Travis Breaux
Associate Professor (with tenure), Institute for Software Research
- Wean Hall 5103
- 412-268-7334
Institute for Software Research
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
- Carnegie Mellon 2010-
- Institute for Defense Analyses 2009 - 2010
Travis D. Breaux is an Associate Professor of Computer Science, appointed in August of 2010 to the Institute for Software Research in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the Director of the Masters of Software Engineering Professional Programs, and Director of CMU’s Requirements Engineering Lab, which collaborates with affiliate researchers, worldwide. He received the Ph.D. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University in May of 2009. Dr. Breaux also holds the B.S. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Oregon and the B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Houston. He has conducted research at the Institute for Defense Analyses, the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University.
Dr. Breaux's research program investigates new methods and tools for developing correct software specifications and ensuring that software systems conform to those specifications in a transparent, reliable and trustworthy manner. This includes demonstrating compliance with U.S. and international privacy and security laws, policies and standards. His early 2006 paper on regulatory requirements received honorable mention for the 2016 Most Influential Paper award at the IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference. He has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and Hewlett-Packard Labs. Dr. Breaux’s research has been recognized by an honorable mention for most influential paper and best paper nominations from the IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference and his research appears in ACM and IEEE-sponsored journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Breaux is a Senior member of the ACM SIGSOFT and IEEE Computer Society, he served as Chair of the USACM Privacy and Security Committee and on the USACM Executive Council, and he is a regular member of the IFIP Working Group 2.9 on Requirements Engineering.
Dr. Breaux is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the agency's most prestigious award for junior faculty.
Education
- Ph.D. (Computer Science), 2009, North Carolina State University
- B.S. (Computer Science), 2004, University of Oregon
- B.A. (Anthropology), 1999, University of Houston
Research
Dr. Breaux's research interests concern how to develop trustworthy computer systems that conform to policies, laws and regulations. These interests converge at a complex intersection of natural language analysis, formal methods to model and reason about policies, and experimental methods to assess the limits of human ability when interpreting and expressing themselves in various notations for expressing software requirements. His research has been applied in the domains of accessibility, privacy and security.Publications
- Travis D. Breaux, Ashwini Rao. "Formal Analysis of Privacy Requirements Specifications for Multi-Tier Applications," (Nominated for Best Paper) 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'13), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jul. 2013.
- David G. Gordon, Travis D. Breaux. "Reconciling Multi-Jurisdictional Requirements: A Case Study in Requirements Water Marking," (Nominated for Best Paper) IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'12),Chicago, Illinois, pp. 91-100, Sep. 2012.
- Travis D. Breaux, David L. Baumer. Legally “Reasonable” Security Requirements: A 10-year FTC Retrospective. Computers and Security, 30(4):178-193, 2011
- Travis D. Breaux, Annie I. Antón. "Analyzing Regulatory Rules for Privacy and Security Requirements." IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Special Issue on Software Engineering for Secure Systems (IEEE TSE), 34(1):5-20, January/February 2008
Courses Taught
- 08-605 Engineering Privacy in Software, Spring 2014
- 17-652 Methods: Decideing What to Design, Fall 2011, 2012, 2013
- 19-608 Privacy Policy, Law and Technology, Spring 2012
Students Supervised
- David Gordon Ph.D. Student in Engineering and Public Policy (EPP). Mr. Gordon is an NSF IGERT Fellow in the Center for Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS). His interests include information technology regulatory compliance, socio-technical systems, and technology in education.