Steve Counsell

Professor Steve Counsell is a distinguished academic in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London's College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences. Holding a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London (2002), he previously served as a Lecturer at Birkbeck and brings industry development experience to his academic role. As a Fellow of the British Computer Society, his career bridges theoretical research and practical software engineering applications.

• PhD in Software Engineering from Birkbeck, University of London (2002)
• Former Lecturer at Birkbeck Department of Computer Science
• Industry software development experience prior to PhD

Professor Counsell's research centers on empirical software engineering with particular focus on software metrics, refactoring techniques, code smells, fault analysis, and agile methodology implementation. His work consistently emphasizes industry collaboration, addressing real-world challenges faced by developers and project managers. A significant portion of his research investigates the relationship between software structure metrics and maintainability, with extensive studies on object-oriented systems evolution and web application engineering.

Analysis of his recent publication trends reveals a sustained focus on empirical validation of software engineering practices, with increasing emphasis on industrial case studies and reproducibility of results. His work spans both theoretical metric development and practical application in commercial environments, particularly examining how structural code properties correlate with fault-proneness and maintenance effort.

• Fellow of the British Computer Society

Professor Counsell actively supervises doctoral research, currently guiding three PhD students while having successfully completed nine PhD supervisions since 2004, all within software engineering and information systems domains. His research has attracted significant funding including EPSRC grants EP/E055141/1 (as Co-investigator studying program slicing and faults), EP/H019685/1 (with Moorfields Eye Hospital on glaucoma data analysis), and current project EP/L011751/1 exploring fault prediction techniques in collaboration with industry partners.

His research activities are coordinated through the CIDA research group at Brunel, where he maintains strong collaborations with industry partners to ensure practical relevance of his empirical studies. Current projects focus on analyzing industrial fault data to determine which prediction techniques provide the most accurate explanations of software faults in real-world systems.