Software Engineering Pioneer Named IEEE Fellow

January 14, 2009

David Parnas, P.Eng., professor emeritus in the Department of Computing and Software, has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to software engineering.

Prof. Parnas is considered one of the early pioneers of software engineering in Canada. He is known for developing the concept of information hiding module design which is the foundation of today’s object oriented programming. He also is known for his promotion of precise documentation.

An advocate of social responsibility, Prof. Parnas took a public stand against the US Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Stars Wars” proposal, in the mid 1980s. He believed that it was impossible to write an application sufficiently free of errors to prevent a nuclear attack.

Prof. Parnas earned his undergraduate, Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has held teaching/research positions at Carnegie-Mellon University, The University of Maryland, The Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Victoria (Canada), McMaster University, and the University of Limerick

From 2002 to 2007, Prof. Parnas was Director of the Software Quality Research Laboratory at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Prof. Parnas is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He has published or co-published more than 260 articles. The IEEE Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors of the IEEE, and is bestowed upon a very limited number of senior members who have made outstanding contributions to the electrical and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. The number of IEEE Fellows elevated in a year is no more than one-tenth of one percent of the total IEEE voting membership.