Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) UMDearborn

🎓 Research Like a Pro: Hands-on Workshop on Building Research Mindset and Skills through Reproducibility

📅 Date: Friday, October 24 at 11 AM
🏛 Hosted by: CIS Department & ACM Student Chapter

💡 Overview

Curious how researchers design experiments, validate results, and tackle complex problems?
Join us for the CIS Reproducibility Workshop — a hands-on event where you’ll explore, experiment, and present your findings alongside peers and faculty.

This workshop helps you develop critical thinking, collaboration, and research resilience — the essential skills that define successful scholars and innovators.

🔹 What’s Inside

🎙 Faculty Panel (30 min)

Hear insights on research design, validation, and communication from:

Dr. Khouloud Gaaloul
Dr. Foyzul Hassan
Dr. Anwar Ghammam
Dr. Utkarshani Jaimini
Dr. Niccolò Meneghetti
Moderated by Dr. Probir Roy

🧠 Hands-on Workshop (90–120 min)

Work in small groups to reproduce and analyze selected results from faculty-nominated research papers.
Experience the challenges and creativity involved in validating scientific results.

🗣 Student Presentations (30–40 min)

Present your:

Research problem of interest
Reproduced results and observations
Lessons learned during the process

🧩 Workshop Proposals & Tracks

Participants will work in small groups to reproduce results from one of the following faculty-nominated research papers.
Each project provides hands-on experience with different aspects of reproducible research.

🔍 Proposal 1: ProRCA

Proposed by: Dr. Utkarshani Jaimini
Paper: ProRCA: A Causal Python Package for Actionable Root Cause Analysis in Real-world Business Scenarios

Skills You’ll Develop

Apply causal inference techniques in practice
Design reproducible pipelines and inject controlled anomalies
Interpret and validate causal results

Student Tasks

Investigate whether anomaly injection reveals true causal links
Evaluate how reproduced results align with the paper’s claims
Reflect on discrepancies and what they reveal about reproducibility

Resources

⚙️ Proposal 2: EvoSuite

Proposed by: Dr. Khouloud Gaaloul
Paper: EvoSuite: Automatic Test Suite Generation with Defects4J

Skills You’ll Develop

Use automated test generation tools
Measure coverage and mutation metrics
Benchmark test effectiveness

Student Tasks

Compare EvoSuite and Randoop test quality
Evaluate coverage and mutation scores
Reflect on tool differences and reproducibility

Resources

🤖 Proposal 3: Quality Assessment of ChatGPT-Generated Code

Proposed by: Dr. Anwar Ghammam
Paper: Quality Assessment of ChatGPT-Generated Code and their Use by Developers

Skills You’ll Develop

Run static analysis tools (Pylint, Bandit, CodeQL)
Interpret software quality metrics
Conduct empirical software engineering

Student Tasks

Investigate systematic issues in ChatGPT-generated code
Evaluate static analysis findings across languages
Reflect on differences from the paper’s conclusions

Resources

🧠 Proposal 4: SpecRover

Proposed by: Dr. Foyzul Hassan
Paper: SpecRover: Code Intent Extraction via LLMs

Skills You’ll Develop

Orchestrate multi-agent LLM workflows
Infer code intent using SWE-bench datasets
Extend experimental pipelines

Student Tasks

Investigate whether multi-agent systems infer developer intent
Evaluate generated patch performance
Reflect on challenges in scaling LLM-based repair

Resources

🧪 Proposal 5: InfiniFilter

Proposed by: Dr. Niccolò Meneghetti
Paper: InfiniFilter: Expanding Filters to Infinity and Beyond

Skills You’ll Develop

Debug and configure research environments
Reproduce algorithmic benchmarks
Analyze reproducibility trade-offs in data systems

Student Tasks

Investigate reproducibility of InfiniFilter results on modern hardware
Evaluate reproduced plots vs. originals
Reflect on environmental effects on reproducibility

🌍 Open to Everyone

This workshop welcomes all students, faculty, and research enthusiasts — regardless of background or experience.
If you’re curious about how research works, this is your chance to learn by doing and connect with the CIS research community.

📬 Contact

For questions, please reach out to the CIS ACM Student Chapter
📧 acm@umdearborn.edu

⭐ Join Us

Don’t just read about research — do it!
Let’s build a culture of openness, rigor, and reproducibility in CIS research together.

📝 RSVP Here to Reserve Your Spot

📍 **Friday, October 24 at 11 AM** 💬 *Open to everyone — come and explore the world of reproducible research!*

🏆 Workshop Results & Highlights

We’re excited to announce the top three teams from the Research Like a Pro: Hands-on Workshop on Building Research Mindset and Skills through Reproducibility, hosted by the ACM Student Chapter and the CIS Department at the University of Michigan–Dearborn!

After careful evaluation by our faculty panel, based on the quality of analysis, reproducibility of results, and clarity of presentation, the final results are:

🥇 1st Place — Team 3C

Members: Mohammad Opal, Hadiza Yusuf, Ahmad Jayeb

🥈 2nd Place — Team 5A

Member: Raymond DiDonato

🥉 3rd Place — Team 4A

Members: Avishak Chakroborty, Javid Ditty, Chineme Uba, Sudarshan Sridhar

Congratulations to all our winners for their hard work, creativity, and research excellence! 🎓
Each team demonstrated outstanding collaboration and critical thinking throughout the workshop.

📝 If you notice any missing or misspelled team member names, please contact us as soon as possible at acm@umdearborn.edu so we can update the results promptly.