William N. Sumner

William N. Sumner is an Associate Professor and Associate Director, Academic and Administration in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University (2013) and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Hope College (2005). His research focuses on automated debugging tools, concurrency, parallelism, program analysis, and software quality. He teaches courses such as Software Development Methods, Software Testing, and Automated Software Analysis. Sumner actively recruits graduate and undergraduate students for research in improving software development processes through automation. His work emphasizes reducing repetitive tasks in software development using techniques like test case reduction and program analysis.

Education:

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Purdue University, 2013
• B.Sc., Computer Science, Hope College, 2005

Research Interests:

Sumner’s research addresses challenges in software development automation, including automated debugging, test suite assessment, and program hardening. He develops tools like Pardis to optimize test case reduction and improve software reliability. His work intersects with concurrency, parallelism, and program transformation to enhance developer productivity and software quality.

Recent Contributions:

Recent publications include advancements in type batched program reduction (2023) and leveraging models for test case reduction in software repositories (2021). His Pardis framework (2019) improves test case reduction efficiency by addressing priority inversion in structured inputs.

Teaching & Engagement:

Sumner teaches courses such as CMPT 373 (Software Development Methods), CMPT 473 (Software Testing), and CMPT 479 (Automated Software Analysis). He emphasizes hands-on projects, such as the Geotagged Meeting Planner in CMPT 276, focusing on teamwork, agile methodologies, and software engineering best practices.