Rodrigo Spínola

Rodrigo Spínola is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), leading the Technical Debt Research Team. He previously held positions at the Computer Science Graduate Program at Salvador University (Brazil, 2013-2022), as a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Maryland Baltimore County, and as a Visiting Researcher at Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering (2011-2012). He completed his PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Research Interests:

• Technical Debt in Software Projects
• Empirical Software Engineering
• Engineering of AI Systems for Health
• Software Fairness Debt
• Agile Software Development Practices
• Requirements Engineering

This work focuses on addressing technical debt across development lifecycles, ethical AI systems, and practitioner-driven insights from industry surveys.

Awards & Recognition:

• Top 10 Most Impactful Software Engineering Researchers (Journal of Systems & Software, 2021)
• Research Productivity Distinction Grant from Brazilian National Research Council

Key Contributions:

• Developed frameworks for technical debt management in testing and documentation
• Pioneered studies on software fairness debt and empathy in software teams
• Authored over 100 papers on technical debt causes/effects across industries
• Created VisminerTD - a technical debt monitoring tool

Labs/Teams: Leads VCU's Technical Debt Research Team focusing on empirical software engineering and AI ethics.