I do applied research aimed at helping people develop better and cheaper software faster.

After a career as a practicing engineer, I now design new methodologies for generating radical improvements in software development productivity, quality and satisfaction of stakeholder needs. I take an inter-disciplinary approach to my research and work closely with users in industry and scientific communities. Right now, I am working with ecologists in Australia and France to build a distributed ecological simulation framework.

Recently, I have begun investigating and questioning, at a fundamental level, how software engineering education and research relates to real-world software development practices.

Software-Intensive Systems Engineering Group

Teaching

• By working closely with experts from industry, government and across the university, I supervise a broad range of PhD, masters and undergraduate students.
• In 2016 I designed and now convene the ANU Minor, Major and Master of Innovation and Professional Practice (MIPP), a suite of programs for students studying any discipline at the ANU.
• In 2016 I designed and now run the Vice-Chancellor's course 'Creating Impact' aimed at first and second year students from dsiciplines across the university.
• In 2015 I designed and now lead the ANU TechLauncher initiative which enables students from any discipline to develop the research and professional skills required to use technology to bring great ideas to life and have a positive impact on our society
• I deliver innovative and industrially relevent software engineering courses including 'Systems Engineering for Software Engineers' and 'Model Driven Software Development'.
• For three years I ran the Vice Chancellor's course 'Unravelling Complexity', an interdisciplinary course for students from all parts of the ANU.
• Convenor of the Bachelor of Software Engineering

These teaching activities are aimed squarely at preparing our students to make valuable contributions in a complex world.

Comments by TechLauncher students:

"Shayne genuinely cared about students’ projects, which really rubbed off on us. When we made progress, he would be just as excited as we were. When we hit walls, he would dig into his own experience to help us figure out what went wrong and where to go next"

"It's been an awesome way to finally put what we've learned about software engineering into practice."

"Feeling like I have learned and grown through the experience of this course. Not least about (responding to) failure and difficulties."

"The freedom to take initiative with project development. It's up to you to choose the right tools and learn from your mistakes. This benefits your personal reflection experience and allows students to overcome common challenges in an early stage of their career."

Comments by TechLaucher partners:

"Speaking as a client, we have been extremely impressed by the program. It has given the students confidence (and one of them is now in our grad program stream) and real-world skills, and gave us a tangible business result that has already been used by staff from organisations like the UN and the Kenyan health service."

"Shayne’s approach to education shows his ability and commitment to innovation in support for students, provision of innovative learning and teaching for different contexts. His work with TechLauncher also must influence the overall academic, social and cultural experience of higher education – I can imagine it becoming a course that could be offered across the university."

Comments by Model-Driven Software Development students:

"Shayne's style of lecturing and the breadth of his personal experiences in the industry and his extensive knowledge of the field really allowed him to present the material in a very engaging and exciting way that was a great stimulus to my learning."

"Again the discussion session that we had during the tutorials and the workshops were students were allowed and welcomed to ask and talk/think out loud was fantastic!"

"Both the content/ course-material and the style of the presentation distinguished this course from the other typical ANU computer science course. The singular thing that was most refreshingly unique about the course was the interactive aspect of the course were we would regularly engage with the instructor on the course material and the workshop/home-work problems with had work out. So great kudos to Shayne Flint for a very fascinating course and hope to see more courses like this offered by ANU computer science particularly at the graduate level!"

Comments by Unravelling Complexity students:

"What a great course! Learning about different disciplines and building the links between various fields is exactly what should be taught when the real world reflects this exact situation. It was really rewarding hearing from esteemed professors and what they had to say about dealing with complexity."

"I really loved the breadth of the content, being able to see how other disciplines think and function was fascinating."

"The course is highly engaging and unique among ANU courses in that it is truly inter-disciplinary."

Comments by Systems Engineering for Software Engineers students:

"The structure of the course into weekly topics, supported by a panelist who were expert in the topic was great. It allowed us to get a grasp of the topic easily and the follow up work in the tutorials cemented this knowledge."

"the range of topics were intense and immense yet it was so encouraging and engaging"

"Covered some very interesting topics and had some fascinating speakers. Always encouraged a good intellectual class discussion."

"The course was interesting and engaging. There was plenty of interaction with the lecturer and he kept us continually in the loop."

"Peer run tutorials are awesome."