CS TechTalk Series
When: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Where: RB104
Time: 3:00 pm
Title: Is There Life After Code?
Presenter: Huseyin Ergin – Associate Professor, Ball State University
Abstract: This talk was first given in 2018, when the question “Is There Life After Code?” was largely philosophical. Today, the same question feels much more concrete. Software engineering is going through a shift that reaches into its core assumptions about what we build, how we build it, and what role code itself plays in the process.
This talk is not an argument for or against AI-based software development, nor is it an attempt to promote a particular methodology. Instead, it offers a perspective grounded in long-standing software engineering ideas (such as abstraction, modeling, requirements, maintenance, and human collaboration) and considers how these ideas resurface with new urgency in the presence of AI-generated code. Using historical parallels, familiar practices, and a few concrete examples, the talk explores how responsibilities are redistributed between humans, tools, and frameworks.
The talk concludes by outlining open research questions rather than answers, focusing on specifications, structured forms of natural language, and the role of intermediate representations in making increasingly automated software development processes understandable, trustworthy, and sustainable.
Bio: Huseyin Ergin is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Ball State University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Alabama, an additional M.Sc. from Sabanci University, and a B.Sc. from Yeditepe University, all in computer science or engineering. His work spans teaching, research, and the practical application of software engineering techniques. He has secured over $200,000 in grant funding from industry partners to support software engineering research.
Light refreshments will be served