Student Nguyen Tung Lam (Faculty of Information Technology, University of Engineering and Technology) has been, for two years, pursuing research on testing, quality assurance in product development process, under the instruction of Assoc. Prof. Pham Ngoc Hung. Up till 2021, project “Data generation method Automated testing for void pointers and function pointers in C/C++ libraries and embedded projects” has shown positive results in elementary studies and developing support tools.

Persistently study science

Although researching science is a process requiring patience to overcome many difficulties, senior Nguyen Tung Lam doesn’t stop striving and he is very confident in this project. After two years researching, in addition to the First rank in school level, Tung Lam also achieved the First rank in the Conference for students’ scientific research at Hanoi Vietnam National University. Tung Lam said: “With valuable knowledge and experience acquired over the last two years from researching and practical application in testing and assuring qualities, which is an important phase in developing products, I have figured out a few burdens and problems needing solutions. I have carried out experiments and proposed a data generation method: effective automated testing for C/C++ embedded projects and libraries using void pointers and function pointers to increase productivity as well as lower costs for quality assurance.”

To come up with procedures and directions to develop support tools, after five months researching, Tung Lam realized traditional automated testing methods are rather inefficient at dealing with libraries and embedded project source codes due to distinctive syntax and structures, especially which use numerous void pointers and function pointers. “Through studying and examining, source code qualities of libraries, embedded projects need to be precisely ensured, based on strict standards (such as ISO, CERT, MISRA…) because of factors relating to users’ privacy and security. These projects are often coded in C/C++ on a large scale with complex source code structures. Nevertheless, traditional methods have not supported C/C++ embedded projects and libraries using void pointers and function pointers so there might be difficulties in quality assurance. Therefore, recommended procedures help automate testing process; reduce time, manpower and resources needed; consequently, decrease stress on industries.”

Confidently study the field of testing car control software

Interface of software using “Data generation method Automated testing for void pointers and function pointers in C/C++ libraries and embedded projects”

Nowadays, automated testing, especially automotive testing remains unsolved big problems which receive concern from researchers’ community and software development companies. Therefore, Tung Lam wants to follow this direction of the project to make use of previous experience and known results to become an expert in this area of science. For the importance and practicality, this method is currently integrated in a tool called Akautauto – a collaborative product between SQA Lab and Fsoft-FGA. This tool is being improved and experimentally used for testing car control software. Tung Lam has mentioned FGA’s initial response which shows that Akautauto has potential for practical application and commercialization in the future.

Being instructed by Assoc. Prof. Pham Ngoc Hung (Faculty of Information Technology) – an experienced lecturer in this field, Tung Lam stated: “Researching individually is an advantage but holds several troubles. By working by myself, I can independently set plans, choose suitable methods to carry out projects effectively, which seems to be a problem in big research groups. On the other hand, working on my own develops stress as I can not share such enormous workload with others, difficulties might arise when it comes to creative ideas generation. What’s more, some times when my orientation meets dead ends, I get bored and disappointed because I have no one to confide in. However, that Assoc. Prof. Pham Ngoc Hung and upperclassmen at SQA Lab being so supportive and encouraging really motivates me to finish my project.”