Software and Systems (SAS)

The Division of Software and Systems is part of the Department of Computer and Information Science. The division conducts research and education in software engineering and computer systems.

A person sits in front of a computer screen and handles a floor robot Photo credit Jonas Järmen Research and education are conducted in the following areas:

Software Engineering
Programming Models and Environments
Software and System Modelling and Simulation
System Software
Embedded/Cyberphysical Software/Hardware Systems
Computer Systems Engineering
Real-Time Systems and System Dependability
Parallel and Distributed Software and Systems
Software and System Verification and Testing

Research

The research activities covers both basic research and projects in cooperation with industry - projects are or have been conducted in cooperation with ABB Robotics, ABB Industrial Systems, Ericsson Softlab AB, Ericsson Radio Systems, Ericsson Telecom, SKF, Saab, Saab Dynamics, Saab Combitech and several other companies.

Hands on laptop keyboard, a circuit board in the background Photo credit Jonas Järmen
In addition, the research activities include several long-term open-source system development efforts, such as the OpenModelica framework for object-oriented equation-based modeling and simulation of cyberphysical systems, and the SkePU high-level programming framework for heterogeneous parallel systems.

Nine full professors, eight associate/assistant professors and several postdocs are involved in the research together with about 25 graduate students.

Students listening to a teacher pointing to an example at a big screen. Photo credit Jonas Järmen

The SaS Seminars is a permanent series of open seminars with topics related to research at the division.

Research is conducted in three laboratories

Embedded Systems (ESLAB)
Codesign and design for testability of embedded/cyberphysical hardware/software systems and formal methods for embedded systems.

Programming Environments (PELAB)
Software engineering tools and architectures, large-scale software engineering, model-based software engineering, programming languages and systems, including compilers, debuggers, testing tools, and programming tools for parallel, distributed and real-time systems.

Real Time Systems (RTSLAB)
Dependable systems and networks, including reliability, safety and security, resource efficiency with respect to computation capacity, memory, bandwidth and energy.

Education

The division accounts for a significant share of the department's comprehensive undergraduate and master-level education activities, operating about 70 undergraduate/master-level courses per year as well as providing final-thesis supervision. Group of students working on computers..

Group of students working on computers..

Jonas Järmen

The undergraduate teaching activities are jointly carried out by the researchers and by the UPP education group for programming and programming didactics, which consists of about ten full-time university teachers and many teaching assistants.

Doctoral studies are offered in the field of Computer Science.

News at SAS

News and major articles

The researchers who need to be one step ahead

Today’s society rests on cyber security and the ability to be one step ahead of hackers. In recent years, a new threat has emerged – AI. However, according to researchers Elisa Bertino and Simin Nadjm-Tehrani, AI could also be part of the solution.

Mina Niknafs shows her printed thesis in the lecture hall.

New doctor in Computer Science: Mina Niknafs

On March 3, Mina Niknafs at the Dept of Computer and Information Science defended her thesis on resource management. "Pursuing a PhD at IDA is an enriching experience that combines academic freedom with a supportive research culture", she says.

Millions raised to advance quality assurance of software

Kristian Sandahl and colleagues, SAS, IDA, receive SEK 5,6 million from Vinnova to advance methods for quality assurance of software generated by AI models. With contributions from companies and LiU, the project will turn over almost SEK 18 million.

Research at SAS

Resilient Information and Control Systems (RICS)

Relying on service continuity for societal functions starts by understanding the complex socio-technical systems that must operate to deliver electricity, water, heat and other critical services to society.

Image illustrating computer programming with a number of different symbols.

Adaptive Software for the Heterogenous Edge-Cloud-Continuum - ASTECC

ASTECC is a 5-year cooperative research project in software systems at the Department of Computer and Information Science. It is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF).

robot dog Spot, drone, small helicopter, operator

WASP at Department of Computer and Information Science (IDA)

WASP, Wallenberg AI autonomous systems and software program, is the largest individual research investment in Sweden in modern times. One of the WASP research environments at LiU is located at the Department of Computer and Information Science.

Latest publications

2025

Torvald Mårtensson (2025) So much more than test cases-An industrial study on testing of software units and components Journal of hand and microsurgery, Vol. 17, Article 112479 (Article in journal)

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Sogol Masoumzadeh, Nuno Saavedra, Rungroj Maipradit, Lili Wei, Joao F. Ferreira, Daniel Varro, Shane McIntosh (2025) Do Experts Agree About Smelly Infrastructure? IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 51, p. 1472-1486 (Article in journal)

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Ali Toufanzadeh Mozhdehi, Nima Khodadadi, Mohaddeseh Aboutalebi, El-Sayed M. El-kenawy, Abdelazim Hussien, Weiguo Zhao, Mohammad H. Nadimi-Shahraki, Seyedali Mirjalili (2025) Correction: Divine Religions algorithm: a novel social-inspired metaheuristic algorithm for engineering and continuous optimization problems (vol 28, 253, 2025) Cluster Computing, Vol. 28, Article 345 (Article in journal)

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Pawel Czarnul, Marcel Antal, Hamza Baniata, Dalvan Griebler, Attila Kertesz, Christoph Kessler, Andreas Kouloumpris, Salko Kovacic, Andras Markus, Maria K. Michael, Panagiota Nikolaou, Isil Oz, Radu Prodan, Gordana Rakic (2025) Optimization of resource-aware parallel and distributed computing: a review Journal of Supercomputing, Vol. 81, Article 848 (Article in journal)

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Jialing Yan, Gang Hu, Heming Jia, Abdelazim Hussien, Laith Abualigah (2025) GPSOM: group-based particle swarm optimization with multiple strategies for engineering applications Journal of Big Data, Vol. 12, Article 114 (Article in journal)

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Ahmad Usman, Mikael Asplund (2025) Update at Your Own Risk: Analysis and Recommendations for Update-Related Vulnerabilities 40th IFIP International Conference, SEC 2025, Maribor, Slovenia, May 21–23, 2025, Proceedings, p. 97-110 (Conference paper)

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Federica Uccello, Marek Pawlicki, Salvatore D'Antonio, Rafal Kozik, Michal Choras (2025) A New Cybersecurity Approach Enhanced by xAI-Derived Rules to Improve Network Intrusion Detection and SIEM Computers, Materials and Continua, Vol. 83, p. 1607-1621 (Article in journal)

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Charilaos Skandylas, Mikael Asplund (2025) Automated penetration testing: Formalization and realization Computers & Security, Vol. 155, Article 104454 (Article in journal)

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John Törnblom (2025) Efficient Formal Reasoning about the Trustworthiness of Tree Ensembles

Azeem Ahmad, Xin Sun, Muhammad Rashid Naeem, Yasir Javed, Mohammad Akour, Kristian Sandahl (2025) Understanding Flaky Tests Through Linguistic Diversity: A Cross-Language and Comparative Machine Learning Study IEEE Access, Vol. 13, p. 54561-54584 (Article in journal)

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