MCIS

lab on Maintenance, Construction and Intelligence of Software

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Join MCIS!

If you recognize yourself in the vision behind MCIS, and are interested in a PhD or Master's degree, or you would like to be a research intern, work on a project or cook for us, don't hesitate to contact us at (see below)! Don't worry about our reaction, we respect you and will look at your file. If we think things might not work out, we will still provide you with feedback.


So, what can we offer you? A friendly research environment, stimulating discussions, pragmatic advice and mentoring, support in all your endeavours, and, above all, fun! Yes, there will be a lot of work and sometimes you will curse yourself, but if you fit our vision, you will be armed enough to survive such stressful periods. And remember, after rain comes sunshine (or ice)! And don't forget about Kingston (Ontario) itself. It's a great, surprising city next to Lake Ontario with lots of things going on and a splendid nature.


OK, where's the catch, i.e., what do we expect from you? As a PhD or Master's student, you will need to follow some courses, perform research, present and report your work at conferences and in journal papers, assist with some courses, and help managing the lab. Don't worry if this sounds like a lot to do, you'll experience one thing at a time and slowly roll into things.


If you're still interested, please follow these steps:

  • First, apply to the graduate program at Queen's University.
  • Once you have your application number, send an email to bram.adams@queensu.ca with your application number and your CV.
  • Clearly indicate in your email whether you are interested in a Master's, PhD or Postdoc position, and for what term.


Depending on how busy our schedule is, we will get back to you as soon as possible with feedback about why your profile might or might not fit with our lab. If you seem to be what we are looking for, we will schedule an interview, at which time we will explain any further steps. In any case, don't hesitate to contact us!

Latest Work

Ahmed E. Hassan, Hao Li (*), Dayi Lin, Bram Adams, Tse-Hsun Chen, Yutaro Kashiwa and Dong Qiu (2026). Agentic Software Engineering: Foundational Pillars and a Research Roadmap, Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), ACM, to appear.


Mohammed Mehedi Hasan (*), Hao Li (*), Gopi Krishnan Rajbahadur, Bram Adams and Ahmed E. Hassan (2026). Model Context Protocol (MCP) Tool Descriptions Are Smelly! Towards Improving AI Agent Efficiency with Augmented MCP Tool Descriptions, Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), ACM, to appear.