Publications    Service    Awards

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I am currently a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate, my research is at the intersection of Cognitive Neuroscience and Software Engineering. I apply techniques from Cognitive Neuroscience to study developers’ cognitive load during software engineering tasks.

As part of my thesis research, I developed a novel multi-modal framework to demonstrate the feasibility of using eye tracking technology and an fNIRS brain imaging device to map and analyze cognitive load data at a very fine level of granularity - up to the level of source code identifiers. I am currently using this framework to quantify the cognitive impact of programming language features.

I am fascinated by how language design decisions have a direct measurable impact on the cognitive load experienced by developers on a day-to-day basis. I aspire to help inform the cognitive design of the next generation of programming languages and tools with an emphasis on direct user-centric evaluation.

News & Upcoming Events

• (7/2020) Check out our ICSE tool demo for VITALSE!

• (5/2020) Super thankful and humbled for being recognized as Best Graduate Student Researcher by the Washington State University EECS deparment!
• (3/2020) Our paper A Model to Detect Readability Improvements in Incremental Changes was accepted and will be presented at ICPC 🇰🇷! Preprint coming soon!
• (2/2020) Our tool paper VITALSE: Visualizing Eye Tracking and Biometric Data has been accepted at ICSE 🇰🇷 – Tool Demonstration Track!
• (1/2020) CONGRATULATIONS to our wonderfully brilliant advisor Dr. Venera Arnaoudova for receiving the prestigious NSF CAREER Award! We are beyond privileged to have the opportunity to learn from and work with you!

• (1/2020) Extremely honored to receive the 2020 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship for my research in applying techniques from neurocognitive science to software engineering. I am incredibly thankful for the support of my family, all of my mentors, and co-authors! Special thanks to my brilliant advisor Dr. Venera Arnaoudova — your guidance, dedication, and enthusiastic encouragement made this possible!

  Congratulations to the 2020 Ada Lovelace and PhD Fellowship recipients! Their work, ranging from applications in mental health & neuroscience to quantum computing & model bias, leads a new vanguard in technology’s evolution. Learn more about 2020 fellows: https://t.co/MxfABZpiew

  — Microsoft Research (@MSFTResearch) January 23, 2020

• (11/2019) I will be joining Microsoft Research as a Research Intern on the RiSE team. Can’t wait 😊! See you in Redmond summer 2020!

• (10/2019) Incredibly grateful to be a recipient of the Mahmoud M. Dillsi Family Graduate Fellowship!

• (07/2019) Our paper Measuring the Impact of Lexical and Structural Inconsistencies on Developers’ Cognitive Load during Bug Localization has been accepted at the Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) journal!

• (06/2019) Completed my internship on the Data & AI Team at Microsoft. Thanks to everyone on the team for making the past 6 months incredible!

  .@Microsoft at #ICSE19 ! 😁 pic.twitter.com/ethtF2BXuk

  — Sarah Fakhoury (@fakhourysm) June 4, 2019

• (05/2019) We will be presenting our paper ‘Improving Source Code Readability: Theory and Practice” as part of the ROSE festival at ICSE in Montreal!
• (05/2019) Succesfully Passed my PhD Preliminary Examination. Officially a PhD Candidate!
• (03/2019) Our paper ‘Improving Source Code Readability: Theory and Practice” was accepted in ICPC (co-located with ICSE). See you in Montreal!

  Only two more weeks until we are in Montreal for @ICSEconf & co. So excited to present our work, listen to some cool talks, and explore the city! (https://t.co/HB50CWg5lh)

  — Sarah Fakhoury (@fakhourysm) May 11, 2019

• (01/2019) Joined Microsoft as a Data Scientist Intern
• (11/2018) Visited TU Delft as a guest speaker in Dr.Felienne Hermans Psychology of Programming class

  Great guest lecture today about brain imaging in SE by @fakhourysm in the Psychology of Programming course today, for a way bigger audience than the room could handle! pic.twitter.com/nMVko26LKJ

  — /Fay-lee-nuh/ (@Felienne) November 15, 2018

• (11/2018) Presented at ROSE (co-located with ESEC/FSE)

• (11/2018) Attended ESEC/FSE Doctorial Symposium to present my paper/poster “Moving Towards Objective Measures of Program Comprehension”

  @fakhourysm presents her work on combining 👁 tracking and fNRIS to more accurately measure developers’ mental load. Requires only an 👁 tracker and a headband! #fse18 pic.twitter.com/VoPi5V8pnp

  — davidcshepherd (@davidcshepherd) November 5, 2018

• (09/2018) Attended GHC as a student scholar: