The department undertakes research in a broad range of areas pertinent to software engineering by applying software engineering principles, methods, techniques, and tools to lead to the production of high quality software and productivity improvement. The research is organised around 5 major groups as below:

• Human Computer Interaction and Computer Supported Collaborative Work/Learning, led by Prof.Dr. Siti Salwa Salim (salwa@um.edu.my).
  Focuses on multimodal interaction, embodied interface agents, children's interface design, and designing for elderly; as well as design and implementation of collaborative systems for software engineering processes and supporting collaborative learning.
• Software Engineering Process, led by Mrs. Zarinah Mohd Kasirun (zarinahmk@um.edu.my).
  Focuses on requirements engineering that defines, models and develops requirements and tools for medium-scale applications; and software process improvement that designs and improves models and procedures at organisational, team, and individual levels.
• Object-based Reusable Software and Architecture, led by Prof.Dr. Lee Sai Peck (saipeck@um.edu.my).
  Adopts and applies theoretical concepts and best practices of object-oriented paradigm and software reuse in the analysis, design and implementation of reusable software and architecture.
• Computational Speech, led by Assoc. Prof. Raja Noor Ainon Zabariah Raja Zainal Abidin (ainon@um.edu.my).
  Conducts interdisciplinary research in developing software technologies covering algorithms, architectures and system for Malay and multilingual speech processing, recognition, and synthesis.
• Applied Software Engineering, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ow Siew Hock (show@um.edu.my).
  Provides a platform for researchers with different expertise and areas of specialisation to develop creative and innovative software systems in fields such as healthcare, psychology, and education.

Over the years, the department has published numerous papers in both local and international conferences and journals; and has received various awards for the excellence in invention and innovation of research.