Luiz Fernando Capretz

Professor of Software Engineering & Director of Software Engineering Program

Ph.D. in Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
M.Sc. in Applied Computing, Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil.
B.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil.


Dr. L. F. Capretz has vast experience in Software Engineering (Human Factors in Software Engineering, Generative AI for Software Development, Software Testing, Software Engineering Education) as  practitioner, manager, and educator. He has worked, taught and done research on the engineering of software in North and South America (Canada, Brazil and Argentina), Europe (U.K. and Italy), Middle East (United Arab Emirates), and Asia (Japan and Malaysia) since 1981.  He was the Director of the Software Engineering Program at Western until 2011, and Assistant Dean (IT and e-Learning) until 2019. He has spent sabbaticals and held visiting positions at New York University in Abu Dhabi, University of Technology PETRONAS, and University of Sharjah. Before joining Western in 2000, he served as Director of Informatics at two universities in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Formerly, he had held a tenured faculty position at the University of Aizu in Japan.

Dr. L. F. Capretz has published over 300 academic works appearing in journals (100+), conferences (100+), patents, softwares, technical reports, books, chapters, and presentations in professional meetings - venues sponsored by IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, Springer, and UNESCO. He is an IEEE Senior Member, ACM Member,  MBTI qualified practitioner, and certified Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) in Canada.

Overall, Dr. L. F. Capretz values a healthy balance between work, family, and personal interests. Some of my hobbies include collecting antique maps, playing in the Middlesex Masters Soccer League during the summer, and practicing both cross-country and downhill skiing in the winter. He is fluent in English and Portuguese, has good command of Japanese, fair understanding of Spanish and Italian, and he has studied Chinese in China and Arabic in the UAE.