arXiv subjects

Lukas Schulte

Publications and source records attributed to Lukas Schulte.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

An Exploratory Study of Bug-Introducing Changes: Exploring Relationships in Bug-Introducing Changes Towards Causal Understanding

Context: Many studies consider the relation between individual aspects of the software engineering process and bug-introduction, e.g., software testing and code review. These studies typically only identify correlations between their set of variables without accounting for interactions with external variables, such as confounding factors. Objective: Within this study, we provide a broad empirical view on practices of software development and their relation to bug-introducing changes \rev{to enable} future work on causal relations between those aspects. Method: We consider the bugs, the type of change that introduced the bug, aspects of the build process, code review, software tests, and any other discussion related to the bug that we can identify. We use a qualitative approach that first describes variables of the development process and then groups the variables based on their relations. From these groups, we deduce how their (pairwise) interactions affect bug-introducing changes. Results: We found multiple relevant relations within the development process of bug-introducing changes. Logical groups of variables and their relations provide a framework for discovering areas of interest regarding intermediate effects in the process and confounders towards bug-introduction. Conclusion: Software engineering practices applied during the development of bug-introducing changes are interdependent. This work lays the foundation to understand why bugs are introduced using causal modeling, discovery, and inference.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2026

Causal Inference for the Effect of Code Coverage on Bug Introduction

Context: Code coverage is widely used as a software quality assurance measure. However, its effect, and specifically the advisable dose, are disputed in both the research and engineering communities. Prior work reports only correlational associations, leaving results vulnerable to confounding factors. Objective: We aim to quantify the causal effect of code coverage (exposure) on bug introduction (outcome) in the context of mature JavaScript and TypeScript open source projects, addressing both the overall effect and its variance across coverage levels. Method: We construct a causal directed acyclic graph to identify confounders within the software engineering process, modeling key variables from the source code, issue- and review systems, and continuous integration. Using generalized propensity score adjustment, we will apply doubly robust regression-based causal inference for continuous exposure to a novel dataset of bug-introducing and non-bug-introducing changes. We estimate the average treatment effect and dose-response relationship to examine potential non-linear patterns (e.g., thresholds or diminishing returns) within the projects of our dataset.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

The whos, whats, and whys of issues related to personal data and data protection in open-source projects on GitHub

Data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US affect how software may handle the personal data of its users. Prior literature focused on how data protection regulations are discussed for software in operation, or how this topic is discussed in various channels outside of the software development process. Yet, what is missing, is a perspective on the impact of such regulations on the software development process. In our work, we address this gap, and explore how discussions during the development of software are impacted by regulations, who reports and discusses issues related to personal data and data protection, and how developers react to those issues. To that end, we used inductive coding to analyze 652 issues from Open Source GitHub projects and used the codes to quantitatively analyze the relation between the roles, resolutions, and data protection issues to understand correlations and predict resolutions of issues. Most notably we observed a significant increase in reporting when GDPR came into effect. The most common issue types were feature requests for privacy enhancement, which were mainly reported and discussed by frequent reporters and frequent committers. But especially issues regarding privacy enhancement were also frequently reported by one-time reporters. Most of the requests were solved without opposing votes. All in all, our findings indicate that data protection regulations effectively start discussions about privacy within the software development community.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Variational Quantum Circuits in Offline Contextual Bandit Problems

This paper explores the application of variational quantum circuits (VQCs) for solving offline contextual bandit problems in industrial optimization tasks. Using the Industrial Benchmark (IB) environment, we evaluate the performance of quantum regression models against classical models. Our findings demonstrate that quantum models can effectively fit complex reward functions, identify optimal configurations via particle swarm optimization (PSO), and generalize well in noisy and sparse datasets. These results provide a proof of concept for utilizing VQCs in offline contextual bandit problems and highlight their potential in industrial optimization tasks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Detecting extra-galactic supernova neutrinos in the Antarctic ice

Building on the technological success of the IceCube neutrino telescope, we outline a prospective low-energy extension that utilizes the clear ice of the South Pole. Aiming at a 10 Mton effective volume and a 10 MeV threshold, the detector would provide sufficient sensitivity to detect neutrino bursts from core-collapse supernovae (SNe) in nearby galaxies. The detector geometry and required density of instrumentation are discussed along with the requirements to control the various sources of background, such as solar neutrinos. In particular, the suppression of spallation events induced by atmospheric muons poses a challenge that will need to be addressed. Assuming this background can be controlled, we find that the resulting detector will be able to detect SNe from beyond 10 Mpc, delivering between 10 and 41 regular core-collapse SN detections per decade. It would further allow to study more speculative phenomena, such as optically dark (failed) SNe, where the collapse proceeds directly to a black hole, at a detection rate similar to that of regular SNe. We find that the biggest technological challenge lies in the required number of large area photo-sensors, with simultaneous strict limits on the allowed noise rates. If both can be realized, the detector concept we present will reach the required sensitivity with a comparatively small construction effort and hence offers a route to future routine observations of SNe with neutrinos.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

A large-area single photon sensor employing wavelength-shifting and light-guiding technology

Large-scale underground water-Cherenkov neutrino observatories rely on single photon sensors whose sensitive area for Cherenkov photons one wants to maximise. Low dark noise rates and dense module spacing will thereby allow to substantially decrease the energy threshold in future projects. We describe a feasibility study of a novel type of single photon sensor that employs organic wavelength-shifting material (WLS) to capture Cherenkov photons and guide them to a PMT readout. Different WLS materials have been tested in lab measurements as candidates for use in such a sensor and photon capture efficiencies as high as 50 % have been achieved. Based on these findings we estimate that the effective photosensitive area of a prototype built with existing technology can easily exceed that of modules currently used e. g. in IceCube. Additionally, the dark noise rate of such a module can be exceptionally low in the order of 10 Hz. This is of special importance when targeting low-energy neutrinos that yield only few photons that need to be distinguished from noise hits.

astro-ph.IM↗