Tim Puhlfürß

Find all RE’25 links here.

I am a doctoral candidate in Informatics at the University of Hamburg, Germany, affiliated with the MAST research group. Additionally, I am a member of the interdisciplinary graduate school DASHH and collaborate with the European XFEL research facility, home to the world’s largest X-ray laser.

I hold both a Master’s degree (2021, with distinction) and a Bachelor’s degree (2019) in Informatics from the University of Hamburg. Before my academic studies, I completed an apprenticeship as an IT specialist in application development (2016, best in class) at a company near my hometown of Jena.

My last name may be challenging to spell or pronounce. For convenience, you can use the international version, Puhlfuerss, instead of searching for special characters on your keyboard.

Research Interests

Knowledge Exchange and Software Documentation: Effective documentation is crucial for exchanging knowledge between software developers and users. However, creating and maintaining documentation is often a low priority for developers and can feel like a burden. At the same time, users may find it challenging and time-consuming to locate relevant information in lengthy documentation. My research aims to streamline these processes.

Generative AI: I develop and evaluate software that uses artificial intelligence to automate complex developer tasks, such as writing technical documentation. My current focus is on large language models, and I am exploring how prompt engineering techniques can optimize their performance.

Empirical Research Methods: My projects are grounded in real-world practices of developers and users. I employ empirical research methods, including content analysis, experiments, surveys, interviews, and benchmarks, to study and enhance these practices.

Publications

Take a look at the Publications page to find a complete list of my publications, along with links to papers and datasets.

You can also find an overview of my work on Google Scholar.

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