Software Engineering and Design at Open University

The Open University’s (OU) Software Engineering and Design (SEAD) group, is one of the UK’s leading software engineering research groups with broad interests, covering both early and late development activities, and drawing upon a wide range of multi-disciplinary techniques and tools, to better engineer software-intensive dependable systems. Aeronautics and Aerospace is one of the key application areas for the group, with current funding secured to support strategic collaboration with University of Notre Dame’s Systems and Requirements Engineering Center (SAREC) in general, and the Dronology project in particular. The SEAD group has a track record of investigating software engineering challenges in aviation, including experience in analysing the risks and security arguments in air traffic management and on tracking and verifying the motion of aircraft. In the context of dronology, SEAD group researchers are interested in developing techniques for designing and deploying ‘forensic-ready’ drones that are capable of being investigated if and when they are involved in unexpected or undesirable incidents.