Arie van Deursen

Arie van Deursen is a Professor in Software Engineering at Delft University of Technology, where he is affiliated with the Department of Software Technology within the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (EEMCS). He previously served as head of department from 2016-2023 and currently chairs the Software Engineering Research Group (SERG). He is also the scientific co-director of AI4SE, a five-year collaboration between JetBrains and TU Delft investigating novel uses of artificial intelligence in software engineering.

His research interests span software engineering, software testing, trustworthy AI, language models for code, software architecture, human aspects of software engineering, and digitalization in the financial and public sector. His work often bridges academic research with practical industry applications, as evidenced by his co-founding of two companies: The Software Improvement Group (2000) and PerfectXL (2010/2013).

Recent publications show a strong focus on large language models in software engineering contexts, with multiple 2024-2025 papers examining code generation quality, multilingual code comments, contamination-free code datasets, and license infringement concerns in LLM training data. His research demonstrates significant engagement with the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in software development.

• AIWare 2024 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
• ASE 2024 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
• CAIN 2023 Distinguished Paper Award
• CSCW 2015 ACM SIGCHI Best Paper Award
• EASE 2016 Best Paper Award

Professor van Deursen has (co-)supervised 50 PhD students and 100 MSc students throughout his career. He serves on the Advisory Council on IT Assessment (AcICT) of the Dutch government (since 2022) and the Advisory Board of ING Bank Netherlands (since 2024). He was elected as a fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2023.

He leads the AI4SE lab, which hosts 10 PhD students, dozens of MSc and BSc students, and collaborates with many TU Delft faculty members and JetBrains specialists. The lab focuses on investigating novel uses of artificial intelligence in software engineering, with particular attention to practical applications and industry relevance.