Head of Center for Computing Education Research (CCER)
Department of Computer Science
IT University of Copenhagen

((( CV | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | DBLP | IMDb | VBDb )))

SHORT-FILM

• Writer, director, producer, and co-editor of the 19-minute award-winning short-film on University teaching:
  • ((( "Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding" )))

    "Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding" is a 20-minute award-winning short-film about teaching at university and higher-level educational institutions. It is based on the Theory of Constructive Alignment and The SOLO Taxonomy developed by Professor John Biggs. The film provides a foundation for understanding what a teacher needs to do in order to make sure all types of students actually learn what the teacher intends.

PUBLICATIONS

Research Interests:

• Computing Education Research (2020s exclusively)
• Variability & Product Lines (2010s predominantly)
• Programming Languages (2000s predominantly)

2020s: Computing Education Research (exclusively)

• Circle of Life: Microworld Project at the end of CS1
  (Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen, Michael Caspersen, Claus Brabrand)
  SIGCSE Technical Symposium, SIGCSE-TS 2025. (2025).
• Visualizing the Conceptual Framework of Object Orientation for Novice Programmers
  (Jakob Staugaard, Jens Bennedsen, Christoph Seidl, Sebastian Nicolajsen, Mathias Fink, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 54th Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2024. (2024).
• Invisible Women in IT: Examining Gender Representation in K-12 ICT Teaching Materials
  (Ingrid Maria Christensen, Melissa Høegh Marcher, Nanna Inie, Claus Brabrand)
  ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, ICER 2024.
• Programming under the Influence: On the Effect of Heat, Noise, and Alcohol on Programmers
  (Claus Brabrand, Nanna Inie, Paolo Tell)
  Journal of Systems & Software 2024.
• Feedback on Student Programming Exercises: Teaching Assistants vs Automated Assessment Tool
  (Nynne Grauslund Kristiansen, Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 22nd Koli Calling Int’l Conf on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling 2023. (2023).
• Gender Differences in the Group Dynamics of Smaller CS1 Project Groups
  (Bjørn Hjorth Westh, Nanna Inie, Louise Barkhuus, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 53rd Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2023. (2023).
• On the Effect of Onboarding Computing Students without Programming-Confidence or -Experience
  (Pawel Grabarczyk, Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 21st Koli Calling Int’l Conf on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling 2022. (2022).
• Student Perspectives on On-site versus Online Teaching throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic
  (Björn Thór Jónsson, Magda Pischetola, Nanna Inie, Mats Daniels, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 52nd Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2022. (2022).
• Computing Educational Programmes with more Women are more about PEOPLE & less about THINGS
  (Pawel Grabarczyk, Alma Freiesleben, Amanda Bastrup, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 27th ACM Conf. on Inno. & Tech. in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE. (2022).
• Computing Educational Activities Involving People Rather Than Things Appeal More to Women (CS1 Appeal Perspective)
  (Melissa Høegh Marcher, Ingrid Maria Christensen, Pawel Grabarczyk, Therese Graversen, Claus Brabrand)
  ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, ICER 2021: 145-156. (2021).
• Computing Educational Activities Involving People Rather Than Things Appeal More to Women (Recruitment Perspective)
  (Ingrid Maria Christensen, Melissa Høegh Marcher, Pawel Grabarczyk, Therese Graversen, Claus Brabrand)
  ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, ICER 2021: 127-144. (2021).
• How Interaction Influences Academic Reading: A Comparison of Paper and Laptop
  (Nanna Inie, Louise Barkhuus, Claus Brabrand)
  Social Sciences & Humanities Open. 21pp. (2021).
• Three +1 Perspectives on Computational Thinking
  (Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen, Magda Pischetola, Pawel Grabarczyk, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, Koli Calling 2021: 2:1-2:11. (2021).

2010s: Variability & Software Product Lines (predominantly)

• Finding Suitable Variability Abstractions for Lifted Analysis
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Formal Aspects of Computing 31(2): 231-259 (2019).
• Variability Abstractions for Lifted Analyses
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Science of Computer Programming, SCP. 159: 1-27 (2018).
• Variability Bugs in Highly Configurable Systems: A Qualitative Analysis
  (Iago Abal, Jean Melo, Stefan Stanciulescu, Claus Brabrand, Márcio Ribeiro, Andrzej Wasowski)
  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, TOSEM. 26(3): 10:1-10:34 (2018).
• Effective Analysis of C Programs by Rewriting Variability
  (Alexandru Florin Iosif-Lazar, Jean Melo, Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  The Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming. 1(1): 1 (2017).
• Efficient Family-Based Model Checking via Variability Abstractions
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Ahmad Salim Al-Sibahi, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer. 19(5): 585-603 (2017).
• Variability through the Eyes of the Programmer
  (Jean Melo, Fabricio Batista Narcizo, Dan Witzner Hansen, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. of the 25th International Conference on Program Comprehension, ICPC 2017: 34-44. (2017).
• Effective Bug Finding in C Programs with Shape and Effect Abstractions
  (Iago Abal, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. of the 18th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation, VMCAI 2017: 34-54. (2017).
• Finding Suitable Variability Abstractions for Family-Based Analysis
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. of the 21st International Symposium on Formal Methods, FM 2016: 217-234. (2016).
• How does the Degree of Variability affect Bug Finding?
  (Jean Melo, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2016: 679-690. (2016).
• A Quantitative Analysis of Variability Warnings in Linux
  (Jean Melo, Elvis Flesborg, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. 10th International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems, VaMoS 2016: 3-8. (2016).
• Systematic Derivation of Correct Variability-Aware Program Analyses
  (Jan Midtgaard, Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Science of Computer Programming, SCP 105: 145-170 (2015).
• Variability Abstractions: Trading Precision for Speed in Family-Based Analyses
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  29th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, ECOOP 2015: 247-270. (2015).
• Family-Based Model Checking Without a Family-Based Model Checker
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Ahmad Salim Al-Sibahi, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  22nd International Symposium on Model Checking Software, SPIN 2015: 282-299. (2015).
• Family-Based Model Checking using Off-the-Shelf Model Checkers
  (Aleksandar S. Dimovski, Ahmad Salim Al-Sibahi, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. 19th International Conference on Software Product Line, Model Checking Software, SPLC: 397. (2015).
• Emergent Interfaces for Feature Modularization
  (Márcio Ribeiro, Paulo Borba, Claus Brabrand)
  Springer Briefs in Computer Science, Springer 2014, ISBN 978-3-319-11492-7, pp. 1-84. (2014).
• Preface to the Special Section on Language Descriptions, Tools, and Applications (LDTA 2011)
  (Claus Brabrand, Eric Van Wyk)
  Science of Computer Programming, SCP. 87: 1 (2014).
• 42 Variability Bugs in the Linux Kernel: A Qualitative Study
  (Iago Abal, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. 29th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), pp. 421-432. (2014).
• Systematic Derivation of Static Analyses for Software Product Lines
  (Jan Midtgaard, Claus Brabrand, Andrzej Wasowski)
  Proc. 13th International Conference on MODULARITY 2014, p. 181-192. (2014).
• SPL^LIFT: Statically Analyzing Software Product Lines in Minutes Instead of Years
  (Eric Bodden, Tarsis Toledo, Marcio Ribeiro, Claus Brabrand, Paulo Borba, Mira Mezini)
  Software Engineering 2014: 81-82. (2014).
• Banana Algebra: Compositional Syntactic Language Extension
  (Jacob Andersen, Claus Brabrand, David R. Christensen)
  Science of Computer Programming, Vol. 78(10), p. 1845-1870, Elsevier. (2013).
• SPL^LIFT: Statically Analyzing Software Product Lines in Minutes Instead of Years
  (Eric Bodden, Tarsis Toledo, Marcio Ribeiro, Claus Brabrand, Paulo Borba, Mira Mezini)
  34th ACM Conf on Programming Language Design & Implementation (PLDI), p. 355-364. (2013).
• Intraprocedural Dataflow Analysis for Software Product Lines
  (Claus Brabrand, Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, Johnny Winter, Paulo Borba)
  Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development, TAOSD. Vol. 10, p. 73-108, Springer. (2013).
• WebSelF: A Web Scraping Framework
  (Jakob G. Thomsen, Erik Ernst, Claus Brabrand, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Proc. International Conference on Web Engineering 2012 (ICWE 2012), p. 347-361. (2012).
• Emergo: A Tool for Improving Maintainability of Preprocessor-based Product Lines
  (Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, Johnni Winther, Claus Brabrand, Paulo Borba)
  Proc. AOSD 2012 Demos. (2012).
• Intraprocedural Dataflow Analysis for Software Product Lines
  (Claus Brabrand, Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, Paulo Borba)
  Proc. MODULARITY: AOSD 2012, p. 13-24. (2012).
• On the Impact of Feature Dependencies when Maintaining Preprocessor-based Software Product Lines
  (Márcio Ribeiro, Felipe Queiroz, Paulo Borba, Társis Tolêdo, Claus Brabrand, Sérgio Soares)
  Proc. Generative Prog. & Component Eng. (GPCE), p. 23-32. (2011).
• A Tool for Improving Maintainability of Preprocessor-based Product Lines
  (Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, Paulo Borba, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 2nd Brazilian Conference on Software: Theory and Practice (CBSoft). (2011).

2000s: Programming Languages (predominantly)

• Proceedings of the of the 11th Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools and Applications, LDTA 2011
  (Claus Brabrand, Eric Van Wyk)
  Proceeding. ACM 2011, ISBN 978-1-4503-0665-2. (2011).
• Syntactic Language Extension via an Algebra of Languages and Transformations
  (Jacob Andersen, Claus Brabrand)
  Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 253(7): 19-35 (2010).
• Analyzing Ambiguity of Context-Free Grammars
  (Claus Brabrand, Robert Giegerich, Anders Møller)
  Science of Computer Programming (SCP), Vol. 75(3), p. 176-191, Elsevier. (2010).
• Typed and Unambiguous Pattern Matching on Strings using Regular Expressions
  (Claus Brabrand, Jakob G. Thomsen)
  In Proc. 12th International ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming (PPDP), p. 243-254. (2010).
• Proceedings of the of the 10th Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools and Applications, LDTA 2010
  (Claus Brabrand, Pierre-Etienne Moreau)
  Paphos, Cyprus, March 28-29, 2010. ACM 2010, ISBN 978-1-4503-0063-6. (2010).
• Analyzing CS Competencies using the SOLO Taxonomy
  (Claus Brabrand, Bettina Dahl)
  Keynote for ITiCSE 2009. Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGCSE Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), Paris, France. (2009).
• Syntactic Language Extension via an Algebra of Languages and Transformations
  (Jacob Andersen, Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 9th Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools, and Applications (LDTA), p. 67-85. (2009).
• Using the SOLO Taxonomy to Analyze Competence Progression of University Science Curricula
  (Claus Brabrand, Bettina Dahl)
  Higher Education, Vol. 58(4), p. 531-549, Springer. (2009).
• Constructive Alignment for Teaching Model-Based Design for Concurrency
  (Claus Brabrand)
  Transactions on Petri-Nets and Other Models of Concurrency (ToPNoC), Vol. 1(1), p. 1-18, Springer-Verlag. (2008).
• Dual Syntax for XML Languages
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Information Systems, Vol. 33(4), p. 385-406, Elsevier. (2008).
• Constructive Alignment and The SOLO Taxonomy: A Comparative Study of University Competencies in Computer Science vs. Mathematics
  (Claus Brabrand, Bettina Dahl)
  Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology, Vol. 88. (2008).
• Constructive Alignment for Teaching Model-Based Design for Concurrency. Invited Paper for Invited Talk for TeaConc'07
  (Claus Brabrand)
  Proc. 2nd Workshop on Teaching Concurrency (TeaConc'07), Siedlce, Poland. (2007).
• The metafront System: Safe and Extensible Parsing and Transformation
  (Claus Brabrand, Michael I. Schwartzbach)
  Science of Computer Programming 68(1): 2-20. (2007).
• Constructive Alignment and The SOLO Taxonomy: A Comparative Study of University Competencies in Computer Science vs. Mathematics
  (Claus Brabrand, Bettina Dahl)
  Keynote paper for Keynote at Koli’07, Koli National Park, Finland. (2007).
• Analyzing Ambiguity of Context-Free Grammars
  (Claus Brabrand, Robert Giegerich, Anders Møller)
  Proc. International Conference on Implementation and Application of Automata (CIAA), p. 214-225, LNCS 4783, Springer. (2007).
• Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding. 19-minute award-winning educational short-film
  (Claus Brabrand, Jacob Andersen, Doina Bucur, Rune Thorbek)
  Aarhus University Press. DVD. Epilogue by John Biggs. (2006).
• Dual Syntax for XML Languages
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Proc. 10th International Symposium on Database Programming Languages (DBPL), p.27-41, LNCS 3774, Springer. (2005).
• The metafront System: Extensible Parsing and Transformation
  (Claus Brabrand, Michael Schwartzbach, Mads Vanggaard)
  Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 82(3): 592-611. (2003).
• The metafront System: Extensible Parsing and Transformation
  (Claus Brabrand, Michael Schwartzbach, Mads Vanggaard)
  Proc. 3rd Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools, and Applications (LDTA), p. 67-85. (2003).
• Domain Specific Languages for Interactive Web Services
  (Claus Brabrand)
  Ph.D. Dissertation, BRICS International Ph.D. School, Aarhus University. (2003).
• The <bigwig> project
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Michael I. Schwartzbach)
  ACM Transactions on Internet Technology 2(2): 79-114. (2002).
• Language-Based Caching of Dynamically Generated HTML
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Steffan Olesen, Michael I. Schwartzbach)
  World Wide Web 5(4): 305-324 (2002).
• Growing Languages with Metamorphic Syntax Macros
  (Claus Brabrand, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Proc. ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation (PEPM), p. 31-40, ACM, Portland, OR, USA. (2002).
• Static Validation of Dynamically Generated HTML
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Proc. ACM SIGPLAN-SIGSOFT Workshop on Program Analysis for Software Tools and Engineering (PASTE), p. 38-45, ACM, Snowbird, UT, USA. (2001).
• PowerForms: Declarative Client-Side Form Field Validation
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Mikkel Ricky, Michael I. Schwartzbach)
  World Wide Web 3(4): 205-214. (2000).
• A Runtime System for Interactive Web Services
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Anders Sandholm, Michael I. Schwartzbach)
  Journal of Computer Networks 31(11-16): 1391-1401. (1999).
• A Runtime System for Interactive Web Services
  (Claus Brabrand, Anders Møller, Anders Sandholm, Michael Schwartzbach)
  Proc. 8th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW8), p. 313-323, Elsevier, Toronto, Canada. (1999).
• Synthesizing Safety Controllers for Interactive Web Services
  (Claus Brabrand)
  Master’s Thesis, Aarhus University (1999).

AWARDS

• Danish National Teaching Award (2020):
  • Recipient of the first Danish National Teaching Award (Undervisningsprisen 2020)
  • Awarded to two out of approximately 18,000 university teachers in all of Denmark (from Archaeology to Zoology)
  • The award of 500,000 DKK (€67,000 EUR) was handed over by H. R. H. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (now Queen of Denmark).
  
  
• ITU Excellence in Teaching Award (2019):
  • (aka, Teacher of the Year Award at ITU)
  • Highest average student evaluation rating ITU of 5.91 (1-6 scale, N=99)
  
  
• German IT-Security Award (runner up, 2014):
• For “SPLLIFT: Statically Analyzing Software Product Lines in Minutes instead of Years”
• Awarded €60,000 EUR (450,000 DKK)
• with Eric Bodden (lead), Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, Paulo Borba, & Mira Mezini.


• Ph.D. student won dissertation award (2012):
• Márcio Ribeiro won “Best Dissertation in all of Brazil 2012” in Computer Science
• Awarded at CTD at CSBC 2013


• Best Tool Award (2011):
• For the tool: “A Tool for Improving Maintainability of Preprocessor-based Product Lines” (at CBSoft 2011)
• with Márcio Ribeiro, Társis Tolêdo, & Paulo Borba.


• Awarded “The Golden Ratio” Award (2006):
• for the 20-minute educational short-film: “Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding”

PH.D. STUDENTS

• Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen:
• (Current, co-advised with Marisa Cohn and Samantha Breslin)
• Studies introductory programming education
• Jean Melo:
• (Finished 2017, co-advised with Andrzej Wasowski)
• Studied variability bugs from a program and programmer perspective
• Iago Abal:
• (Finished 2017, co-advised with Andrzej Wasowski)
• Developed the EBA bug finder that has found several bugs in Linux
• Jakob G. Thomsen:
• (Finished 2013, co-advised with Erik Ernst)
• Developed code now running in Google Maps
• Márcio Ribeiro:
• (Finished 2012, co-advised with Paulo Borba)
• Won "Best Ph.D. Dissertation of Brazil 2012" (in Computer Science)

NUMBERS

• My "Erdõs Number" is 4 (due to the following co-author path):
  • ((( Paul Erdõs -1-> Shmuel Zaks -2-> Dexter Kozen -3-> Michael Schwartzbach -4-> Claus Brabrand )))

• My "Bacon Number" is 4 (due to the following co-actor path):
  • ((( Kevin Bacon -1-> Stream Gardner -2-> Mads Koudal -3-> Richard Raskin -4-> Claus Brabrand )))

• Curiously, I am the 12^th academic descendant of Carl Friedrich Gauss:
  • ((( Carl Friedrich Gauss -1-> Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel -2-> Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk -3-> Ernst Eduard Kummer -4-> Carl David Tolmé Runge -5-> Max Born -6-> Viktor Frederick Weisskopf -7-> Murray Gell-Mann -8-> Sidney Richard Coleman -9-> Leonard Emanuel Parker -10-> Prakash Panangaden -11-> Michael I. Schwartzbach -12-> Claus Brabrand )))

LANGUAGES

Dansk	((( native )))
English	((( fluent )))
Français	((( fluent )))
Português	((( fluent )))
Svenska	((( intermediate )))
Español	((( intermediate )))
Italiano	((( basic conversation level )))
Deutsch	((( basic conversation level )))

CONTACT INFORMATION

Claus Brabrand

IT University of Copenhagen

Rued Langgaards Vej 7

DK-2300 Copenhagen S

Denmark

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