The Laboratory of Research on Software Engineering (LaPES) is hosted by the Computing Department of the Federal University of São Carlos (DC/UFSCar). It is formed by professors (assistant and associate), graduate students (PhD and MSc candidates) and undergraduate students from courses offered by DC/UFSCar and by partner institutions such as the Federal Institute of São Paulo and the University of São Paulo.

Research undertaken in LaPES focuses on topics like software inspection and testing, development process, software quality (standards and reference models), requirements engineering, experimental software engineering and information visualisation.

LaPES researchers collaborate with industrial partners. Therefore, some projects address real world problems and applied research, and hence approximate academy and industry.