Software research

News and Updates

An artist's conception shows the algorithms as a group of bike racers on a mountain road, closing in on the finish line over the next hill.

NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Program Enters ‘Selection Round’

July 22, 2020

The race to protect sensitive electronic information against the threat of quantum computers has entered the home stretch. After spending more than three years

NIST Study Evaluates Effects of Race, Age, Sex on Face Recognition Software

December 19, 2019

How accurately do face recognition software tools identify people of varied sex, age and racial background? According to a new study by the National Institute

A man facing six computer screens sees six different sets of search results, with each listed item color-coded.

To Measure Bias in Data, NIST Initiates ‘Fair Ranking’ Research Effort

November 14, 2019

A new research effort at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aims to address a pervasive issue in our data-driven society: a lack of

Composite illustration showing software code, a car, an airplane, and an MRI machine

NIST Tool Enables More Comprehensive Tests on High-Risk Software

April 23, 2019

We entrust our lives to software every time we step aboard a high-tech aircraft or modern car. A long-term research effort guided by two researchers at the

Projects and Programs

metRology Software Project

The goal of the metRology software project is to provide a set of specialized functions for statistical metrology as a package for the R software environment

Maps of Non-hurricane Non-tornadic Extreme Wind Speeds for the Contiguous United States

The goal of this project is to propose a new set of maps of extreme wind speeds for the next revision of Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures

metRology for Microsoft Excel

The goal of the metRology for Microsoft Excel* software project is to provide a convenient user interface using Microsoft Excel for some of the specialized

Compatibility Assessment and Bias Estimation for Standard Reference Materials

NIST produces a number of food-matrix Standard Reference Materials. A problem that frequently occurs in their analysis is one of assessing compatibility of data

Publications

DADS: The On-Line Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures

September 17, 2020

Author(s)

Paul E. Black

The Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures (DADS) is a publicly accessible dictionary of generally useful algorithms, data structures, algorithmic

Static Analyzers: Seat Belts for Your Code

April 17, 2020

Author(s)

Paul E. Black

Just as seat belt use is wide spread, we argue that the use static analysis should be part of ethical software development. We explain some of the procedures of

Quantities and Units for Software Product Measurements

March 10, 2020

Author(s)

David W. Flater

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 80000, the International System of Quantities, collects and

Improving MC/DC and Fault Detection Strength Using Combinatorial Testing

July 25, 2019

Author(s)

David R. Kuhn, Raghu N. Kacker

Software, in many different fields and tasks, has played a critical role and even replaced humans to improve efficiency and safety. However, catastrophic