M.Sc. Paul Maximilian Bittner

I apply programming language methods to software engineering research problems. In particular, I focus on static variability in software and systems and understanding changes to it (e.g., in version control). In my research, I apply formal reasoning to ensure that the models we use are correct, expressive, and useful. Devoted to denotational design, I thereby strive to find proper formal specifications of systems, which might be implemented in several, potentially optimized ways. Within the research project VariantSync, Alexander Schultheiß and me are making software product-line technology easier to adopt, in particular in clone-and-own development. A notable software project we developed is DiffDetective, a Java library for variability-aware differencing.

Anything of your interest? Don't hesitate to contact me. :)

Research Projects

Automating the Synchronization of Software Variants

Material for Students

  Filename Info Modified
Topics_for_Theses_and_Projects-Feb23.pdf Topics_for_Theses_and_Projects-Feb23.pdf 576 KB 01.02.2023 14:07

Teaching

Lecture Exercises and Projects

Compiler Construction: Exercise Instructor

Software Engineering Project: Integrating Differencing Algorithms in DiffDetective

Software Product Lines: Exercise Instructor

Software Engineering Project: VariantSync

Software Product Lines: Exercise Instructor

Software Product Lines: Exercise Instructor

Academic Service

I served as a (sub-)reviewer for

  • Journals: TSE;  SoSyM; TOCS
  • Conferences: GPCE'21; SPLC '23, '22, '21, '20; VaMoS'22, '21

2024

31.
Güthing, Lukas; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Schaefer, Ina; Thüm, Thomas
Explaining Edits to Variability Annotations in Evolving Software Product Lines
Proc. Int'l Working Conf. on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS) (To Appear)
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
February 2024
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2024/2024-VaMoS-Guething.pdf
30.
Sundermann, Chico; Heß, Tobias; Nieke, Michael; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Young, Jeffrey M.; Thüm, Thomas; Schaefer, Ina
Evaluating State-of-the-Art #SAT Solvers on Industrial Configuration Spaces - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE) (To Appear)
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2024
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2024/2024-SE-Sundermann.pdf

2023

29.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Boll, Alexander; Grunske, Lars; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
RaQuN: A Generic and Scalable N-Way Model Matching Algorithm
Software and System Modeling (SoSyM) :1495-1517
October 2023
Publisher: Springer
DOI:10.1007/s10270-022-01062-5
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-SoSyM-Schultheiss.pdf
28.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Schultheiß, Alexander; Greiner, Sandra; Moosherr, Benjamin; Krieter, Sebastian; Tinnes, Christof; Kehrer, Timo; Thüm, Thomas
Views on Edits to Variational Software
Proc. Int'l Systems and Software Product Line Conf. (SPLC), Page 141-152
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
August 2023
DOI:10.1145/3579027.3608985
ISBN:9798400700910
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-SPLC-Bittner.pdf
27.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Tinnes, Christof; Schultheiß, Alexander; Viegener, Sören; Kehrer, Timo; Thüm, Thomas
Classifying Edits to Variability in Source Code - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE), Page 39-40
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2023
ISBN:978-3-88579-726-5
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-SE-Bittner.pdf
26.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
Quantifying the Potential to Automate the Synchronization of Variants in Clone-and-Own - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE), Page 109-110
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2023
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-SE-Schultheiss.pdf
25.
Young, Jeffrey M.; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Walkingshaw, Eric; Thüm, Thomas
Variational Satisfiability Solving: Efficiently Solving Lots of Related SAT Problems - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE), Page 129-130
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2023
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-SE-Young.pdf
24.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Greiner, Sandra; Kehrer, Timo
Benchmark Generation With VEVOS: A Coverage Analysis of Evolution Scenarios in Variant-Rich Systems
Proc. Int'l Working Conf. on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS), Page 13-22
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
January 2023
DOI:10.1145/3571788.3571793
ISBN:9798400700019
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-VaMoS-Schultheiss.pdf
23.
Sundermann, Chico; Heß, Tobias; Nieke, Michael; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Young, Jeffrey M.; Thüm, Thomas; Schaefer, Ina
Evaluating State-of-the-Art #SAT Solvers on Industrial Configuration Spaces
Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE)
January 2023
Publisher: Springer
DOI:10.1007/s10664-022-10265-9
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2023/2023-EMSE-Sundermann.pdf

2022

22.
Young, Jeffrey M.; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Walkingshaw, Eric; Thüm, Thomas
Variational Satisfiability Solving: Efficiently Solving Lots of Related SAT Problems
Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) :53
November 2022
Publisher: Springer
DOI:10.1007/s10664-022-10217-3
21.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Tinnes, Christof; Schultheiß, Alexander; Viegener, Sören; Kehrer, Timo; Thüm, Thomas
Classifying Edits to Variability in Source Code
Proc. Europ. Software Engineering Conf./Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), Page 196-208
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
November 2022
DOI:10.1145/3540250.3549108
ISBN:9781450394130
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-ESECFSE-Bittner.pdf
20.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
Quantifying the Potential to Automate the Synchronization of Variants in Clone-and-Own
Proc. Int'l Conf. on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), Page 269-280
Publisher: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA
October 2022
DOI:10.1109/ICSME55016.2022.00032
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-ICSME-Schultheiss.pdf
19.
Linsbauer, Lukas; Westphal, Paul; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Krieter, Sebastian; Thüm, Thomas; Schaefer, Ina
Derivation of Subset Product Lines in FeatureIDE
Proc. Int'l Systems and Software Product Line Conf. (SPLC), Page 38-41
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
September 2022
DOI:10.1145/3503229.3547033
ISBN:9781450392068
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-SPLC-Linsbauer.pdf
18.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; El-Sharkawy, Sascha; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
Simulating the Evolution of Clone-and-Own Projects With VEVOS
Proc. Int'l Conf. on Evaluation Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE), Page 231-236
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
June 2022
DOI:10.1145/3530019.3534084
ISBN:9781450396134
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-EASE-Schultheiss.pdf
17.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
Scalable N-Way Model Matching Using Multi-Dimensional Search Trees - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE), Page 83-84
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2022
DOI:10.18420/se2022-ws-028
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-SE-Schultheiss.pdf
16.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Schultheiß, Alexander; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo; Young, Jeffrey M.; Linsbauer, Lukas
Feature Trace Recording - Summary
Proc. Software Engineering (SE), Page 19-20
Publisher: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, Germany
February 2022
DOI:10.18420/se2022-ws-002
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2022/2022-SE-Bittner.pdf
15.

2021

14.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Grunske, Lars; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo
Scalable N-Way Model Matching Using Multi-Dimensional Search Trees
Proc. Int'l Conf. on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS), Page 1-12
Publisher: IEEE, Washington, DC, USA
October 2021
DOI:10.1109/MODELS50736.2021.00010
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2021/2021-MODELS-Schultheiss.pdf
13.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Schultheiß, Alexander; Thüm, Thomas; Kehrer, Timo; Young, Jeffrey M.; Linsbauer, Lukas
Feature Trace Recording
Proc. Europ. Software Engineering Conf./Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), Page 1007-1020
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
August 2021
DOI:10.1145/3468264.3468531
ISBN:9781450385626
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2021/2021-ESECFSE-Bittner.pdf
12.
Kehrer, Timo; Thüm, Thomas; Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian
Bridging the Gap Between Clone-and-Own and Software Product Lines
Proc. Int'l Conf. on Software Engineering (ICSE), Page 21-25
Publisher: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA
May 2021
DOI:10.1109/ICSE-NIER52604.2021.00013
ISBN:978-1-6654-0140-1
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2021/2021-ICSE-Kehrer.pdf
11.
Sundermann, Chico; Nieke, Michael; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Heß, Tobias; Thüm, Thomas; Schaefer, Ina
Applications of #SAT Solvers on Feature Models
Proc. Int'l Working Conf. on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS)
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
February 2021
DOI:10.1145/3442391.3442404
ISBN:9781450388245
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2021/2021-VaMoS-Sundermann.pdf

2020

10.
Mühlhausen, Moritz; Kappel, Moritz; Kassubeck, Marc; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Castillo, Susana; Magnor, Marcus
Temporal Consistent Motion Parallax for Omnidirectional Stereo Panorama Video
Proc. ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST)
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
November 2020
DOI:10.1145/3385956.3418965
File:https://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/muhlhausen2020temporal
9.
Schultheiß, Alexander; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Kehrer, Timo; Thüm, Thomas
On the Use of Product-Line Variants as Experimental Subjects for Clone-and-Own Research: A Case Study
Proc. Int'l Systems and Software Product Line Conf. (SPLC)
Publisher: ACM, New York, NY, USA
October 2020
DOI:10.1145/3382025.3414972
ISBN:9781450375696
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2020/2020-SPLC-Schultheiss.pdf
8.
Bertel, Tobias; Mühlhausen, Moritz; Kappel, Moritz; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Richardt, Christian; Magnor, Marcus
Depth Augmented Omnidirectional Stereo for 6-DoF VR Photography
Proc. IEEE Virtual Reality Workshop (VR), Page 660-661
Publisher: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA
May 2020
DOI:10.1109/VRW50115.2020.00181
ISBN:978-1-7281-6532-5
File:https://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/bertel2020depth
7.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian
Semi-Automated Inference of Feature Traceability During Software Development
Master
TU Braunschweig, Germany
February 2020
DOI:10.24355/dbbs.084-202002271120-0
File:pdfhttps://publikationsserver.tu-braunschweig.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbbs_derivate_00047261/Master_Thesis_Paul_Bittner.pdf

2019

6.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Thüm, Thomas; Schaefer, Ina
SAT Encodings of the At-Most-k Constraint - A Case Study on Configuring University Courses
Proc. Int'l Conf. on Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM), Page 127-144
Publisher: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany
September 2019
DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-30446-1_7
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2019/2019-SEFM-Bittner.pdf
5.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Tauscher, Jan-Philipp; Grogorick, Steve; Magnor, Marcus
Evaluation of Optimised Centres of Rotation Skinning
April 2019
File:https://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/bittner2019evaluation
4.
Grogorick, Steve; Überheide, Matthias; Tauscher, Jan-Philipp; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Magnor, Marcus
Gaze and Motion-Aware Real-Time Dome Projection System
Proc. IEEE Virtual Reality Workshop (VR), Page 1780-1783
Publisher: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA
March 2019
DOI:10.1109/VR.2019.8797902
ISBN:978-1-7281-1377-7
File:https://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/grogorick2019gaze
3.
Tauscher, Jan-Philipp; Schottky, Fabian Wolf; Grogorick, Steve; Bittner, Paul Maximilian; Mustafa, Maryam; Magnor, Marcus
Immersive EEG: Evaluating Electroencephalography in Virtual Reality
Proc. IEEE Virtual Reality Workshop (VR), Page 1794-1800
Publisher: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA
March 2019
DOI:10.1109/VR.2019.8797858
File:https://graphics.tu-bs.de/publications/tauscher2019immersive
2.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian
SAT Encodings of the At-Most-k Constraint - A Case Study on Configuring University Courses (Project Thesis)
Project
TU Braunschweig, Germany
March 2019
File:pdfhttps://github.com/SoftVarE-Group/Papers/raw/main/2019/2019-SEFM-Bittner.pdf

2017

1.
Bittner, Paul Maximilian
Evaluation of Skinning Techniques for Skeletal Animation in MonSteR
Bachelor
TU Braunschweig, Germany
September 2017

2023

5.
Moosherr, Benjamin
Constructing Variation Diffs Using Tree Diffing Algorithms
Bachelor
University of Ulm, Germany
April 2023
DOI:10.18725/OPARU-50108
File:pdfhttps://oparu.uni-ulm.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/50184/BA_Moosherr.pdf
4.
Güthing, Lukas
Inspecting the Evolution of Feature Annotations in Configurable Software
Master
University of Ulm, Germany
January 2023

2022

3.
Bormann, Lukas
Reverse Engineering Feature-Aware Commits From Software Product-Line Repositories
Bachelor
University of Ulm, Germany
October 2022
DOI:10.18725/OPARU-47892
File:pdfhttps://oparu.uni-ulm.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/47968/Thesis_Bormann.pdf
2.
Jedelhauser, Kevin
Type-Checking Variability in Clone-and-Own Variants With Product-Line Tooling
Master
University of Ulm, Germany
September 2022

2021

1.
Viegener, Sören
Empirical Evaluation of Feature Trace Recording on the Edit History of Marlin
Bachelor
University of Ulm, Germany
April 2021
DOI:10.18725/OPARU-38603
File:pdfhttps://oparu.uni-ulm.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/38679/BA_Viegener.pdf

Treasures I'd like to share