Joanna Cecilia da Silva Santos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame , where she leads the Security and Software Engineering research lab (S 2 E) . She earned her Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Computing and Information Sciences from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) . Research Interests: Her work focuses on the intersection of Software Engineering and Software Security , with specific emphasis on Code Generation , Program Analysis , Software Architecture , and Quantum Software Engineering . Recent projects include evaluating large language models for code generation, detecting regular expression denial-of-service vulnerabilities, and creating taint-based analysis tools for Java security. 2025: Code generation benchmarks, LLM performance in programming assignments 2024: Frameworks for secure code generation, ReDoS analysis, static analysis of deserialization 2023: GitHub Copilot complexity prediction, vulnerability characterization 2022: Transformer-based code smell detection, security evaluation datasets Scientific Awards: 2017 Best Paper Award at ICSA 2020 JOBS Workshop Research Pitch Competition Winner 2023 Distinguished Reviewer at ESEC/FSE 2014 CAPES Scholarship for Masters at RIT 2013 3rd Place Paper at XIII ERBASE Her research group engages in empirical studies of code vulnerabilities, automated security tools, and educational applications of language models, with funding reflected in multiple peer-reviewed publications.










