May A. Sayed Mahmoud

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University Abu Dhabi in the SANAD (Software Analytics and Developer Support) lab. Before that, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Canadian University Dubai. I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, where I also worked as an Instructor and Teaching Assistant in Software Engineering.

Software engineering is going through a disruptive shift with the rise of generative AI. My research is on human-AI collaboration in this new setting. My view is that the goal of the field has not changed. We still want software that is safe and reliable, built within a reasonable budget and timeframe. What has changed is who writes the code. AI agents are now producers alongside people, and they are capable but imperfect, so I study how to engineer the process to include them. My work focuses on AI agents for advanced engineering tasks, the development environments they operate in, and the skills people need to work with them. Alongside my academic work, I spent five years in industry and co-founded Sagacity Consulting, which focuses on AI transformation and educational solutions.