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I’m an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department at St. Olaf College. I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Virginia studying under <a href="https://matthewbdwyer.github.io/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Matthew Dwyer</a> where I was a member of the <a href="https://less-lab-uva.github.io/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">LESS Lab</a>. I earned degrees in Computer Science and Data Analytics from <a href="https://www.drake.edu/cs/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Drake University</a>.</p> <p>My research area is software engineering, specifically program analysis. Software dominates the world. It’s important that any software that can affect people be thoroughly examined for safety issues. My research focusses on using machine learning to models to guide program analysis to be more efficient and, in some cases, more correct. To do this, I leverage graph representations of programs which faithfully represent their semantics. This allows the model to identify patterns in the behavior of the system, so it can learn when certain decisions are most appropriate.</p> <h2 id="personal-life">Personal Life</h2> <p>I’m originally from Tinley Park, a suburb of Chicago. I’m a midwesterner at heart, and I will defend deep dish pizza until the day I die. I enjoy playing sports, watching great movies, cooking, and playing video and board games with friends. Above all else, music is my favorite hobby, whether it be listening or playing. My parents got me interested at an early age and it spiraled out of control from there. I like most genres, but I particularly love folk, new wave, and progressive rock.</p> </div> <h2> <a href="/news/" style="color: inherit">news</a> </h2> <div class="News"> <div class="table-responsive" style="max-height: 60vw"> <table class="table table-sm table-borderless"> <tr> <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Jul 08, 2024</th> <td> I am happy to report I have passed my dissertation defense! Dr. Leeson reporting for duty. </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Nov 22, 2023</th> <td> I’m thrilled to announce I’ve accepted an tenure-track position in the Math, Statistics, and Computer Science department at St. Olaf College! </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Nov 10, 2023</th> <td> “Algorithm Selection for Software Verification using Graph Neural Networks” was accepted by TOSEM as a journal first paper on their AI for SE track! </td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> <div class="social"> <div class="contact-icons"> <a href="mailto:%6C%65%65%73%6F%6E%32@%73%74%6F%6C%61%66.%65%64%75" title="email"><i class="fa-solid fa-envelope"></i></a> <a href="https://github.com/will-leeson" title="GitHub" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><i class="fa-brands fa-github"></i></a> <a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2403-9295" title="ORCID" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><i class="ai ai-orcid"></i></a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m7S5Ti8AAAAJ" title="Google Scholar" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><i class="ai ai-google-scholar"></i></a> </div> <div class="contact-note">I am most responsive by email. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> <footer class="fixed-bottom" role="contentinfo"> <div class="container mt-0"> © Copyright 2025 Will Leeson. 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