Tanmoy Sarkar, PhD candidate in Computer Science, won first prize in the ACM Student Research Competition at SIGCSE 2012. His research work, Dynamic Test Input Generation for Database Applications to Achieve High Mutation Score, addresses the problem of mutation testing for database applications by developing an automated test case generation technique, which not only provides a high degree of branch coverage, but also achieves high SQL mutation score. Sarkar's work was evaluated based on the quality and significance of the work, and the quality and clarity of both an oral and visual presentation.
Sarkar's accomplishment is not an easy one to achieve; first, students have to submit 2 page abstracts, which are reviewed and selected for inclusion in the poster session. Students then present their work at the poster session, which is evaluated again by judges, who select the best poster presentations for the last round, the formal conference presentation of the poster and the research work. Sarkar's first place prize at the conference has earned him a spot at the ACM Grand Final, where all ACM SIG conference contest winners will be evaluated to determine one overall research contest winner.
Sarkar's work is supervised by Johnny Wong and Samik Basu. His main research interests include program verification and counter-example analysis, as well as model checking.