An “MDE guy” (Lionel Briand) wins the IEEE Harlan D. Mills Award for his work on model-based testing and verification

I just learnt that Lionel Briand is the 2012 Harlan D. Mills Award Recipient for his practical and fundamental contributions to Model-based Software Testing and Verification”.

I do know Lionel but I’ve never worked with him. So, you may be wondering, why do I care about him being awarded this prize? Well, this prize is “established in Harlan D. Mill’s name to recognize researchers and practitioners who have demonstrated long-standing, sustained, and meaningful contributions to the theory and practice of the information sciences, focusing on contributions to the practice of software engineering through the application of sound theory”.

I do believe it’s very important for our community (i.e. the MDE community) that, for the first time, the work on model-based testing and verification is recognized as an important contribution to the software engineering field. Too many times I’ve felt that other members of the software community believed that what we do was not serious enough (in the end, we just spend our time drawing pictures, right?) so I’m very happy to see that, maybe, things are starting to change. Congratulations to Lionel but congratulations as well to the MDE community!