Two MSc theses to be presented on Wednesday August 27, 2025

Wednesday August 27 is a day for coordinated master thesis presentations in Computer Science at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering. Two theses will be presented.

You will find information about how to follow along under each presentation. The presentations will take place in E:2116. A preliminary schedule follows.

Note to potential opponents: Register as an opponent to the presentation of your choice by sending an email to the examiner for that presentation (firstname.lastname@cs.lth.se). Do not forget to specify the presentation you register for! Note that the number of opponents may be limited (often to two), so you might be forced to choose another presentation if you register too late. Registrations are individual, just as the oppositions are! More instructions are found on this page.

09:15-10:00 in E:2116 (N.B. Change of time)

Presenters: Erik Malmgren, Isak Määttä
Title: Exploring pair programming and code review using generative AI in software development
Examiner: Per Andersson
Supervisors: Lars Bendix (LTH), Christer Friberg (E.ON)

This thesis investigates how generative AI (GAI) can be integrated into two key collaborative software development practices: pair programming and code review. Conducted within E.ON’s development teams, the study followed a mixed-methods approach, combining a literature review, developer interviews, and an observational study to design realistic experiments. Iterative trials tested GAI-assisted workflows, focusing on GitHub Copilot as both a coding partner and a pre-review filter. In pair programming, prompt guides helped developers structure interactions with GAI, enhancing productivity in tasks like refactoring, documentation, and test generation, while supporting knowledge transfer. In code review, Copilot effectively identified syntactic and stylistic issues, enabling human reviewers to focus on higher-level design and domain concerns. Across both contexts, results show that GAI offers the greatest value when complementing rather than replacing human judgment, with effectiveness shaped by prompt quality, contextual information, and integration into existing workflows. The findings provide practical guidelines for adopting GAI in collaborative development.

Link to popular science summary: To be added

13:15-14:00 in E:2116

Presenters: Philip Sadrian, Milla Widell
Title: Designing a Domain-Specific Language to Address Challenges in Automated Web Testing
Examiner: Alma Orucevic-Alagic
Supervisors: Elizabeth Bjarnason (LTH), Andreas Trattner (IKEA)

Automated web testing can reduce errors and save development time, yet introduces challenges such as readability, repetitive code, and learnability.

Using a Design Science approach, we designed a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) to address challenges in automated web testing at a case company. We conducted interviews with developers to identify design goals for a DSL and designed it using an iterative co-design process. We implemented a compiler and evaluated our solution with developers, measuring the DSL's effects on readability and learnability when maintaining automated web tests.

The result is a keyword-based DSL, similar to natural language, designed to increase readability, reusability, learnability and maintainability. The evaluation suggests that the DSL has high readability and learnability when maintaining tests. The evaluation also highlighted points of improvement.

We believe our solution can be integrated into a development pipeline if expanded, potentially improving readability of tests and increasing learnability of automated web testing. 

Link to popular science summary: Link to be added