Software Engineering Institute

October 11, 2019—Two members of the SEI's Software Solutions Division (SSD) have recently been elected to leadership positions in the IEEE Computer Society (CS). Forrest Shull, the SSD's assistant director of empirical research, was voted IEEE CS 2020 president-elect. Grace Lewis, an SSD principal researcher, was elected to the IEEE CS Board of Governors.

The IEEE CS is one of the best-known resource organizations for technology professionals. The organization offers a range of conferences, journals, and training programs.

Shull, an IEEE senior member, has been a long-time Society volunteer. He has participated in committees and is serving a term on the Board of Governors. Shull is also a former editor-in-chief of the IEEE Software journal and former associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). In 2018, Shull was elected the Society's first vice president. As president, starting in January 2021, he will oversee IEEE CS programs and operations and sit on most IEEE CS program boards and committees as a nonvoting member.

"Both the SEI and the Computer Society advance the state of research and practice and communicate the latest breakthroughs in ways that can have an impact," said Shull. "The Computer Society allows me to be part of a global community of computing professionals, with awareness of advances and challenges worldwide that can inform, and be informed by, the important work being done at the SEI and Carnegie Mellon University."

"Forrest's years of service to the IEEE Computer Society have helped advance the organization in many of our core initiatives, from membership and professional development to publications, conferences, and Board leadership," said Melissa Russell, IEEE CS executive director. "Forrest is a thoughtful and inclusive leader with the right combination of expertise, creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm to lead the Society through this transformative time in our industry and the vast array of technology areas and research fields we represent."

Shull currently serves as assistant director for empirical research at the SEI, where he heads up work with U.S. government agencies, national labs, industry, and academic institutions to advance the use of empirically grounded information in software engineering and cybersecurity.

Grace Lewis is the lead of the Tactical Technologies Group (TTG) initiative at the SEI, where her interests include edge computing, internet of things (IoT) security, software architecture, and emerging technologies. "At the SEI I have the privilege of working at the intersection of academia, government, and industry," she said. "This gives me the opportunity to see important advances that are happening in these three communities and identify synergy opportunities that can be supported by the Computer Society."

Lewis has a long history of service with the IEEE CS, including being an IEEE senior member, treasurer of the IEEE Computer Society Technical & Conference Activities Board (T&C) Executive Committee, and the executive vice-chair for the IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE).

In January 2020, she will begin serving on the IEEE CS Board of Governors, which sets the Society's strategy and direction, provides policy guidance, and reviews performance. Lewis has many goals for her two-year term, but her most pressing are ethics, diversity, and inclusion. "I would like to see the IEEE Computer Society make an even greater effort to support minorities in the field and early-career researchers and practitioners, improve gender balance, and create more opportunities for less privileged parts of the world," she said.

Other SEI staff members with leadership roles in the IEEE CS include Principal Researcher Ipek Ozkaya, editor-in-chief of the journal IEEE Software, and Software Solutions Division Acting Director Anita Carleton, a member of the IEEE Software advisory board.