RESHAPE lab

RESHAPElab

Research in Software: Human Aspects, Practices and Education School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems · Northern Arizona University

Software is built by people. We study the conditions they need.

We work on the human side of software engineering — how newcomers get in, why maintainers burn out, how governance holds a project together, and what AI changes about all three.

Publications People Research

// 281 peer-reviewed papers · 36 people · 6 active projects — each column is one year of output

Research

newcomers, onboarding, skill matching

Newcomer Onboarding & Skill Matching

How people find their footing in open source — and how we can make that easier.

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education, OSS in education, LLMs

Software Engineering Education

Teaching SE through authentic open source contribution and AI-assisted learning.

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sustainability, governance, maintainers

OSS Sustainability & Governance

The health, governance, and long-term survival of open source ecosystems.

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AI, LLMs, developer productivity

AI in Software Engineering

How AI tools reshape developer work, collaboration, and productivity.

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Active projects

Research areas Funding

Recent news

4/9/26
event

Nithya Ruff visits NAU to reflect on decades of Open Source leadership

Nithya Ruff joined our Open Source course and AZ Tech Week to share reflections on the past, present, and future of open source software. Read more →

3/25/26
award

Governance in Practice wins ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at CHASE 2026

Our paper on how open source projects define and document roles, led by PhD student Pedro Oliveira, received a Distinguished Paper Award at CHASE 2026. Read more →

10/21/25
talk

Reflections from the Accountability in Open Source Software Ecosystems Workshop at CMU

Igor joined researchers and practitioners at Carnegie Mellon University to discuss accountability, sustainability, and AI-assisted collaboration in open source communities. Read more →

12/1/24
event

Do you know what Open Source Software (OSS) is?

It's the code that powers the world—freely accessible, community-driven, and built collaboratively. But for beginners, jumping into OSS can feel like being handed the keys to a spaceship without a man… Read more →

All news

Contact

RESHAPE Lab is directed by Marco Gerosa and Igor Steinmacher at NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems in Flagstaff, Arizona. We welcome inquiries from prospective PhD and MS students interested in open source, software engineering, or AI-assisted learning. Before writing, visit each faculty page for current advising availability and research fit notes.