Darmstadt, Germany, July 19, 2022 – Software AG (Frankfurt MDAX®: SOW) today announced a new Scientific Advisory Board member. Effective immediately, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Mira Mezini will join the board to advise the company on the topic of software technologies.

Prof. Mezini is a full-time Computer Science professor at the Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt (Germany) where she heads the Software Technology group within the Computer Science department. After obtaining her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Siegen (Germany), she spent two years as a visiting assistant professor at Northeastern University in Boston (USA) before joining TU Darmstadt in 2000. She held a visiting professorship at Lancaster University (UK) from 2013 to 2016 and holds one for the current year at the University of Lugano (Switzerland). At TU Darmstadt, she served as Dean of the Computer Science department from 2013 to 2014, Vice Presidence of Knowledge and Technology Transfer from 2014 to 2016, and Vice President of Research and Innovation from 2017 to 2019.

Prof. Mezini’s research focuses on programming paradigms and languages for resilient decentrailized software systems, code intelligence, and develpment methods for AI software systems. She has been recognized internationally on multiple occasions for her research, including two IBM Eclipse Innovation Awards, a Google Research Award, the German IT Security Award, and a highly prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2012. She has been a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) since 2016 and of the German Research Foundation (DFG) senate since 2022.

Prof. Mezini was nominated to the Scientific Advisory Board due to her remarkable scientific career and her exceptional expertise in software technology, a key topic for Software AG.
The advisory board’s task is to provide Software AG with a scientific perspective on technology trends, incorporating outside mementum and innnovation. The company’s customers benefit first and foremost from the discourse on scientific research and its positive impact on Software AG’s strategic development and product planning. The advisory board’s members include representatives from science and research. The board acts in an advisory capacity only and is not a legal corporate entity.

Professor Mezini commented, “I am thrilled about my appointment to Software AG’s Scientific Advisory Board and this acknowledgement of my research achievements and my expertise in software technology. Through my work on the board, I hope to contribute impetus to Software AG’s development and product planning from my research in software technology methods and software tools. Conversely, I expect to gain cutting-edge insights on industrial software development that could provide momentum for my research.”

Professor Wahlster, advisory board chair, added, “The appointment of our colleague Professor Mezini not only strengthens the board in this core field for Software AG, it also means we are gaining an expert who will facilitate the transfer between cutting-edge research findings and industrial practice. “

Dr. Stefan Sigg, Chief Product Officer and member of Software AG’s Management Board added: “Software engineering is our core business process at Software AG. I am very happy that Prof Mezini agreed to join our advisory board, shaping a modern ‘art of computer programming’ and a new, much more holistic definition of ‘great’ for software engineers.”

The Scientific Advisory Board was established on July 17, 2017, and meets four times per year. It supports Software AG’s R&D activities in fields such as artificial intelligence, security, quantum computing, Internet of Things, and software engineering & quality. The board determines focal points at least once per year.

The board consists of six to eight external members with a term of at least three years. Current members include the following individuals from science and research:

• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster, chair (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence)
• Prof. Dr. Michael Waidner (Fraunhofer SIT & Technical University of Darmstadt)
• Prof. Dr. Schmidt (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
• Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schütte (University of Duisburg-Essen)
• Prof. Dr. Peter Liggesmeyer (Technical University of Kaiserslautern & Fraunhofer IESE)
• Prof. Dr. Volker Markl (Technical University of Berlin)

From Software AG:

• Dr. Stefan Sigg (CPO)
• Dr. Harald Schöning (Vice President, Research)
• Dr. Christoph Strnadl (Deputy CTO)