My current research interests are in software engineering and programming languages. I apply data analytics techniques (mining software repositories) to study how developers use programming languages, to help gain insight into features they use and how they use them. I believe future programming languages can be better designed by leveraging data.
I am a lead researcher and engineer for the Boa language and infrastructure. Boa is a virtual laboratory for data-intensive research on open-source software development. Boa provides better abstractions for easily and efficiently mining ultra-large-scale software repositories.
I am also working on PAClab - a Program Analysis ColLABoratory for automatically generating benchmark programs for program analysis researchers.
Select Publications
- NEW MSR: Method Chaining Redux: An Empirical Study of Method Chaining in Java, Kotlin, and Python Ali M. Keshk, Robert Dyer. May 15, 2023.
- ESEC/FSE: An Exploratory Study on the Predominant Programming Paradigms in Python Code Robert Dyer, Jigyasa Chauhan. November 18, 2022.
- ESEC/FSE: Performing Large-Scale Mining Studies: From Start to Finish (Tutorial) Robert Dyer, Samuel W. Flint. November 18, 2021.
- MSR: Escaping the Time Pit: Pitfalls and Guidelines for Using Time-Based Git Data Distinguished Paper Award Samuel W. Flint, Jigyasa Chauhan, Robert Dyer. May 17, 2021.
- ICSE: Boa: A Language and Infrastructure for Analyzing Ultra-Large-Scale Software Repositories Robert Dyer, Hoan Anh Nguyen, Hridesh Rajan, Tien N. Nguyen. May 23, 2013.