The award went to a 2008 paper that deals with so-called clones in Matlab/Simulink models. These are duplicates created by copy-and-paste that can later lead to errors that are difficult to detect.

“The fact that our work has succeeded in bridging the gap between research and industrial application is a wonderful validation,” says Wagner. He is particularly pleased that the research at the time brought to light a topic that, while relevant in practice, had hardly been studied scientifically.

Risks of Copy-and-Paste

Copy-and-paste is part of everyday life in software development. According to Wagner, one of the problems arises when changes are not applied consistently across all copies.  As a result, errors are often discovered only late in the process.

The award-winning paper demonstrated for the first time, in a systematic way, how widespread such clones are even in graphical development models. These models are used, among other things, in the automotive industry to develop safety-critical software for control units.

The graph-theoretical approach to clone detection developed in the paper continues to influence research to this day. Model-based development also plays an important role in aerospace and other safety-critical fields, according to Wagner. Consequently, the need for methods to ensure the quality of such models remains high.

The paper can be accessed here.