Extending Software Engineering Research Outside the Digital Box

摘要

Since software is developed to run on computers, there is a tendency to focus computer science and software engineering on how best to get software to run on computers. But, engineering is different from science: the Webster definition of "engineering" is "the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people." Thus, it would follow that the responsibility of software engineering and its research would include the utility to people of the software and the software-reliant artifacts they use, beyond thinking within purely digital boxes. This position paper addresses two perspectives on the future of software engineering when viewed in this broader context.