Education
Doctor of Philosophy
Computer Science- 2018 - Now
- Virginia Tech
- Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
- Advisor: Dr. Francisco Servant
- Committee: Dr. Eli Tilevich , Dr. Na Meng , Dr. Muhammad Ali Gulzar , and Dr. Thomas LaToza
- Research area: software engineering
Master of Science
Computer Science- 2016 - 2018
- Virginia Tech
- Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
- Advisor: Dr. Francisco Servant
- Committee: Dr. Eli Tilevich and Dr. Na Meng
- Research area: software engineering
- Thesis: Unfolding the Rationale for Code Commits
Bachelor of Science
Computer Science- 2011 - 2015
- University of Dammam
- Dammam, Eastern Province, KSA
- Advisor: Dr. Dilek Dustegor
- Committee: Dr. Imran Mahmood and Aadam S. O. Olatunji
- Research area: software engineering
- Senior project: iTrack: Energy Monitoring System
Publications
- All
- Recent
- 2015 (1)
- 2016 (1)
- 2019 (1)
- 24\% Acceptance Rate (1)
- Conference Paper (2)
- ESEC SIGSOFT FSE (1)
- First Author (3)
- IJCDS (1)
- Journal Paper (1)
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2019
Khadijah Al Safwan and Francisco Servant
Decomposing the Rationale of Code Commits: The Software Developers' Perspective
Tallinn, Harju, Estonia
DBLP DOI Zenod (Replication Package) PowerPoint PDF
Communicating the rationale behind decisions is essential for the success of software engineering projects. In particular, understanding the rationale of code commits is an important and often difficult task. We posit that part of such difficulty lies in rationale often being treated as a single piece of information. In this paper, we set to discover the breakdown of components in which developers decompose the rationale of code commits in the context of software maintenance, and to understand their experience with it and with its individual components. For this goal, we apply a mixed-methods approach, interviewing 20 software developers to ask them how they decompose rationale, and surveying an additional 24 developers to understand their experiences needing, finding, and recording those components. We found that developers decompose the rationale of code commits into 15 components, each of which is differently needed, found, and recorded. These components are: goal, need, benefits, constraints, alternatives, selected alternative, dependencies, committer, time, location, modifications, explanation of modifications, validation, maturity stage, and side effects. Our findings provide multiple implications. Educators can now disseminate the multiple dimensions and importance of the rationale of code commits. For practitioners, our decomposition of rationale defines a "common vocabulary" to use when discussing rationale of code commits, which we expect to strengthen the quality of their rationale sharing and documentation process. For researchers, our findings enable techniques for automatically assessing, improving, and generating rationale of code commits to specifically target the components that developers need.
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2016
Khadijah Al Safwan , Fatimah AlShaer , Lolah Hakami , Khawlah Aseeri , Masoumah AlJishi , and Dilek Dustegor
Design and Implementation of a Residential Energy Monitoring System Prototype Tailored to Meet Local Needs
International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems (IJCDS)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, like many other Gulf Council Countries, is lately experiencing a very rapid population and industrial growth, which results in an increasing demand for energy. To meet this growing demand, the GCC is also transitioning towards a smarter electricity grid with increased penetration of renewable sources. However, all agree that the success of such a shift in paradigm also depends on demand-side management, most of the energy demands coming from residential-area. Providing residents with real-time feedback on their energy consumption is a promising way to promote energy-saving behavior through increased awareness. This paper outlines the design and development phases of a residential energy monitoring system that has been tailored to meet local needs, that is to say, a non-intrusive system with a user-friendly interface available both in English and Arabic endowed with an alert system providing real-time consumption information, as well as energy-saving and awareness tips.
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2015
Khadijah Al Safwan , Fatimah AlShaer , Lolah Hakami , Khawlah Aseeri , Masoumah AlJishi , and Dilek Dustegor
iTrack: A Residential Energy Monitoring System Tailored to Meet Local Needs
Zallaq, Bahrain, Bahrain
Fifth International Conference on e-Learning: Cognitively Informed Technology (econf)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, like many other Gulf Council Countries, is lately experiencing a very rapid population and industrial growth, which results in an increasing demand for energy. To meet this growing demand, the GCC is transitioning towards a smarter electricity grid with increased penetration of renewable sources. However, all agree that the success of such a shift in paradigm also depends on demand-side management, most of the energy-demands coming from residential-area. Providing residents with real-time feedback on their energy consumption is a promising way to promote energy-saving behavior through increased awareness. This paper outlines the design and development phases of a residential energy monitoring system that has been tailored to meet local needs, that is to say, a non-intrusive system with a user-friendly interface available both in English and Arabic endowed with an alert system providing real-time consumption information, as well as energy-saving and awareness tips.
Work Experience
- All
- Current
- Academic
- Industry
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2019 - Now
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Blacksburg, VA, USA
Each semester since Spring 2019, I worked as a teaching assistant for various computer science courses (graduate and undergraduate) including software engineering, databases, data structure, and web development courses.
Semester
Course
Instructor/s
Students
2021 Spring
CS 3704 Intermediate Software Design
90 Students
2020 Fall
CS 5774 User Interface Software
25 Students
2020 Summer
CS 3114 Data Structures & Algorithms
41 Students
2020 Spring
CS 4604 Introduction to Data Base Management Systems
Richard Quintin and Michael Schulte
64 Students
2019 Fall
CS 5704 Software Engineering
21 Students
2019 Spring
CS 5704 Software Engineering
61 Students
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2016 - Now
Graduate Research Assistant
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I have been conducting software engineering research since I joined the SEA lab in 2016. Working as a graduate research assistant is a big part of my graduate studies.
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2014 - 2015
Researcher
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
For the senior project of my undergraduate studies, I lead a team of five students. We build a prototype for a research project.
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Summer 2014
COOP Trainee
Al Khobar, Eastern, KSA
I train at Wipro the summer after my junior year.
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Oct - Dec 2013
Administrative-Work Assistant
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I helped the administration office staff of the Computer Science Department. I worked on the paperwork for exams scheduling and arrangement.
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Summer 2013
Summer Trainee
Dhahran, Eastern, KSA
I train at Saudi Aramco the summer after my sophomore year.
Awards
- All
- Recent
- Travel Award (2)
- Scholarship (1)
- Excellence Award (1)
- Competition Winning Award (2)
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2019
Travel to Tapia Conference Award
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I was rewarded with a travel award to the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference.
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2019
ACM SIGSOFT Travel Support at ESEC/FSE 2019 Conferences
I have received travel reimbursement of expenses for 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering.
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2016 - 2018
Graduate Studies Scholarship
Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM)
Washington, DC, USA
I was gifted with a full scholarship for the master degree including the university tuition and living expenses.
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2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Annual Excellence Award
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I was honored for having a cumulative GPA above 4.5 out of 5 for four consecutive years.
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2012
Coding Marathon Winning Award
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
The team I was leading won the competition of the programming race.
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2012
Best Management Committee Award
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
My team won the competition for managing the edition of network magazine for Network Protocols & E-Commerce course.
Skills
- All
- Most Expert In
- Computer Skills (76)
- Apps and Tools (32)
- Programming Languages (17)
- Cloud Computing (16)
- Data Science (15)
- Office and Writing (13)
- Integrated Development Environments (9)
- Google G Suite (5)
- JetBrains (5)
- Modeling and Design (5)
- Microsoft Office (4)
- Server (4)
- Soft Skills (4)
- Visualization Tools (4)
- Communication (3)
- File Transfer (3)
- Operating Systems (3)
- Simulation Tools (3)
- Grading (2)
- Remote Connection (2)
- Spoken Languages (2)
- Teaching (2)
- Adobe (1)
- Hardware (1)
Adobe Dreamweaver
Axure
Balsamiq Wireframes
Circuit Maker
D3
Enterprise Architect
Lucidchart
MatLab
Mathematica
Microsoft SQL Server
MySQL Workbench
National Instruments
Packet Tracer
Processing
R
SPSS
Skype
Slack
Tableau
Zoom
Amazon Web Service
Apache
CPanel
Cyberduck
Docker
FileZilla
GoodSync
Nginx
Passenger
Putty
Raspberry Pi
VNC
XAMPP
Apache Solr
MongoDB
MySQL
DataGrip
IntelliJ
NetBeans
PHPStorm
PyCharm
SAP IDE
Visual Studio
WebStorm
Atom
Excel
Google Docs
Google Drive
Google Forms
Google Sheets
Google Slides
LaTeX
PowerPoint
Qualtrics
Sublime Text
Visio
Word
Mac OS
Ubuntu Linux
Windows
ABAP
ASP.NET
C
C++
CSS
HTML5
JQuery
Java
JavaScript
Lisp
NodeJs
PHP
Prolog
Python
SQL
Scheme
Leadership
Organization
Technical Writing
Verbal Communication
Arabic
English
Canvas
Web-Cat
Projects
- All
- Recent
- Course Project (18)
- University of Dammam (14)
- Programming (12)
- Virginia Tech (7)
- Topic Search (3)
- Hardware (2)
- Prototype (2)
- Desktop Application (1)
- Empirical Study (1)
- Modeling and Simulation (1)
- Research (1)
- Senior Project (1)
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2018
United States Flights Delays
SPSS
EDRE6605 Quantitative Research Methods in Education I
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2018
Edward Powell and Khadijah Al Safwan
Big Blue Marble
AWS , Balsamiq Wireframes , CSS , D3 , HTML , JQuery , JavaScript , MySQL , PHP , and SQL
CS5774 User Interface Software
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2017
Haitao Wang , Han-Hsien Chen , Khadijah Al Safwan , Stefan Nagy , and Tianyi Li
GLC Reserve Yourself
Balsamiq Wireframes and Prototype
CS5714 Usability Engineering
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2017
Frank Claytor , Khadijah Al Safwan , and Saurabh Chakravarty
Data Analysis Challenge
D3 , JavaScript , and Tableau
CS5764 Information Visualization
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2017
Andrej Galad and Khadijah Al Safwan
Automatic Recommendation of Developers to Fix a Bug
Java , Python , and scikit-learn
CS5614 Big Data Management Systems
-
2017
Exploratory Study of Software Changes Rationale
Literature Search
CS5704 Software Engineering
-
2016
Programming Language Compiler
Prolog
CS5314 Concepts of Programming Languages
-
2014
iTrack Energy Monitoring System
CSS , HTML , JQuery , JavaScript , MySQL , PHP , Raspberry Pi , and SQL
CS511 Project Proposal
CS521 Project Implementation
-
2014
Fatimah Al-Shaer and Khadijah Al Safwan
Your Next Trip Terminus
Prolog
CS512 Artificial Intelligence
-
2014
Dana Garwan , Fatimah Al-Shaer , and Khadijah Al Safwan
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
Writing
CS513 Mobile Computing
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2014
Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , Khawla Aseeri , Lolah Hakami , and Masoumah AlJishi
Bloom Bouquet: Online Flowers Store
Java EE and MySQL
CS522 Selected Topics in CS
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2014
Ebtihal Al Khalifah , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , Khawla Aseeri , and Lolah Hakami
Reading Club System (Bookworm)
Apache , CSS , HTML , JavaScript , MySQL , and PHP
CIS423 Web-Based Systems
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2014
Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , Khawla Aseeri , Lolah Hakami , and Masoumah AlJishi
Intra Uterine Fetal Growth Rate Prediction
AnyLogic , Modeling , and Simulation
CS522 Selected Topics in CS
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2014
Dana Ali Garwan , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , and Khadijah Al Safwan
IQ test for children
Java and Python
CS526 Mobile Application Programming
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2013
Doaa Alsadah , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , Khawla Aseeri , and Lolah Hakami
Books for Sale
Axure and Balsamiq Wireframes
CIS422 Human Computer Interaction
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2013
Fatimah Abdullah Al-Shaer , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , Khawla Aseeri , and Lolah Hakami
Design of SMS Spam Filter
Topic Search and Writing
CIS425 Comp Data Security & Privacy
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2013
Fatimah Al Khater , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , and Wedyan Al Otaibi
Online Hotel Reservation System
Analysis
CIS411 Software Engineering
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2012
Fatimah Al Abood , Khadijah Al Safwan , and Sakina Al Abbad
Electronic Dice Project
Building Electrical Circuit
CS314 Digital Hardware
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2012
Fatimah Al Abood , Fatimah Al Naji , Fatimah Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , and Sakina Al Abbad
File System Explorer
JAVA
CS322 Operating Systems
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2012
Fatimah Al Abood , Fatimah Al Naji , Fatimah Jassim Al-Shaer , Khadijah Al Safwan , and Sakina Al Abbad
Restaurant management system
JAVA
CS321 Object Orientated Programming II
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2011
Fatimah Al Abood , Jenan Slham , Khadijah Al Safwan , Marwa Al Habas , Sakina Al Abbad , and Zahra Al Fardan
Human Computer Interaction
Leadership and Writing
CIS211 Fundamentals of information systems
Activities and Services
- All
- Recent
- Volunteering (7)
- Virginia Tech (12)
- University of Dammam (5)
- Services (1)
- Research (5)
- Presentations (5)
- Papers Review (1)
- Mentorship (2)
- Leadership (1)
- Conferences (4)
- Career Development (4)
- 2021 (3)
- 2020 (3)
- 2019 (8)
- 2018 (1)
- 2017 (2)
- 2016 (1)
- 2015 (3)
- 2014 (2)
- 2013 (2)
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Spring 2021
Instructor of Record
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I am teaching Intermediate Software Design and Engineering (CS 3704) this spring 2021
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2021
Shadow PC Member
Virtual venue
I am participating in 2021 Mining Software Repositories Conference (MSR) Shadow program committee (Shadow PC)
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Spring 2019 & 2020
Recruitment Weekend Volunteer
Blacksburg, VA, USA
The "Recruitment Weekend" events introduce Virginia Tech and the Computer Science (CS) department to prospective graduate students.
- In 2019, I attended a social event and chatted with prospective students about graduate studies in the CS department.
- In 2020, I joined the poster session where I presented a poster and talked about my research lab work. I also attended a social event. -
Spring 2020
5-Minutes Madness Presenter
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I introduced my research work in a "5-Minutes Madness" event for the computer science undergraduate students who are interested in research.
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2019 - Now
Research Lab Representative
Blacksburg, VA, USA
As a lab representative, I serve as a communication channel to the graduate council and department leadership.
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Fall 2019
Lightning Talk Presenter
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I introduced my research lab work in a "Lightning Talks" event for the computer science graduate students.
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2016 & 2019
CS Career Fair Attendee
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I attended the computer science (CS) career fair, which was a great opportunity for learning about the computing industry.
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Sep 2019
Tapia Conference Attendee
San Diego, CA, USA
I attended the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference. I was responsible for staffing the Virginia Tech booth in the conference career fair for two sessions.
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Aug 2019
ESEC/FSE Conference Attendee
Tallinn, Harju, Estonia
I attended and presented a research paper at the 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE2019).
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Summer 2019
Research Mentor
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I mentored Chenkai Ren during the summer. Kai is an undergraduate student in the department who is interested in research.
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2018 - 2019
VT PEERS Volunteer
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I volunteered for the VT PEERS Program, a partnering program with educators and engineers in rural schools. I participate as a facilitator to support hands-on classroom activities.
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Summer 2017
Research Mentor
Blacksburg, VA, USA
I mentored Jahdiel Couchman during the summer. Jahdiel was a student in the Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program (MAOP).
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Feb 2017
CAPWIC Conference Attendee
Washington, DC, USA
I attended the Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (CAPWIC) keynotes, sessions, and workshops.
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Mar 2015
Career Forum Participant
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I presented the idea of my senior project in the career forum organized by the University of Dammam.
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Apr 2014
University Libraries Volunteer
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I volunteered for the electronic resources of libraries workshop to educate the university students about the serveries offered by the electronic libraries.
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Feb 2014 & 2015
Aramco Seminar Attendee
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I completed the Saudi Aramco information technology seminar for female universities.
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Dec 2013
E-Government Workshop Volunteer
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I volunteered for the E-Government workshop to educated the university students about the electronic services provided by Saudi government ministries' websites.
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Feb 2013
University Intro-Session Volunteer
Dammam, Eastern, KSA
I volunteered for the university introductory session. I represented the College of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) in the event to introduce the college program to high school students.