Research Interests
My research explores how software systems evolve and how we can support their long-term quality and sustainability. I am particularly interested in uncovering patterns in real-world development practices, understanding the impact of design decisions over time, and building tools that help developers maintain and improve complex systems in ways that are both ethical and environmentally conscious.
Short Biography
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, working within the ZEST research team. In February 2025, I earned my PhD in Computer Science from the Design research group at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland, under the supervision of Prof. Cesare Pautasso. My doctoral research focused on the evolution and maintainability of software systems, with a particular emphasis on web APIs. I also hold a Master’s degree in Software Technologies from the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Murcia in Spain, and an Ingénieur d’État degree in Computer Science from ENSIAS (École Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique et d’Analyse des Systèmes) in Rabat, Morocco.
Beyond academic research, I enjoy creating little pieces of open source software that solve different types of tiny issues. I share most of them as CLI tools or modules on NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/~souhaila.serbout