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Matheus Paixao

Software Engineering Researcher

Fortaleza, Brazil

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About Me

Selected Publications

Serving the Community

Replication Packages

Work Experience

Teaching

Education

Full list of Publications


About Me

Assistant Professor (Tenured) at the State University of Ceara (UECE). Software Engineer and Computer Scientist. I received my PhD degree from University College London, where I was supervised by Prof. Mark Harman and Dr Jens Krinke.

My research interests revolve around software and repositories analysis. I find software engineering data fascinating due to its complexity, lack of structure and mix of technical and social aspects. My recent publications involve microservices, software architecture, software refactoring, modern code review, and mining software repositories. Search based software engineering has been my introduction to academia and it is a topic I cannot keep myself away from.

Selected Publications

2024

Code Clone Configuration as a Multi-Objective Search Problem (ESEM'24)
Denis Sousa, Matheus Paixao, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Italo Uchoa. 18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2024

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2023

Machine Learning for the Identification and Classification of Technical Debt Types on StackOverflow Discussions (ISE'23)
Eliakim Gama, Mariela Inés Cortés, Adson Damasceno, Matheus Paixao. III Brazilian Workshop on Intelligent Software Engineering, 2023

PDF preprint, published paper

Best Paper Award

2022

The Role of Bug Report Evolution in Reliable Fixing Estimation (EMSE)
Renan Vieira, César Lincoln Mattos, Lincoln Rocha, João Paulo Gomes, Matheus Paixao. Empirical Software Engineering, 2022

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2021

Assessing Exception Handling Testing Practices in Open-source Libraries (EMSE)
Luan P. Lima, Lincoln S. Rocha, Carla I. M. Bezerra, Matheus Paixao. Empirical Software Engineering, 2021

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2020

Behind the Intents: An In-depth Empirical Study on Software Refactoring in Modern Code Review (MSR'20)
Matheus Paixao, Anderson Uchôa, Ana Carla Bibiano, Daniel Oliveira, Alessandro Garcia, Jens Krinke, Emilio Arvonio. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2020

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2019

The Impact of Code Review on Architectural Changes (TSE)
Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke, DongGyun Han, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Mark Harman. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Toxic code snippets on Stack Overflow (TSE)
Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Jens Krinke, Matheus Paixao, Giuseppe Bianco, Rocco Oliveto. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage

We Need to Talk about Microservices: an Analysis from the Discussions on StackOverflow (MSR'19)
Alan Bandeira, Carlos Alberto Medeiros, Matheus Paixao, Paulo Henrique Maia. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2018

CROP: Linking code reviews to source code changes (MSR'18)
Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke, DongGyun Han, Mark Harman. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2018

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage and Dataset download

An Empirical Study of Cohesion and Coupling: Balancing Optimisation and Disruption (TEVC)
Matheus Paixao, Mark Harman, Yuanyuan Zhang, Yijun Yu. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 2018

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Serving the Community

Events Organisation

I have been the Program Manager of the CREST Open Workshop series from 2015 to 2018. I was involved in inviting researchers for presentations, organising the schedule, recording the talks and archiving the content.The COWs have attracted a total of 2,096 registrations and 569 talks.

Editorial

I serve as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development (JSERD), which is the prime journal publication of software engineering research in Brazil. Feel free to contact me for any queries regarding the submission process, ongoing special issues, and general information about JSERD.

Journals

I serve as a reviewer of the following journals:
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Empirical Software Engineering
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
Journal of Systems and Software
Information Software Technology
Software Quality Journal
IEEE Transactions on Reliability
IEEE IET Software
Science of Computer Programming
IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine
Journal of Computer Science and Technology
Journal of Software Evolution and Process
Applied Software Computing
Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines
Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development
IEEE Access
Brazilian Magazine of Information Systems

Conferences

I have served (or will serve) as Program Committee member and/or reviewer of the following conferences:
22nd International Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2025 (PC Member)
16th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering (RENE PC Chair)
4th Workshop on Open Science Practices for Software Engineering (PC Member)
21th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2024 (PC Member)
32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension 2024 (PC Member)
20th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2023 (PC Member)
20th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2023 (Data and Tools PC Member)
44th International Conference on Software Engineering 2022 (SEIP PC Member)
13th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering 2021 (RENE PC Member)
18th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories 2021 (PC Member)
29th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension 2021 (PC Member)
28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension 2020 (PC Member)
12th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering 2020 (Challenge Track PC Member)
27th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension 2019 (PC Member)
35th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2019 (Short Papers PC Member)
Brazilian Workshop on Search based Software Engineering 2019 (PC Chair)
Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2018 (SBSE PC Member)
33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering 2018 (co-reviewer)
34th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution 2018 (co-reviewer)
24th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering 2017 (co-reviewer)

Replication Packages

I believe that fully replicable research is one of the keys to strong and impactful studies, methodologies and tools. Hence, I provide curated, archived and fully working replication packages to all my prominent research papers and projects. Next, I list all my replication packages available.

Code Clone Configuration as a Multi-Objective Search Problem (ESEM'24) - Replication Package
Multi-language Software Development in the LLM Era: Insights from Practitioners’ Conversations with ChatGPT (ESEM'24) - Replication Package
Sociotechnical Dynamics in Open Source Smart Contract Repositories: An Exploratory Data Analysis of Curated High Market Value Projects (PROMISE'24) - Replication Package
A Comparative Study on the Perspectives of Leaders and Subordinates Regarding the Importance of Soft Skills in Software Development (WASHES'24) - Replication Package
The Role of Bug Report Evolution in Reliable Fixing Estimation (EMSE) - Replication Package
Assessing Exception Handling Testing Practices in Open-source Libraries (EMSE) - Replication Package
Characterising the Evolution of Smart Contracts: An Exploratory Study Using Github and Etherscan (VEM'21) - Replication Package
Behind the Intents: An In-depth Empirical Study on Software Refactoring in Modern Code Review (MSR'20) - Replication Package
MDE in the Wild: An Exploratory Analysis on What Developers are Discussing on Q&A Platforms (SBES'20) - Replication Package
Using Stack Overflow to Assess Technical Debt Identification on Software Projects (SBES'20) - Replication Package
Technical Debt's State of Practice on Stack Overflow: a Preliminary Study (SBQS'19) - Replication Package
Rebasing in Code Review Considered Harmful:A Large-scale Empirical Investigation (SCAM'19) - Replication Package
The Impact of Code Review on Architectural Changes (TSE) - Replication Package
We Need to Talk about Microservices: an Analysis from the Discussions on StackOverflow (MSR'19) - Replication Package
CROP: Linking code reviews to source code changes (MSR'18) - Supporting webpage and Dataset download

An Empirical Study of Cohesion and Coupling: Balancing Optimisation and Disruption (TEVC) - Replication Package
Are Developers Aware of the Architectural Impact of Their Changes? (ASE'17) - Replication Package

Work Experience

Assistant Professor (Tenured) at the State University of Ceara (UECE)
Jul 2023 - Current
Researcher and Software Engineer at the State University of Ceara (UECE)
Jan 2021 - Jun 2023
Researcher at the University of Fortaleza (Unifor)
Oct 2019 - Dec 2020
Research Assistant at the State University of Ceara (UECE)
Sep 2018 - Sep 2019
PhD candidate at the University College London (UCL)
Sep 2014 - Ago 2018
Master's student at the State University of Ceara (UECE)
Feb 2012 - Jul 2014
Software and Web Developer
Jun 2010 - Ago 2011

Teaching

Mining Software Repositories

This is a course I created as part of my teaching activities as a research assistant at UECE. This is a research-intensive course targeted at Master's and PhD students in software engineering. During the course, the students were exposed to a wide range of MSR-related topics, ranging from the basic building blocks of MSR research to the step-by-step process of conducting a MSR research project to presentations of recently published state-of-the-art papers.

DevOps, Tools and Automation

This is a course I created as part of my teaching activities as a research assistant at UECE. This course is targeted at Undergraduate, Master's and PhD students in software engineering. During the course, the students are exposed to DevOps concepts, ranging from social to technical aspects. In addition, I teach and discuss the main activities in the software development lifecycle that are commonly automated. Finally, I present a set of state-of-practice and state-of-the-art tools to assist in automation.

Formal Education

University College London - PhD in Computer Science
2014 - 2018

Thesis: Software Restructuring: Understanding Longitudinal Architectural Changes and Refactoring - PDF

State University of Ceara - Master's in Computer Science
2012 - 2014

Dissertation: A Robust Optimization Approach to the Next Release Problem - PDF (In Portuguese)

Federal Institute of Education in Science and Technology - Bachelor in Telematics
2009 - 2011

Full list of Publications

2024

Code Clone Configuration as a Multi-Objective Search Problem (ESEM'24)
Denis Sousa, Matheus Paixao, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Italo Uchoa. 18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2024

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Multi-language Software Development in the LLM Era: Insights from Practitioners’ Conversations with ChatGPT (ESEM'24)
Lucas Aguiar, Matheus Paixao, Rafael Carmo, Matheus Freitas, Eliakim Gama, Antonio Leal, Edson Soares. 18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2024

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Sociotechnical Dynamics in Open Source Smart Contract Repositories: An Exploratory Data Analysis of Curated High Market Value Projects (PROMISE'24)
Saori Costa, Matheus Paixao, Igor Steinmacher, Pamella Soares de Sousa, Allysson Allex Araújo, Jerffeson Teixeira de Souza. 20th International Conference on Predictive Models and Data Analytics in Software Engineering, 2024

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Towards Realistic SATD Identification Through Machine Learning Models: Ongoing Research and Preliminary (FSE Posters'24)
Eliakim Gama, Matheus Paixao, Mariela I. Cortés, Lucas Monteiro. ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering, 2024

PDF preprint, published extended abstract

MicroSensor: Towards an Extensible Tool for the Static Analysis of Microservices Systems in Continuous Integration (FSE Posters'24)
Edson Soares, Matheus Paixao, Allysson Allex Araújo. ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering, 2024

PDF preprint, published extended abstract

A Comparative Study on the Perspectives of Leaders and Subordinates Regarding the Importance of Soft Skills in Software Development (WASHES'24, In Portuguese)
Murilo Coelho, Allysson Allex Araújo, Sávio Freire, Matheus Paixao. Brazilian Workshop on the Social, Human and Economic Aspects of Software, 2024

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2023

Machine Learning for the Identification and Classification of Technical Debt Types on StackOverflow Discussions (ISE'23)
Eliakim Gama, Mariela Inés Cortés, Adson Damasceno, Matheus Paixao. III Brazilian Workshop on Intelligent Software Engineering, 2023

PDF preprint, published paper

Best Paper Award

Design Patterns and Code Maintainability in Games: A Case Study (SBGAMES'23)
Vitor Braga Estevam, Alysson Diniz dos Santos, Matheus Paixao. XXII Brazilian Symposium on Games and Digital Entertainment - Computing Track, 2023

Published paper

2022

The Role of Bug Report Evolution in Reliable Fixing Estimation (EMSE)
Renan Vieira, César Lincoln Mattos, Lincoln Rocha, João Paulo Gomes, Matheus Paixao. Empirical Software Engineering, 2022

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Recommending Code Improvements Based on Stack Overflow Answer Edits (MSR'22)
Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Matheus Paixao. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2022

PDF preprint

Large-scale Translation to Enable Response Selection in Low Resource Languages: A COVID-19 Chatbot Experiment (SBBD'22)
Lucas Almeida Aguiar, Lívia Almada Cruz, Ticiana Coelho da Silva, Rafael do Carmo, Matheus Paixao. Brazilian Symposium on Databases, 2022

PDF preprint, published paper

Collaborative Aspects in the Development of Smart Contracts in the Ethereum Platform: A Preliminary Exploratory Study (WASHES'22, In Portuguese)
Alan Rodrigues, Allysson Allex Araujo, Matheus Paixao, Pamella Soares. Brazilian Workshop on the Social, Human and Economic Aspects of Software, 2022

PDF preprint, published paper

2021

Assessing Exception Handling Testing Practices in Open-source Libraries (EMSE)
Luan P. Lima, Lincoln S. Rocha, Carla I. M. Bezerra, Matheus Paixao. Empirical Software Engineering, 2021

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Characterising the Evolution of Smart Contracts: An Exploratory Study Using Github and Etherscan (VEM'21, In Portuguese)
Alan Rodrigues, Allysson Allex Araujo, Matheus Paixao, Pamella Soares. Brazilian Workshop of Software Visualisation, Evolution and Maintenance, 2021

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

An Interactive and Collaborative Map for Innovation Ecosystems: A Case Study based on the State of Ceará (SBSC'21, In Portuguese)
Rommel Castro, Allysson Allex Araujo, Pamella Soares, Matheus Paixao, Paulo Henrique M. Maia, Jerffeson Souza. Brazilian Symposium on Collaborative Systems, 2021

PDF preprint, published paper

2020

Behind the Intents: An In-depth Empirical Study on Software Refactoring in Modern Code Review (MSR'20)
Matheus Paixao, Anderson Uchôa, Ana Carla Bibiano, Daniel Oliveira, Alessandro Garcia, Jens Krinke, Emilio Arvonio. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2020

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Does Code Review Really Remove Coding Convention Violations? (SCAM'20)
DongGyun Han, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Jens Krinke, Matheus Paixao, Giovanni Rosa. Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, 2020

PDF preprint, published paper

MDE in the Wild: An Exploratory Analysis on What Developers are Discussing on Q&A Platforms (SBES'20)
Carlos Alberto Medeiros, Alan Bandeira, Paulo Henrique Maia, Matheus Paixao. Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 2020

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Using Stack Overflow to Assess Technical Debt Identification on Software Projects (SBES'20)
Eliakim Gama, Sávio Freire, Manoel Mendonça, Rodrigo O. Spínola, Matheus Paixao, Mariela I. Cortés. Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 2020

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Murphy: A Case Study of Unity for Casual Mobile Game development (SBGames'20, In Portuguese)
Wanessa de Caldas Teotonio, Allysson Allex Araujo, Pamella Soares, Jerffeson Souza, Matheus Paixao. Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment, 2020

PDF preprint

2019

The Impact of Code Review on Architectural Changes (TSE)
Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke, DongGyun Han, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Mark Harman. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Toxic code snippets on Stack Overflow (TSE)
Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Jens Krinke, Matheus Paixao, Giuseppe Bianco, Rocco Oliveto. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage

We Need to Talk about Microservices: an Analysis from the Discussions on StackOverflow (MSR'19)
Alan Bandeira, Carlos Alberto Medeiros, Matheus Paixao, Paulo Henrique Maia. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Rebasing in Code Review Considered Harmful:A Large-scale Empirical Investigation (SCAM'19)
Matheus Paixao, Paulo Henrique Maia. Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Technical Debt's State of Practice on Stack Overflow: a Preliminary Study (SBQS'19, In Portuguese)
Eliakim Gama, Emmanuel Sávio Silva Freire, Matheus Paixao, Mariela Inés Cortés. Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality, 2019

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

2018

CROP: Linking code reviews to source code changes (MSR'18)
Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke, DongGyun Han, Mark Harman. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2018

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage and Dataset download

An Empirical Study of Cohesion and Coupling: Balancing Optimisation and Disruption (TEVC)
Matheus Paixao, Mark Harman, Yuanyuan Zhang, Yijun Yu. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 2018

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

Who's this?: developer identification using IDE event data (MSR'18)
John Wilkie, Ziad Al Halabi, Alperen Karaoglu, Jiafeng Liao, George Ndungu, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke. Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, 2018

PDF preprint, published paper

2017

Are Developers Aware of the Architectural Impact of Their Changes? (ASE'17)
Matheus Paixao, Jens Krinke, DongGyun Han, Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Mark Harman. The 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, 2017

PDF preprint, published paper

Replication Package

An architecture based on interactive optimization and machine learning applied to the next release problem (ASE Journal)
Allysson Allex Araújo, Matheus Paixao, Italo Yeltsin, Altino Dantas, Jerffeson Souza. Automated Software Engineering, 2018.

Open online version, published paper

A Hyper-heuristic for Multi-objective Integration and Test Ordering in Google Guava (SSBSE'17)
Giovani Guizzo, Mosab Bazargani, Matheus Paixao, John H Drake. International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, 2017

Published paper

2016

Searching for configurations in clone evaluation–a replication study (SSBSE'16)
Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Matheus Paixao, Manal Adham, Saheed Busari, Jens Krinke, John H Drake. International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, 2016

PDF preprint, published paper

2015

A robust optimization approach to the next release problem in the presence of uncertainties (JSS)
Matheus Paixao, Jerffeson Souza. Journal of Systems and Software, 2015

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage

Multi-objective module clustering for kate (SSBSE'15)
Matheus Paixao, Mark Harman, Yuanyuan Zhang. International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, 2015

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage

Improving the module clustering of ac/c++ editor using a multi-objective genetic algorithm (Technical Report)
Matheus Paixao, Mark Harman, Yuanyuan Zhang, 2015

PDF

Supporting webpage

2014

Machine learning for user modeling in an interactive genetic algorithm for the next release problem (SSBSE'14)
Allysson Allex Araújo, Matheus Paixao. International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, 2014

Published paper

A mapping study of the Brazilian SBSE community (JSERD)
Wesley KG Assunção, Márcio de O Barros, Thelma E Colanzi, Arilo C Dias-Neto, Matheus Paixao, Jerffeson T de Souza, Silvia R Vergilio. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development, 2014

Published paper

2013

A scenario-based robust model for the next release problem (GECCO'13, Invited for Journal Extension)
Matheus Paixao, Jerffeson Souza. Annual conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, 2013

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage

A recoverable robust approach for the next release problem (SSBSE'13)
Matheus Paixao, Jerffeson Souza. International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, 2013

PDF preprint, published paper

Supporting webpage