Igor Steinmacher
Igor Steinmacher

Igor Steinmacher, PhD

Associate Professor · Northern Arizona University
Associate Director for Graduate Programs and Academic Affairs · SICCS

// what I work on

Keeping open source software — and the people behind it — sustainable.

I study how software communities welcome newcomers, retain maintainers, govern themselves, and adapt as AI reshapes how software is built. I co-lead the RESHAPE Lab with Marco Gerosa.

Publications Google Scholar GitHub CV (PDF)

// every square is a contribution — my research asks who makes them, and why they stay

About

I am an Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University and Associate Director for Graduate Programs and Academic Affairs at the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems (SICCS). For more than a decade my research has focused on the sustainability of open source software: how newcomers onboard, how mentors and maintainers work, how diverse contributors find their place, and how projects govern themselves. More recently, my group studies how AI and conversational agents change these socio-technical systems.

I hold a PhD in Computer Science from the University of São Paulo (2015) and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Irvine. Before joining NAU I was a faculty member at the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR), Brazil. My work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and has received multiple ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper and Best Paper awards.

I co-lead the RESHAPE Lab with Marco Gerosa. Outside the university, I founded DataTruth AI, a consultancy helping organizations fix their data foundations before adopting AI.

Research

onboarding & retention

Newcomers and maintainers

Barriers faced by newcomers, mentoring, quasi-contributors, maintainer burnout, and forecasting core-developer inactivity (the DisTrac tool).

governance

How projects rule themselves

How open source projects define, document, and evolve roles and decision-making — and what that means for long-term sustainability.

ai × oss

AI in software ecosystems

Conversational agents for contributors (CommUnityBuddy, Sloan-funded), developer trust in generative AI, and LLMs in empirical SE research.

education

Learning through open source

Gamified environments that scaffold student contributions (OSSDoorway), active learning, and bridges between universities and OSS communities.

Funded Projects

Teaching

I have taught in higher education for over fifteen years, at undergraduate and graduate levels — software engineering, programming foundations, research methods, and open source development. I chaired the proposal committee for NAU's new Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence, an interdisciplinary degree starting Fall 2026. My course materials live on GitHub, and my CS-education research (gamified OSS learning, active learning) feeds directly back into the classroom.

Students

I have supervised ten PhD students to completion as principal supervisor or co-supervisor — including Bianca Trinkenreich, whose dissertation received the 2024 ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Current PhD students

PhD alumni

Prospective students

I am seeking PhD students (Computer Science / Informatics & Computing, NAU–SICCS) interested in open source sustainability, human aspects of software engineering, or AI in software ecosystems. When you email me, explicitly mention the research topics you're interested in and show what you have already done related to them.

Service & Leadership

Conference organization

Editorial & reviewing

Institutional & community

Contact

Email: igor.steinmacher@nau.edu
School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems
Northern Arizona University — Flagstaff, AZ, USA

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