# Mathieu Acher

> Mathieu Acher is a Full Professor of Computer Science at INSA Rennes (France), a member (sociétaire) of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), and a researcher in the DiverSE team (IRISA, Inria, CNRS, Université de Rennes). His research is on software variability: modelling, reverse engineering, testing, and learning highly configurable systems (feature models, software product lines, the Linux kernel, performance prediction, deep software variability), and on how large language models and coding agents change software engineering.

Key facts:

- Full Professor at INSA Rennes since September 2022; researcher in the DiverSE team (Inria, IRISA) since 2012; Associate Professor at University of Rennes 1 (ISTIC) from 2012 to 2022; postdoc at the University of Namur (2011–2012).
- Member (sociétaire) of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), appointed junior member in 2021 on the chair in science outreach (Médiation scientifique).
- Recommended for the CNRS bronze medal by Section 6 of the CNRS National Committee (2023).
- Co-lead of the Inria challenge LLM4Code (2024–2028) and of the Inria–Simula associate team RIPOST (2024–2027); strongly involved in the Inria–Mitsubishi Electric challenge FRAIME (since 2025) and in the France 2030 project CodeCommons (work package 2 leader, team of nine engineers); head of the variability engineering axis of DiverSE.
- Co-head of the research Master SIF (Rennes) since 2024.
- PhD (2011, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis) on managing multiple feature models (FAMILIAR language); HDR (2021, University of Rennes 1) on modelling, reverse engineering, and learning software variability.
- Awards: VARIABILITY 2026 Most Influential Paper, SCAM 2026 Distinguished Paper, ISSTA 2024 Distinguished Paper, AST 2024, MODELS 2023, ICSR 2022, SPLC 2021, and ICPE 2020 Best Paper, SLE 2019 Most Influential Paper, SPLC 2013 Best Student Paper.
- General chair of VaMoS 2025; member of the SPLC, VaMoS, and VARIABILITY steering committees.
- Chess: FIDE Master with three international master norms.
- Contact: mathieu.acher@irisa.fr. Affiliation used in papers: INSA Rennes, Université de Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA (France).

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.mathieuacher.com/index.md): biography, news, research themes, software, teaching, PhD and HDR theses, chess, contact
- [Publications](https://www.mathieuacher.com/publications.md): all publications (2008–2026) with venues, awards, links, and abstracts
- [Students, projects & service](https://www.mathieuacher.com/service.md): PhD students, postdocs, research projects, conference organization, program committees
- [BibTeX](https://www.mathieuacher.com/acher.bib): machine-readable bibliography (with abstracts, HAL ids, DOIs)

## Research themes

- **AI and formal methods**: Making AI-generated code and content trustworthy with formal methods, and using AI to make formal methods easier to use, in the Inria–Mitsubishi Electric challenge FRAIME.
- **Coding agents and programming languages**: What LLM-based coding agents can build, in which programming languages (from Rust to COBOL, LaTeX, or Brainfuck), and whether programming languages still matter.
- **LLMs for software evolution and modernization**: Using large language models to migrate, summarize, and co-evolve legacy and industrial code (COBOL, IBM-i RPG, metamodels), with industrial partners.
- **Deep variability and reproducible science**: Variability across layers (hardware, OS, compilers, libraries, inputs, options) and its consequences for the reproducibility and replicability of computational science.
- **Learning configurable systems**: Sampling, measuring, and learning the performance and build behaviour of huge configuration spaces such as the Linux kernel.
- **Testing AI-based and configurable systems**: Testing reinforcement learning policies, uniform random samplers, and chess engines; replication studies.
- **Modelling and reverse engineering variability**: Feature models, variability languages (FAMILIAR, UVL), product comparison matrices, and synthesizing variability models from existing artefacts.

## Selected publications

- [Code Transformation Rule Synthesis Using LLMs: Potential and Limits](https://doi.org/10.1145/3832783.3837504): Axel Allain, Aymeric Blot, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, and Mathieu Acher. 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2026), 2026.
- [CRACS: Question-Driven Assessment of Legacy Code Summaries in Industrial IBM-i Modernization](https://hal.science/hal-05757598v1/file/CRACS_scam2026_engineering_track_paper.pdf): N'Guessan Hermann Kouadio, Mathieu Acher, Olivier Barais, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. SCAM 2026 - 26th IEEE International Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (Engineering Track), co-located with ICSME 2026, 2026. Distinguished Paper Award.
- [Externalized CPDAG Summaries Improve LLM Causal Deduction](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31071): Wentao Sun, João Paulo Nogueira, Dominique Verchère, Mathieu Acher, and Alonso Silva. NeurIPS 2026 - 40th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, 2026.
- [Policy Testing with MDPFuzz (Replicability Study)](https://doi.org/10.1145/3650212.3680382): Quentin Mazouni, Helge Spieker, Arnaud Gotlieb, and Mathieu Acher. Proceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, 2024. Distinguished Paper Award.
- [Testing for Fault Diversity in Reinforcement Learning](https://doi.org/10.1145/3644032.3644458): Quentin Mazouni, Helge Spieker, Arnaud Gotlieb, and Mathieu Acher. Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automation of Software Test (AST 2024), Lisbon, Portugal, April 15-16, 2024, 2024. Best Paper Award.
- [Experience in Specializing a Generic Realization Language for SPL Engineering at Airbus](https://doi.org/10.1109/models58315.2023.00035): Damien Foures, Mathieu Acher, Olivier Barais, Benoit Combemale, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, and Jörg Kienzle. MODELS 2023 - 26th International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, 2023. Best Paper Award.
- [Input Sensitivity on the Performance of Configurable Systems: An Empirical Study](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2023.111671): Luc Lesoil, Mathieu Acher, Arnaud Blouin, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. Journal of Systems and Software, 201, 2023.
- [Handbook of Re-Engineering Software Intensive Systems into Software Product Lines](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11686-5): Roberto Lopez-Herrejon, Jabier Martinez, Tewfik Ziadi, Mathieu Acher, K.G. Wesley Assunção, and Silvia Vergilio. Springer International Publishing, 2023.
- [Scratching the Surface of ./configure: Learning the Effects of Compile-Time Options on Binary Size and Gadgets](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08129-3_3): Xhevahire Tërnava, Mathieu Acher, Luc Lesoil, Arnaud Blouin, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. ICSR 2022 - 20th International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, 2022. Best Paper Award.
- [On the Benefits and Limits of Incremental Build of Software Configurations: An Exploratory Study](https://doi.org/10.1145/3510003.3510190): Georges Aaron Randrianaina, Xhevahire Tërnava, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, and Mathieu Acher. ICSE 2022 - 44th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2022.
- [Towards Incremental Build of Software Configurations](https://doi.org/10.1145/3510455.3512792): Georges Aaron Randrianaina, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, Olivier Zendra, and Mathieu Acher. ICSE-NIER 2022 - 44th International Conference on Software Engineering – New Ideas and Emerging Results, 2022.
- [Transfer Learning Across Variants and Versions: The Case of Linux Kernel Size](https://doi.org/10.1109/tse.2021.3116768): Hugo Martin, Mathieu Acher, Juliana Alves Pereira, Luc Lesoil, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, and Djamel Eddine Khelladi. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 48(11), 2022.
- [A comparison of performance specialization learning for configurable systems](https://doi.org/10.1145/3461001.3471155): Hugo Martin, Mathieu Acher, Juliana Alves Pereira, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. SPLC 2021 - 25th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, 2021. Best Paper Award.
- [Learning Software Configuration Spaces: A Systematic Literature Review](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2021.111044): Juliana Alves Pereira, Hugo Martin, Mathieu Acher, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, Goetz Botterweck, and Anthony Ventresque. Journal of Systems and Software, 182, 2021.
- [Empirical Assessment of Multimorphic Testing](https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2926971): Paul Temple, Mathieu Acher, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 47(7), 2021.
- [Deep Software Variability: Towards Handling Cross-Layer Configuration](https://doi.org/10.1145/3442391.3442402): Luc Lesoil, Mathieu Acher, Arnaud Blouin, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. VaMoS 2021 - 15th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 2021.
- [Co-evolving code with evolving metamodels](https://doi.org/10.1145/3377811.3380324): Djamel Eddine Khelladi, Benoit Combemale, Mathieu Acher, Olivier Barais, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. ICSE '20: 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering, Seoul, South Korea, 27 June - 19 July, 2020, 2020.
- [Sampling Effect on Performance Prediction of Configurable Systems: A Case Study](https://doi.org/10.1145/3358960.3379137): Juliana Alves Pereira, Mathieu Acher, Hugo Martin, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE 2020), 2020. Best Paper Award.
- [Test them all, is it worth it? Assessing configuration sampling on the JHipster Web development stack](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-018-9635-4): Axel Halin, Alexandre Nuttinck, Mathieu Acher, Xavier Devroey, Gilles Perrouin, and Benoit Baudry. Empirical Software Engineering (ESE), 24(2), 2019.
- [Learning Contextual-Variability Models](https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2017.4121211): Paul Temple, Mathieu Acher, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, and Olivier Barais. IEEE Software, 34(6), 2017.
- [Efficient and Complete FD-Solving for Extended Array Constraints](https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2017/171): Quentin Plazar, Mathieu Acher, Sébastien Bardin, and Arnaud Gotlieb. IJCAI 2017, 2017.
- [Learning-Based Performance Specialization of Configurable Systems](https://hal.science/hal-01467299/file/TSE-ML.pdf): Paul Temple, Mathieu Acher, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, Léo Noel-Baron, and José A. Galindo. Research Report, IRISA, Inria Rennes ; University of Rennes 1, 2017.
- [Using Machine Learning to Infer Constraints for Product Lines](https://doi.org/10.1145/2934466.2934472): Paul Temple, José Angel Galindo Duarte, Mathieu Acher, and Jean-Marc Jézéquel. Software Product Line Conference (SPLC'16), 2016. Most Influential Paper Award at VARIABILITY 2026.
- [Large-scale Analysis of Chess Games with Chess Engines: A Preliminary Report](https://hal.science/hal-01307091/file/RT-479%20%281%29.pdf): Mathieu Acher and François Esnault. Technical Report RT-0479, Inria Rennes Bretagne Atlantique, 2016.
- [Breathing Ontological Knowledge Into Feature Model Synthesis: An Empirical Study](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-014-9357-1): Guillaume Bécan, Mathieu Acher, Benoit Baudry, and Sana Ben Nasr. Empirical Software Engineering (ESE), 21(4), 2016.
- [Synthesis of Attributed Feature Models From Product Descriptions](https://doi.org/10.1145/2791060.2791068): Guillaume Bécan, Razieh Behjati, Arnaud Gotlieb, and Mathieu Acher. 19th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC'15), 2015.
- [Assessing Product Line Derivation Operators Applied to Java Source Code: An Empirical Study](https://doi.org/10.1145/2791060.2791099): João Bosco Ferreira Filho, Simon Allier, Mathieu Acher, Olivier Barais, and Benoit Baudry. 19th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC'15), 2015.
- [Automating the Formalization of Product Comparison Matrices](https://doi.org/10.1145/2642937.2643000): Guillaume Bécan, Nicolas Sannier, Mathieu Acher, Olivier Barais, Arnaud Blouin, and Benoit Baudry. 29th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE'14), 2014.
- [Generating Counterexamples of Model-based Software Product Lines](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-014-0341-2): Joao Bosco Ferreira Filho, Olivier Barais, Mathieu Acher, Jérôme Le Noir, Axel Legay, and Benoit Baudry. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT), 17(5), 2014.
- [Sound Merging and Differencing for Class Diagrams](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54804-8_5): Uli Fahrenberg, Mathieu Acher, Axel Legay, and Andrzej Wasowski. 17th International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE'14), 2014.
- [Software Architectures and Multiple Variability](https://hal.science/hal-01098107): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, and Philippe Lahire. Chapter in Software Architecture 2, Wiley, 2014.
- [A Variability-based Testing Approach for Synthesizing Video Sequences](https://doi.org/10.1145/2610384.2610411): José A. Galindo, Mauricio Alferez, Mathieu Acher, Benoit Baudry, and David Benavides. International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA'14), 2014.
- [The Anatomy of a Sales Configurator: An Empirical Study of 111 Cases](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38709-8_11): Ebrahim Khalil Abbasi, Arnaud Hubaux, Mathieu Acher, Quentin Boucher, and Patrick Heymans. 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE'13), 2013.
- [From Comparison Matrix to Variability Model: The Wikipedia Case Study](https://doi.org/10.1109/ase.2013.6693116): Nicolas Sannier, Mathieu Acher, and Benoit Baudry. 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE'13), 2013.
- [Composing your Compositions of Variability Models](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41533-3_22): Mathieu Acher, Benoit Combemale, Philippe Collet, Olivier Barais, Philippe Lahire, and Robert B. France. ACM/IEEE 16th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS'13), 2013.
- [Feature Model Extraction from Large Collections of Informal Product Descriptions](https://doi.org/10.1145/2491411.2491455): Jean-Marc Davril, Edouard Delfosse, Negar Hariri, Mathieu Acher, Jane Cleland-Huang, and Patrick Heymans. European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE'13), 2013.
- [Generating Counterexamples of Model-based Software Product Lines: An Exploratory Study](https://doi.org/10.1145/2491627.2491639): João Bosco Ferreira Filho, Olivier Barais, Mathieu Acher, Jérôme Le Noir, and Benoit Baudry. 17th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC'13), 2013. Best Student Paper Award.
- [Extraction and Evolution of Architectural Variability Models in Plugin-based Systems](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-013-0364-2): Mathieu Acher, Anthony Cleve, Philippe Collet, Philippe Merle, Laurence Duchien, and Philippe Lahire. Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM), 13(4), 2013.
- [FAMILIAR: A Domain-Specific Language for Large Scale Management of Feature Models](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2012.12.004): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, Philippe Lahire, and Robert France. Science of Computer Programming (SCP) Special issue on programming languages, 78(6), 2013.
- [Separating Concerns in Feature Models: Retrospective and Support for Multi-Views](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36654-3_1): Arnaud Hubaux, Mathieu Acher, T. T. Tun, Patrick Heymans, Philippe Collet, and Philippe Lahire. Chapter in Domain Engineering: Product Lines, Conceptual Models, and Languages (editors: Reinhartz-Berger,I. and Sturm, A. and Clark, T. and Bettin, J. and Cohen, S.), Springer, 2013.
- [Composing Multiple Variability Artifacts to Assemble Coherent Workflows](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-011-9170-7): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, Alban Gaignard, Philippe Lahire, Johan Montagnat, and Robert France. Software Quality Journal Special issue on Quality Engineering for Software Product Lines, 20(3-4), 2012.
- [Feature Model Differences](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31095-9_41): Mathieu Acher, Patrick Heymans, Philippe Collet, Clément Quinton, Philippe Lahire, and Philippe Merle. 24th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE'12), 2012.
- [Separation of Concerns in Feature Modeling: Support and Applications](https://doi.org/10.1145/2162049.2162051): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, Philippe Lahire, and Robert France. Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD'12), 2012.
- [Slicing Feature Models](https://doi.org/10.1109/ASE.2011.6100089): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, Philippe Lahire, and Robert France. 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference On Automated Software Engineering (ASE'11), short paper, 2011.
- [Reverse Engineering Architectural Feature Models](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23798-0_25): Mathieu Acher, Anthony Cleve, Philippe Collet, Philippe Merle, Laurence Duchien, and Philippe Lahire. 5th European Conference on Software Architecture (ECSA'11), long paper, 2011.
- [Composing Feature Models](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12107-4_6): Mathieu Acher, Philippe Collet, Philippe Lahire, and Robert France. 2nd International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE'09), 2009. Most Influential Paper Award at SLE 2019.

## Profiles

- [Email](mailto:mathieu.acher@irisa.fr)
- [Blog](https://blog.mathieuacher.com)
- [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cC6xt1YAAAAJ)
- [DBLP](https://dblp.org/pid/57/2898.html)
- [HAL](https://cv.hal.science/mathieu-acher): open-access versions of most papers
- [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1483-3858)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/acherm)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathieuacher)
- [Slides](https://speakerdeck.com/acherm)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@CodeplAI): CodeplAI, a channel (in French) on AI, code, and games
- [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/macher.bsky.social)
- [X / Twitter](https://x.com/acherm)

## Optional

- [Everything in one file](https://www.mathieuacher.com/llms-full.txt): home, service, and all publications with abstracts, concatenated as Markdown
- [Blog](https://blog.mathieuacher.com): posts on software variability, coding agents and LLMs, programming languages, chess and AI, research, and teaching