Applied Software Engineering & AI Research Group (ASE)

ASE research topics include software engineering, requirements engineering, machine learning, recommender systems, knowledge representations for complex products and services, and related concepts supporting explainable AI (XAI). Example application domains are healthcare, public administration, intelligent production, and financial services.

Recent Papers …

V.M. Le, T.N.T. Tran, S. Lubos, A. Felfernig and D. Garber. Early-Stage Product Line Validation Using LLMs: A Study on Semi-Formal Blueprint Analysis. In 41st ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2026), Thessaloniki, Greece. 2026. to appear
V.M. Le, L.A. Feldgrill, A. Felfernig. Robust Lazy Conflict Detection via Multi-Conflict Extraction and Genetic Diversity Control. In 40th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI’26), Singapore. 2026. to appear
S. Lubos, A. Felfernig, D. Garber, and V.M. Le. Assessing LLMs for Prioritization in Meeting-Based Group Recommendations. In 37th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2025), Athens, Greece. 2025. to appear
M. Rostami, A. Felfernig, W. Wörndl, M. Oussalah, A. Anand, M. Jalili, A. Banerjee. Recommender Systems for Sustainable Development through Responsible Nudging. In 34th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM’25). Seoul, Republic of Korea. 2025. [ACM]
M. Uta, V.M. Le, A. Felfernig, D. Helic. Learning Constraint Orderings for Direct Diagnosis. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems. 2025. [Springer] [Research Square]
S. Lubos, M. Gartner, A. Felfernig, and R. Willfort. Leveraging LLMs to Explain the Consequences of Recommendations. In 33rd ACM Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation and Personalization. ACM UMAP 2025, New York, NY, USA. 2025. [ACM]
S. Lubos, A. Felfernig, D. Garber, V. M. Le, M. Henrich, R. Willfort, and I. Dukic. InteractiveReq: Enhancing Software Requirement Specification with Critiquing-based Recommender Systems. In 33rd ACM Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation and Personalization. ACM UMAP 2025, New York, NY, USA. 2025. [ACM]
D. Garber, S. Lubos, V.M. Le, and A. Felfernig. Enhanced Optimization Space Learning: Towards Real-Time Compiler Optimization. In 38th International Conference on Industrial, Engineering & Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems. IEA/AIE 2025, Kitakyushu, Japan. 2025. [Springer]
T. Puchleitner, S. Lubos, A. Felfernig, and D. Garber. Evaluating Large Language Models for the Automated Generation of Software Requirements. In 38th International Conference on Industrial, Engineering & Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems. IEA/AIE 2025, Kitakyushu, Japan. 2025. [Springer]
A. Felfernig, D. Garber, V.M. Le, S. Lubos. Causality-based Explanations for Feature Model Configuration. In 19th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS’25), 4-6 February, 2025, Rennes, France. 2025. [ACM]

Recent Best Papers …

Configuration Workshop 2024 Best Paper: Lothar Hotz, Christian Bähnisch, Sebastian Lubos, Alexander Felfernig, Albert Haag, and Johannes Twiefel. Exploiting Large Language Models for the Automated Generation of Constraint Satisfaction Problems, 2024.
Web Intelligence 2019 Best Papers: R. Samer, M. Stettinger, and A. Felfernig. Towards Issue Recommendation for Open Source Communities, 2019.
Configuration Workshop 2018 Best Papers: M. Atas, T. Trang, R. Samer, D. Fucci, A. Felfernig and M. Stettinger. Liquid Democracy in Group-based Configuration, 2018. Ralph Samer, M. Atas, A. Felfernig, M. Stettinger, A. Falkner and G. Schenner. Group Decision Support for Requirements Management Processes, 2018.
SEKE 2017 Best Paper: A. Shehadeh, A. Felfernig, M. Jeran, M. Stettinger and S. Reiterer. Knowledge-based Learning Content Generation in the StudyBattles Environment, Pittsburgh, PN, 2017.
UMAP 2015 Best Papers: M. Stettinger, A. Felfernig, G. Leitner, and S. Reiterer. Counteracting Anchoring Effects in Group Decision Making, 2015.
Configuration Workshop 2016 (ConfWS’16) Runner-up best paper: A. Felfernig, M. Atas, T. Tran, and M. Stettinger. Towards Group-based Configuration, pp. 69-72, Toulouse, France, 2016.

Systems Developed by ASE …

CheckR supports personalized knowledge sharing & learning processes. On the basis of gamification and recommendation technologies, it helps to improve the quality of personal learning processes. Try it out here!

EventHelpr supports the management of ad hoc events (e.g., project meetings, travels, workshops, and repeated goup meetings). It also supports innovation and group decision making on the basis of various decision support techniques. Try it out here!