Short Bio

I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Zurich since September 2020, and I am supervised by Prof. Thomas Fritz.

I received my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from TH Ingolstadt (THI) in 2015 and my master’s degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2018.

During my master’s degree, I also was a member of the MOVE-II Nanosatellite Student Project, where I was the lead software engineer and responsible for planning and coordinating the development of the on-board software and the mission control software, which were developed using agile practices. The MOVE-II CubeSat was launched into low Earth orbit on the 3rd of December 2018 and reached the end of its lifetime on the 13th of July 2025 after almost 7 years of operations.

After my master’s degree, I joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands, where I was a trainee in the Software Systems Division working on Mission Control Systems from 2018 to 2020.

You can find additional information about me and links to my other web profiles on my personal homepage: alexanderlill.eu

Research Areas

• Team Productivity
• Team Interactions & Communication
• Software Developer Information Needs

Teaching

• HS24
  • Seminar: Software Evolution and Developer Productivity (SEDP)
• HS23
  • Seminar: Software Evolution and Developer Productivity (SEDP)
  • Fundamentals of Software Systems (FSS) (Lead Assistant)
• FS23
  • Software Engineering (Lecture on Requirements Specification)
  • Software Engineering Lab / Software Praktikum (SoPra) (Support)
• FS22
  • Software Engineering Lab / Software Praktikum (SoPra) (Support)
• HS21
  • Seminar: Software Evolution and Developer Productivity (SEDP)
  • Fundamentals of Software Systems (FSS) (Exercise)
• FS21
  • Software Engineering Lab / Software Praktikum (SoPra) (Support)
• HS20
  • Seminar: Advanced Software Engineering (SemASE)

Supervision

• “Generating FAQs from Chat Conversations”, Master Project, Ikenna Nwalor and Dominik Sarman, completed August 2024
• “Educational AI Companion for ACCESS”, Master Project, Aramis Facchinetti Nataell Cornu, Tomás Mendonça, completed August 2024, co-supervision with Carol Alexandru
• “Task-Management with Microtasking”, Bachelor Thesis, Samuele Walzer, completed October 2023, co-supervision with Anastasia Ruvimova
• “ScreenCurator – Curation of digital knowledge with screenshots”, Bachelor Thesis, Christoph Bachmann, completed August 2023, co-supervision with Roy Rutishauser
• “Detecting Related Stack Overflow Posts for Discord Conversations”, Master Thesis, Artemis Ioanna Kardara, completed in November 2022
• “I am Stuck. Characteristics of Stuck Phases During Software Development”, Bachelor Thesis, Samuel Brügger, completed in August 2022, co-supervision with Roy Rutishauser
• “P.E.T. calendar – A time-management software that considers energy levels to assist in scheduling tasks”, Bachelor Thesis, Micha Eschmann, completed in July 2022, co-supervision with Anastasia Ruvimova
• “AmbientTeams: Staying socially connected in remote knowledge work teams”, Master Thesis, Dario Bugmann, completed in July 2021, co-supervision with André Meyer
• “Self-experimentation and Reflection at Work to Form Productive Habits”, Master Project, Sebastian Richner and Michael Ziörjen, completed in September 2021, co-supervision with Anastasia Ruvimova

Publications

• An Exploratory Study of Productivity Perceptions in Software Teams, ICSE 2022
• Cultivating a Team Mindset about Productivity with a Nudge: A Field Study in Hybrid Development Teams, CSCW 2023
• On the Helpfulness of Answering Developer Questions on Discord with Similar Conversations and Posts from the Past, ICSE 2024