | IEEE 31st International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), Hannover, Germany, 2023
• Travel Fund, RE | CSGST, School of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, 2023
• Travel Fund, EASE | CSGST, School of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, 2023
• Travel Fund, ICSE | CSGST, School of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, 2023

I am a Professor and conduct research in the area of software engineering. I am also Professor and head of the Chair for Experimental Software Engineering at the University of Bamberg in Germany.

I am particularly interested in studying and improving the way we develop high quality software, including productive teams, processes and practices, and empirical software engineering. My focus is on software requirements engineering, software architecture, and software development processes and practices.

Publications: https://dblp.org/pid/19/654.html

Research interests include AI in education, intelligent tutoring systems, student modeling, and learning analytics.

Ramakrishnan Mukundan’s primary research interests are in the areas of computer vision, biomedical image analysis, machine learning, and computer graphics.  His research work in the field of computer graphics spans several areas such as three-dimensional mesh modelling, 3D reconstructions, character animation and inverse kinematics algorithms, real-time rendering, shader based implementations, facial expression modelling, and crowd simulation. He is the author of the following 4 books:

• 3D Mesh Processing and Character Animation, Springer-Nature: Switzerland, Mar 2022, ISBN 978-3030813536.

        (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81354-3)

• Advanced Methods in Computer Graphics, Springer: London, Apr 2012, ISBN 978-1447123392.

        (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4471-2340-8)

• Computer Graphics Algorithms in Java, Pearson Higher Education (Malaysia), Sprint Print Edition, Apr 2000, ISBN 983-9236-42-3.

        (Out-of-print)

• Moment Functions in Image Analysis – Theory and Applications, World Scientific: Singapore, Sep 1998, ISBN 981-02-3524-0.

        (https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/3838)

In addition to the above books, Mukundan has published 2 book chapters and around 150 technical papers in various journals and conference proceedings (https://dblp.org/pid/95/569.html).

NOTE:  Mukundan has not been actively involved in research supervision since he retired in Dec, 2024.

In the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury,  Mukundan led the CGMIA research group (Computer Graphics and Medical Image Analysis group) that was involved in the development and implementation of computational pathology algorithms for automated feature extraction and classification of whole slide images of histopathological slides. These projects on clinical applications of biomedical image analysis and machine learning algorithms were done in collaboration with clinical experts in relevant fields.
Mukundan's early research contributions in the area of pattern recognition and analysis include the development of novel feature descriptors called Tchebichef Moments, based on discrete orthogonal polynomials. Tchebichef moment functions have recently found applications in texture analysis, image compression and invariant pattern recognition.  Mukundan also served as the Principal/Senior Supervisor for 14 Ph.D thesis students and 12 Masters thesis students.

I studied in Montreal, Canada, where I obtained my PhD from McGill University in 2024. My thesis focused on the presentation of software documentation, particularly API usage tutorials. I developed Casdoc, a format for code-oriented documentation. Casdoc documents for Java are available online. After a 3-month stop in Germany to collaborate with the MAST group, I moved to Christchurch to become a lecturer at the University of Canterbury.