Since 2013 we have been organizing an international workshop on Eye Movements in Programming (http://emipws.org), first in Joensuu, Finland and then in Berlin, Germany. The topics focus on behavior of programmers during interaction with source code, and in particular on reading strategies. Reading of source code is pervasive in programming as it occurs in debugging, maintenance and learning programming languages. It provides the essential basis for comprehension. By analysing behavioral data such as gaze during code reading processes, we explore this fundamental part of programming.

One of the bottlenecks of this research domain is a lack of large datasets that would allow confirmation of the hypotheses generated by previous research. Therefore, we joined forces with SensoMotoric Instruments and are now organizing a distributed data collection on programmer behavior. Each participant will receive an eye tracking system with a preloaded experimental setup and will contribute to the dataset by collecting data from a small number of subjects. At the same time, participants in this data collection will be able to test the eye tracking system for their needs for a limited time period. The results and experiences with the distributed eye tracking data collection will be published and participants will be invited to co-author a joint publication.

We are cordially inviting you to contribute to this collaborative effort. Upon signing for this event, we will schedule an optimal time-frame for which you will receive a loan eye tracking system, we have four systems available from SMI. For more information on the SMI RED250 mobile eye tracking systems please visit: www.smivision.com/red250mobile.

This data recording is part of the third International Workshop on Eye Movements in Programming, which takes place November 22-24, 2015 at University of Eastern Finland. However, participating in the data collection is independent of workshop attendance.

Please contact Roman Bednarik (roman.bednarik@uef.fi) for details on how to sign up.

System setup: SMI RED250mobile, laptop, and Experimental Suite Scientific Premium

Data collection organizers:

Roman Bednarik, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu

Teresa Busjahn, Sascha Tamm, Carsten Schulte, Freie Universität, Berlin