PLEng 1.0 launched in 2014 with three industry-active participants at BTH. During their time in the research school, they partook in research projects and training to become experts in software engineering focuses on cyber-physical systems (CPS). The participants are all senior specialists in their respective domain areas at different companies and worked in parallel with their research studies.

This unique synergy of active collaboration between academia and industry makes PLEng a dynamic research school. An evaluation in dialogue with the associated companies has shown that the research results from the participants have had a real and measurable impact in both projects and daily activities in their companies.

PLEng 1.0 ends in 2019 and is a collaboration between KKS, Knowledge Foundation, BTH, KTH and Örebro University. The latter two also have a number of participants enrolled in the graduate school.

PLEng 2.0

PLEng 2.0 was launched in spring 2018 and is an upscaling and evolution of PLEng 1.0, where + 10 new participants partake from 8 different companies. The new participants will have different focus areas in their research and both Software Engineering, Industrial Economics and Management, as well as Computer Science, are represented as subject areas. The research school provides joint activities, courses, seminars and guest lectures that becomes a part of the participant’s customized licentiate studies. Collaboration between participants creates added value for both themselves, companies and BTH and they become part of an environment where several projects, companies and research areas interact.

In PLEng, BTH provides each participant with two supervisors with senior subject area and domain experts. The research school’s participants thus become part of a top-ranked research environment which runs world-leading research and problem-solving expertise in applied software engineering. PLEng 2.0 is a collaboration between BTH and KKS.

Participants in PLEng 2.0 at BTH starting 2018

• Anders Sundelin – Ericsson Defended his licentiate on 7th October 2021. The thesis title is “Towards Understanding Software Craftsmanship”.
• Shailesh Pratap Singh – Ericsson Defended his licentiate on 29th September 2023. The thesis title is “System Architectures and Trade-offs for an Internet of Things Network”.
• Peter Sjöberg – Volvo Construction Equipment Focus: “Methods supporting effective Transformation of Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems”
• Liang Yu – Qvantel Defended his licentiate on 14th June 2023. The thesis title is “Utilizing Continuous Integration Environments for Evaluation of Software Quality Attributes”.
• Ruwan Lakmal Silva – Ericsson Defended his licentiate on 12th June 2023. The thesis title is “On Identifying Technical Debt using Bug Reports in Practice”.

Participants in PLEng 1.0 at BTH

PLEng has since 2014 three industry participants at BTH.

Johan Silvander from Ericsson was the first PLEng licentiate to take his licentiate degree in software engineering in PLEng at BTH during fall 2017. His thesis has the title “Towards Intent-Driven Systems”.

Mohsin Irshad from Qvantel defended his licentiate on 24^th January, 2018. The thesis title “Assessing Reusability in Automated Acceptance Tests”.

Magnus Wilson from Ericsson will defend his licentiate during the later part of 2018. His research area focus on Business Modelling with the title; “How can the state-of-the-art and practice in Business Modelling improve value creation, business flexibility, and variability in realization for large companies developing technology that includes software-intensive products and services for global markets?”