Not a fan of the title “professor of empirical software engineering”

At TU Berlin, until recently, there was a “professor of parser construction” (official title). What was a hot topic 30 years ago, maybe, was not so hot thereafter.

Today I see a fair bit of “professor of empirical software engineering” or “empirical software engineering research groups”.

I wonder what everyone else in the department is doing, if not empirical work: Introspection? Divination? Laying on of hands? I can see how a department not rooted in empirical research may view such a title as a distinguishing feature when hiring, but at the same time it devalues their own work. Given that all scientific work should be empirical, this title will not stand the test of time. (Fortunately, you can rename.)

So, not a fan of the title of “professor of empirical software engineering”. We should do better.