Website for the Security and Software Engineering (S²E) Lab at the University of Notre Dame.
- Production site: s2elab.org
- GitHub Pages URL: s2e-lab.github.io
- Repository: github.com/s2e-lab/s2e-lab.github.io
The visual direction was inspired by Maksim Smirnov's terminal-style site. The original Harvard-style CV theme was discovered through its Jekyll Themes listing and is available from the upstream GitHub repository.
The S²E site is not configured as a remote_theme and does not use the upstream CV data model. It is a custom lab-oriented implementation that preserves this repository's existing Jekyll pages and structured research data. The upstream theme is distributed under the MIT License and is copyright © 2025 Maksim Smirnov.
- Ruby
- Bundler
- Git
Install the Ruby dependencies:
bundle installStart the development server with live reload:
./run.shArguments are forwarded to Jekyll, so a different port can be selected with:
./run.sh --port 4001Alternatively, run Jekyll directly:
bundle exec jekyll serve --livereloadOpen http://localhost:4000 in a browser.
Generate the static site in _site/:
bundle exec jekyll buildThe _site/ directory is generated output and must not be edited or committed. Change the corresponding source file and rebuild instead.
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
_config.yml |
Global site configuration, URLs, contact details, collections, and build settings. |
_data/ |
Structured metadata for members, publications, and software artifacts. See _data/README.md. |
_includes/ |
Reusable page fragments such as navigation, header, footer, member cards, and publication details. |
_layouts/ |
Jekyll layouts used by pages, posts, projects, and questions. |
_posts/ |
Dated news and publication announcements. |
assets/ |
Stylesheets, scripts, images, fonts, member photos, and downloadable visual assets. |
preprints/ |
Locally hosted publication preprints and their index. |
index.html |
Homepage dashboard and its Jekyll data queries. |
members.html |
Members page assembled from _data/members.yml. |
publications.html |
Publications page assembled from _data/publications.yml. |
artifacts.html |
Software and datasets page assembled from _data/artifacts.yml. |
blog.html |
News archive assembled from _posts/. |
join.html |
Lab recruiting and application guidance. |
CNAME |
Custom domain used by GitHub Pages. |
run.sh |
Convenience script for the local live-reload server. |
Global settings live in _config.yml. Restart the local Jekyll server after changing this file; Jekyll does not reliably reload configuration changes while running.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
title |
Site name used in browser titles. |
description |
Short site description for metadata and integrations. |
url |
Canonical origin without a trailing slash. Production uses https://s2e-lab.github.io. |
baseurl |
Subpath below the domain. Keep empty when publishing at the domain root; otherwise begin with /. |
github_username |
GitHub organization or account name. |
github_repo |
Repository name. |
analytics |
Optional analytics identifier. Leave blank to disable the analytics snippet. |
Use {{ site.baseurl }} when creating internal asset or page URLs so the site continues to work if it is later hosted below a subpath:
<a href="{{ "/members/" | prepend: site.baseurl }}">Members</a>
<img src="{{ "/assets/img/example.png" | prepend: site.baseurl }}" alt="Description">| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
social |
Social profiles rendered in the footer. Each entry has title and url. |
address |
Postal-address lines used by pages that display the lab location. |
email |
Primary contact address used by the footer and contact links. |
tel |
Lab telephone number. |
about |
Short lab description available as site.about. |
- Markdown is rendered with Kramdown using GitHub-Flavored Markdown input.
- Code highlighting uses Rouge.
- Post URLs follow
/:categories/:title/. <!--more-->marks the end of a post excerpt when an explicitexcerptis not provided.- The
projectsandquestionscollections emit standalone pages. teaching/sse-book/build/_assetsis explicitly included in generated output.
The legacy colors values in _config.yml are still referenced by some older Bootstrap-based components. The command-center interface uses CSS custom properties documented under Styling.
Content shared across multiple pages belongs in _data/ rather than being duplicated in templates:
_data/members.ymlcontrols people and member photographs._data/publications.ymlcontrols publication metadata, citations, links, and resources._data/artifacts.ymlcontrols software and dataset listings.
Field-level schemas and examples are maintained separately in _data/README.md. When adding or changing a YAML schema, update that README as part of the same change.
Every Jekyll page begins with YAML front matter. A typical page looks like:
---
layout: default
title: Example Page
permalink: /example/
---| Field | Description |
|---|---|
layout |
Layout from _layouts/, without the .html extension. |
title |
Browser-title suffix, navigation state, and default page heading. |
permalink |
Stable public URL. Prefer leading and trailing slashes for site pages. |
wrap_title |
Optional heading override used by _includes/wrap.html. |
Add a navigation item in _includes/nav.html only when it belongs in the global primary navigation. Use site.baseurl for internal links and preserve the terminal-style bracket notation used by the current navigation.
Posts live in _posts/ and must use the Jekyll filename format:
YYYY-MM-DD-descriptive-slug.md
Recommended front matter:
---
layout: post
title: "Full announcement title"
short_title: "Compact homepage activity title"
date: 2026-01-01 12:00:00 -0500
categories: paper research
author: "Author Name"
paper_id: publication-key
excerpt: "One- or two-sentence summary."
---| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
layout |
Yes | Normally post. |
title |
Yes | Full post title. |
date |
Yes | Controls sorting and the public URL. Include the time zone. |
categories |
Recommended | Used in post permalinks and category archives. |
author |
Recommended | Displayed in post and blog metadata. |
short_title |
Recommended | Compact label in LATEST_ACTIVITY.LOG; the homepage falls back to title. |
excerpt |
Recommended | Summary displayed by the blog archive. |
paper_id |
Optional | Key matching a publication in _data/publications.yml; adds publication details to the post. |
img |
Optional | Image filename relative to assets/img/blog/. |
The five newest posts automatically appear in the homepage activity panel.
The homepage is intentionally data-driven:
LATEST_ACTIVITY.LOGuses the five newest items insite.posts.MEET THE LABdraws portraits from theprofessors,postdocs, andgraduatessections of_data/members.yml.- Publication and software calls to action link to their full data-driven pages.
- Research focus labels and mission text currently live directly in
index.html.
To change homepage layout or copy, edit index.html. To change the shared hero, navigation, or footer, edit _includes/header.html, _includes/nav.html, or _includes/footer.html respectively.
The compiled stylesheet is assets/css/main.css. Its source is assembled by Jekyll from _layouts/main.css and _includes/css/main.css; make design changes in _includes/css/main.css rather than editing generated files under _site/.
The command-center palette is defined with CSS custom properties:
--console-bg: #080d12;
--console-panel: #0c141b;
--console-text: #e8e9e7;
--console-muted: #87929c;
--console-gold: #c99700;
--console-blue: #55b9db;
--console-green: #85d36b;Reusable helpers include:
<span class="text-gold">Gold text</span>The interface uses Space Grotesk for primary text, Oswald for display headings, and IBM Plex Mono for terminal labels and metadata. Maintain readable body typography and use monospace selectively.
When adding animation, honor the existing prefers-reduced-motion rules. Interactive elements must retain visible hover and keyboard-focus states with sufficient contrast.
- Place member portraits in
assets/img/members/and reference only the filename from_data/members.yml. - Place blog images in
assets/img/blog/and reference only the filename from post front matter. - Give informative images meaningful
alttext. Use an emptyaltattribute only for genuinely decorative images. - Optimize large images before committing them; avoid shipping the same photograph in multiple unnecessary formats.
- Add publication manuscripts to
preprints/only when the lab is authorized to distribute them.
The repository is compatible with the github-pages gem declared in Gemfile. Updates pushed to the publishing branch are built and served by GitHub Pages according to the repository's Pages settings.
The custom domain is configured in CNAME:
s2elab.org
Do not remove or rename CNAME unless the production-domain configuration is intentionally changing. DNS and the repository's GitHub Pages settings must agree with this value.
Before publishing:
bundle exec jekyll build
git diff --checkThen review at least the homepage and the page affected by the change at desktop and mobile widths.
- Edit source content, structured YAML, includes, or styles—not
_site/. - Update
_data/README.mdwhen a structured-data field or category changes. - Keep internal links compatible with
site.baseurl. - Preserve stable permalinks for public pages and posts.
- Build locally and fix all Jekyll errors.
- Check navigation, contrast, mobile overflow, images, and keyboard focus.
- Verify external URLs and downloadable files before publishing.
Stop and restart the Jekyll server after editing _config.yml.
Confirm that the img value in _data/members.yml exactly matches a filename in assets/img/members/, including capitalization and extension.
Confirm that the post's paper_id exactly matches a publication key in _data/publications.yml.
Check that internal URLs are built with site.baseurl rather than hard-coded relative paths.
Run bundle install and use bundle exec for Jekyll commands so the versions in Gemfile.lock are respected.