Gail E. Kaiser

Gail E. Kaiser

Professor of Computer Science

Gail Kaiser is Professor of Computer Science in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University.

She is affiliated with the Software Systems Lab (SSL) and the Programming Systems Lab (PSL). Her interests include software systems, static and dynamic program analysis, software testing, and software security.

Prof. Kaiser conducts research in software engineering and security from a systems perspective, focusing on program analysis and software testing. Her recent work ranges across static and dynamic program analysis techniques for both source code and binaries. She currently investigates secure computing paradigms and machine learning techniques for solving software engineering problems.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Kaiser investigated semantics-focused extensions to language-based editors and process-oriented team software development environments, forerunners to today's IDEs and Continuous Integration, and in the mid 1990s through early 2000s she investigated collaborative work technologies leveraging the nascent World Wide Web and self-adaptation for the then-emerging cloud computing, particularly techniques for retrofitting legacy software. Beginning with her sabbatical at Columbia's Center for Computational Learning Systems in 2005-2006, Kaiser was among the first to investigate software engineering testing techniques, such as metamorphic testing, for finding bugs in machine learning software.

Research Areas

  • Security and Privacy
  • Software Systems
  • Cloud Computing
  • Networked and Distributed Systems
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Trustworthy Computing
  • Cybersecurity
  • Software Engineering & Testing
  • Program Analysis
     

Additional information

  • Professional Experience
    • Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 1998-
    • Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 1990-1997
    • Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 1985-1989
       
  • Professional Affiliations
    • ACM
    • IEEE Computer Society
    • AAAI
       
  • Honors & Awards
    • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, 2023,
    • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Reviewer Award, 2022.
    • APSCE Best Paper Nominee, 2021.
    • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, 2016. 
    • IWSC People's Choice Award for Best Position Pape, 2016.
    • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, 2014.
    • NSF/Microsoft Future of Software Engineering Symposium Invited Panelist, 2013.
    • ICQS Best Paper Award, 2009.
    • ICWL Best Student Paper Award, 2005.
    • WWW Best Student Poster Award, 2005.
    • Autonomic Computing Workshop Invited Speaker, 2003. 
    • WWW Best Paper Finalist, 2003.
    • IBM Almaden Institute Symposium Invited Speaker, 2002. 
    • ACM COCS Keynote Speaker,1993.
    • ISLP Invited Speaker, 1993.
    • ACM SIGPLAN Vice-Chair for Operations, 1991-1993.
    • ACM SIGPLAN National Lecturer, 1989-1991.
    • IEEE Software Best Paper of Year, 1988.
    • NSF Presidential YOung Investigator, 1988-1993.
    • IBM Faculty Award, 1988-1990. 
    • DEC Faculty Award, 1986-1988.  
  • Education
    • PhD, Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
    • MS, Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
    • BS, Computer Science and Engineering, MIT