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Note: If you have problems with the format of this document,
try
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Table of Contents
Upcoming Topics
Response to
February Topic
News Items
Proposal
for Computer Engineering Licensing Exam in the USA
Working
Group on SEE&T - Meeting Report
Calls for Participation
SETE 2000
Contact
and General Information about FASE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
By: Don Bagert (Academic/Misc Editor)
Upcoming Topics
May 2000: SWECC Survey on Software Engineering
Academic Programs
Guest Editor: Kenneth Modesitt
University of Michigan-Dearborn
modesitt@umich.edu
July 2000: The Importance of Math and Problem-Solving
in SE
Guest Editor: Peter B. Henderson
Butler University
phenders@butler.edu
For more information about a particular issue's topic, please contact
the corresponding guest editor. Please refer to the article
format
provided at the end of each issue when making submissions, which
are
always made directly to the guest editor.
If you are interested in being a guest editor, or have any suggestions
for future topics, please contact me at Don.Bagert@ttu.edu.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
By: Jochen Ludewig <ludewig@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Response to February Topic
[Note from Academic Editor Don Bagert: The February 2000 issue of
FASE featured the readers' picks of the Top Ten Events of the Century
in Software Engineering Education and Training. This was
after a
panel of experts had made their own choices (included in the December
1999 issue) and an online survey had been posted on the Web.
One
of the comments made by one of the survey respondents was "The
Top Ten
shortlisted in Dec99 FASE have a very North American slant. Although
N America dominates software engineering in terms of dollar
investment, it does not dominate in terms of intellectual concepts."
My response was: "I...personally agree with these comments.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get more than one non-US person
on
the panel (out of seven), although several were asked. This
was a
topic of discussion by the panel, who (I believe) made an extra
effort to consider contributions outside of North America because
of this. However, I wished I could have gotten a wider diversity
of
panelists."
Below is a response to this exchange by Jochen Ludewig. I
found it to
be very insightful, and hope you will also find it of interest.]
Dear Don,
I appreciate your comment on the comment. I am quite sure you are
serious about your point. Still, there is something that I feel
you are missing:
Preparing a top ten list as you and a few other people did is in
itself a very North American idea. Therefore, it is quite clear
that
you will not find too many people outside the U.S. who want to
participate in a game that does not make much sense from their
point
of view.
What is achieved when you have got such a list? Some people believe
that if a couple of guys do anything (like surfing, or reading
Shakespeare, or playing the piano), there ought to be a competition,
and, of course, a world championship. Maybe that those people need
that. I don't.
We should also face the fact that, in order to estimate the real
size
of a thing, we need some distance. We might be able to identify
the
very best composers of the eighteenth century (provided we limit
the
scope to Middle European music). But who was best last year? You'd
better ask my grand-grand-grand-children!
Best regards,
Jochen Ludewig
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
News Items
######################################################################
From: Bob Becnel <bob@becnel.com>
via Leonard Tripp
Proposal for Computer Engineering Licensing Exam in the USA
On January 15, 2000, the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers
(MSPE) met for its Board of Directors Meeting. At the meeting,
a
couple of motions and a resolution was passed by the Directors.
Motion #1
---------
The MSPE Board of Directors urges that the MO Board formally request
NCEES [National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying]
to immediately begin development on a Computer Engineering PE
examination as outlined in the attached proposal. [see below]
Motion #2
---------
The MSPE Board of Directors suggests that the MO Board accepts
pre
approved certification programs as credit towards six (6) months
of
work experience for PE candidates as outlined in the attached
proposal.
Resolution
----------
The MSPE Board of Directors urges NSPE to be actively involved
in
producing a Computer Engineering PE (Principal and Practice) exam
and to work with NCEES in developing a nation-wide precedence for
other states to follow as outlined in the attached proposal.
These motions were passed based on a report compiled by MSPE board
member, Bob Becnel, PE. Becnel worked under the guidance
of St.
Louis Chapter President, Ed Austin, PE and the Registration Sub
Committee of the Chapter.
Thanks again, for all of your input and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Bob Becnel, P.E.
6020 Kassel Ct
Imperial, MO 63052
(636) 942-3582 home
(636) 891-4397 work
bob@becnel.com
[Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the proposal
mentioned above. The PE exam is the one given by NCEES after
at least four years of apprenticeship. Since there is an
overlap
with software engineering in many of the example topics, it is
a topic of potential interest to FASE readers.]
The items below would be examples of Computer Engineering concepts
that might be found on a Computer Engineering PE exam. This
list
is by no means exhaustive of a potential Computer Engineering exam.
* Computer and network architecture
* Logic design
* Algorithm design
* Object oriented design (object and dynamic models, problem
decomposition)
* Object oriented Programming (object instantiation, dynamic and
static objects, inheritance, virtuality, dynamic binding)
* Issues of Program lifetimes and life cycles (problem statement,
requirements analysis, specifications, implementation and
test)
* Issues of proper program writing and testing
* System programming
* Operating systems topics (layered architectures, performance,
deadlocks and lockouts, file systems, hardware and process
interactions)
* Telecommunication systems (transmissions, multiplexing and
switching)
* Protocols for computer networks
* Networking topics (topology, layered architecture, standard
protocols, network performance)
* Computer mother board circuit design
######################################################################
From: Nancy Mead <nrm@sei.cmu.edu>
Minutes from the Working Group on Software Engineering
Education
and Training
Renaissance Hotel, Austin, Texas
March 5-6, 2000
Agenda
Keynote Speaker: Dennis Frailey, Raytheon Systems Company
"Maintaining an Effective Software Engineering Staff"
Reports from the Curricula, Professional, and I/U Collaboration
subgroups, and other reports of interest to the group
Reports from other subgroups
Attendees:
Don Bagert, Texas Tech University, Don.Bagert@ttu.edu
Pierre Bourque, University of Quebec at Montreal,
Bourque.pierre@uqam.ca
David Carter, Motorola, cdc046@email.mot.com
Jorge Diaz, Southern Polytechnic State University, jdiaz@spsu.edu
Robert Dupuis, University of Quebec at Montreal, dupuis.robert@uqam.ca
Heidi Ellis, Rensselaer at Hartford, heidic@rh.edu
Tom Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, hilburn@db.erau.edu
Greg Hislop, Drexel University, hislopg@post.drexel.edu
Pete Knoke, University of Alaska Fairbanks, ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu
Mike Lutz, Rochester Institute of Technology,
mikelutz@mail.isc.rit.edu
Jim McDonald, Monmouth University, Jamesmc@monmouth.edu
Nancy Mead, Software Engineering Institute, nrm@sei.cmu.edu
Susan Mengel, Texas Tech University, mengel@ttu.edu
Fernando Naveda, Rochester Institute of Technology, jfn@cs.rit.edu
Dawn Ramsey, Southern Polytechnic State University, dramsey@spsu.edu
Michael Ryan, Dublin City University, michael.ryan@compapp.dcu.ie
Mark Sebern, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Sebern@msoe.edu
Laurie Werth, University of Texas at Austin, Lwerth@cs.utexas.edu
Minutes from the Full Working Group Meeting
Future meeting dates and locations:
The next two meetings will be held in conjunction with FIE and
CSEE&T
respectively. We will meet Oct. 17-18, 2000, in Kansas City, in
conjunction with FIE. This will be a full day on Tuesday and a
half
day on Wednesday. The FIE conference is Oct. 18-21, starting with
half-day tutorials on the afternoon of Oct. 18. We will meet in
conjunction with CSEE&T 2001 in Charlotte. The meeting will
be Feb.
17-18, 2001, with a full day Saturday and a half day Sunday before
the
conference.
Dennis Frailey gave an excellent presentation titled "Maintaining
an
Effective Software Engineering Staff."
There were three subgroup reports: Curricula, Professional Issues,
and
Industry/University Collaboration. Subsequently the group split
into
three subgroups for working sessions. The subgroup composition
was as
follows:
Curricula: Tom Hilburn, Greg Hislop, Pierre Bourque, Robert Dupuis,
Tom Horton, Mike Lutz, Jim McDonald, Susan Mengel, Hossein Saiedian,
Mark Sebern, Laurie Werth
Professional Issues: Jorge Diaz-Herrera, Don Bagert, Pete Knoke,
Fernando Naveda, Michael Ryan
Industry/University Collaboration: Nancy Mead, David Carter, Heidi
Ellis, Dawn Ramsey, Michael Ryan
Minutes from the Curricula Subgroup Meeting
The Curricula subgroup of the Working Group continued with a project
to develop software education curriculum modules. Work completed
on
the project so far includes a more detailed description of a SWENET
proposal, a review and comments on the SWENET proposed schedule,
and
the schedule of next phase activities for SWEBOK. The group also
discussed funding, as well as several NSF initiatives that might
be
relevant.
In a discussion of requirements for SWENET, the group identified
several broad areas that might be discussed, including structure
of
the online community, structure of the curriculum modules, selection
of initial module areas, and definition of module content. A
discussion of requirements for the online community included:
organization of modules and navigation to help people access them;
review and maintenance functionality; inter-user communication
facilities; typical artifacts that might be provided with a course
module; a definition of SWENET users (key characteristics are that
there would be only English language support at this time, and
a focus
on undergraduate-level material. The definition would segment users
into primary, secondary, and non-supported users.).
A final meeting of the subgroup concerned discussion of future
plans
and additional activities the group might want to be involved with.
Tom Horton described a pending grant he has for developing SE project
materials under the NSF CCLI (Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory
Improvement) Program (NSF 00-63). Jim McDonald agreed to develop
a
CCLI proposal that supports introducing industrial "best practices"
into software engineering education. The proposal would include
involvement of industrial/commercial software developers. The subgroup
formulated an informal long-term strategy that would aggregate
the
results of SWENET, Tom Horton's project, and Jim McDonald's project
to
support a more comprehensive grant proposal for development and
dissemination of SE educational materials, assuming that funding
is
obtained for all projects.
Minutes from the Professionalism Subgroup Meeting
The group discussed the professional society and the journal and
decided to postpone the initiation of a society, and focus on the
journal. The journal idea has been presented to the IEEE-CS education
committee, and is being considered. Decisions were also made to
create
an international steering committee and craft a marketing plan.
Report from the Industry/University Collaboration Subgroup
The group held telecons in November, January, and February. A project
to develop a collaboration handbook has been shelved. The JSS paper
has been submitted to CrossTalk (it was accepted to appear in the
March 2000 issue) and Training (no word yet on acceptance).
The group was asked to consider the topic of "how to provide
assistance in the area of software process improvement." The Working
Group felt that the issue was outside of its scope. The group also
plans to explore the question of which topics industry wants to
see in
SE curricula.
Minutes from the Industry/University Collaboration Subgroup Meeting
The group was inspired by a talk on focusing attention on retooling
and retraining the workforce, and members believe that with
investigation they could develop a model for retraining and could
examine assessment methods. Elements of the model would include
background of incoming students, motivation, outgoing students,
technical obsolescence, process, company culture, university culture,
and individuals.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Calls for Participation
######################################################################
From: Joe Kasser <Joseph.Kasser@unisa.edu.au>
SETE 2000
Note the distance mode and student tracks.
Joe
___
SETE 2000 - CALL FOR PAPERS
"Systems Engineering" and "Test & Evaluation" in the
Changing Environment of the 21st Century
Brisbane, Queensland, 15-17 November 2000
A Conference of
The Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA)
and
The Southern Cross Chapter of
The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA)
http://www.seecforum.unisa.edu.au/Sete2000/SETE2000.htm
The SETE 2000 Conference theme is "Systems Engineering" and "Test
&
Evaluation" in the Changing Environment of the 21st Century.
Presentations and papers are invited relating to this theme, as
well
as to the traditional tracks and special interest areas of SESA
and
ITEA.
Distance mode presentations - Conference presentations may be made
in
person or by means of asynchronous (non real-time) distance mode
technology.
Student Track - Presentations and papers are also invited from
students of the fields of Systems Engineering and Test and Evaluation
(T&E).
Exhibit area - Registrations of interest are also sought from
potential exhibitors. SETE 2000 will include both exhibitions and
presentations by vendors.
Conference Program
The Conference program integrates the Systems Engineering and Test
&
Evaluation fields in a combination of plenary sessions, panels,
technical papers and exhibits. The program is expected to include
papers in at least the following areas.
Systems Engineering Test & Evaluation
* Systems Engineering Applications * T&E Visions of the
Future
* Soft Systems Methodologies
* Critical Technologies
(Instrumentation, Modelling,
Simulation)
* Systems of Systems
* Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs)
* Selling Systems Engineering
* The Planning and Management of
T&E
* Measurement
* T&E Investment Planning
* Modeling and Tools
* Virtual T&E
* Systems Engineering Management * The Design
of Experiments
* Processes and Methods
* Error Budgeting
* Software Engineering
* T&E for Systems of Systems
* Requirements Engineering and *
T&E - Management
The Value Added
* Education and Training
* T&E - The Legal Issues
Important Dates:
Preliminary Submission: 15 July 2000
Acceptance Notification: 15 August 2000
Final submission
15 September 2000
Categories of submissions
There are two categories of submissions to serve the needs of industry
and academia:
* Papers
* Presentations
Papers
This category is primarily designed for Academia to meet the
Australian Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs
(DETYA)
requirements for published papers. Full papers will be reviewed
anonymously by at least two peer reviewers. For each paper
submitted,
prospective authors are requested to submit by email two files:
a
separate Identification Page and the paper, both in Microsoft Word,
using Times New Roman 11 point font, in double column format. An
example paper, which may be used as a template, will shortly be
provided on the Conference Website.
The Identification Page is to contain the following:
* Paper title
* Author name(s)
* Business affiliation(s)
* Address(es)
* Phone number and fax
* e-mail address(es)
* A short biography for each author.
* Primary contact to be used for all communications.
The preliminary paper is to have a title page with abstract (but
no
author information), 5-8 numbered pages in length, including figures,
tables and other illustrations. Upon acceptance, paper format
requirements will be sent to the primary contact. Technical session
paper presentations will be 20-30 minutes in length, plus a 10-15
minute question and answer period. Papers accepted for presentation
at
SETE 2000 will be published in the Conference Proceedings in both
book
and CD-ROM form.
Presentations
This category is primarily designed for industry practitioners.
Submissions are to be made in the form of PowerPoint 97 presentations.
The presentations will be reviewed by at least two peer reviewers.
For each submission, prospective authors are requested to submit
by
email two files: a separate Identification Page and the presentation.
The Identification Page is to include the information specified
above.
Presentations accepted for presentation at SETE 2000 will be published
in the Conference Proceedings in CD-ROM form.
Call for Distant Mode Papers and Presentations
Call for papers and presentations to be presented in distant mode.
This is a call for papers and presentations to be presented by
personnel who otherwise would be unable to attend the Conference.
The
intent is to prototype the process for mixing asynchronous
presentations with synchronous discussions into the traditional
Conference sessions. Personnel submitting distance mode papers
and
presentations must agree to
* Prepare their presentations in PowerPoint and recording the audio
to
accompany each slide. Instructions and an add-in tool to
PowerPoint
97 can be found on the Conference Website.
* Telephone the Conference at a prearranged time and take part
in the
traditional post presentation discussion in the session
room. The
cost for a ten-minute telephone call is expected to be less
than $10
from most places in the world.
These papers and presentations are to meet the same review
requirements as the papers and presentations to be presented live
at
the Conference. The accepted paper will be published in the Conference
proceedings. The audio enhanced presentation will be published
in the
Conference CD-ROM.
Examples of asynchronous presentations can be seen at
http://www.umuc.edu/~jkasser/distance/distance.htm
Call for Student Track Papers
This is a call for papers and presentations in the student track.
The
intent of this track is to encourage students to publish. Students
enrolled in Master's level and above programs are encouraged to
upgrade a recent assignment, paper or presentation with the advice
of
their instructors and submit them for the student track. Student
track
papers and presentations can be submitted for live or distance
mode
participation in the Conference. Student track papers and
presentations must be accompanied by an endorsement by the instructor
certifying that the paper or presentation is an example of the
work
produced by students in the specific program in the specific
institution.
All student track paper and presentation submissions will pass through
a two step review process.
* Step 1 - The regular peer review process.
* Step 2 - An academic review process.
If the submission fails in Step 1, Step 2 will determine if
corrections can be made to upgrade the submission to Conference
standards, and recommend same.
Preliminary student track submissions are required to contain both
the
preliminary presentation and the preliminary paper
Accepted student track papers and presentations will
* Be published in the Conference proceedings and CD-ROM.
* Compete for the Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre (SEEC)
Award for the best Student Paper at the Conference.
Submit papers and presentations to the Technical Chair:
Associate Professor Joseph Kasser
Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre
University of South Australia,
Mawson Lakes SA 5095, AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 8 8302-3941
Conference E-mail: CT2000@unisa.edu.au
Other E-mail Joseph.Kasser@unisa.edu.au
SESA is a Technical Society of The Institution of Engineers Australia
(IEAust), affiliated with the International Council of Systems
Engineering (INCOSE). SESA's Website is at http://www.sesa.org.au/
ITEA Southern Cross Chapter's Website is at
http://itea.netspot.com.au/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Contact and General Information about FASE
The Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) is
published on the 15th of each month by the FASE editorial board.
Send newsletter articles to one of the editors, preferably by
category: Articles pertinent to corporate and government training
to
David Carter <D.Carter@motorola.com>;
Academic education, and all
other categories to Don Bagert <Don.Bagert@ttu.edu>.
If the article
for a FASE topic where there is a guest editor, the submission
should
instead be to that person. Items must be submitted by the
8th of the
month in order to be considered for inclusion in that month's issue.
Also, please see the submission guidelines immediately below.
FASE submission format guidelines: All submissions must be
in ASCII
format, and contain no more than 70 characters per line (71 including
the new line character). This 70-character/line format must
be
viewable in a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad WITHOUT using
a
"word wrap" facility. All characters (outside of the newline)
should
in the ASCII code range from 32 to 126 (i.e. "printable" in DOS
text
mode).
[NEW SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE INFORMATION - February 15, 2000]
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As always, there is no cost for subscribing to either FASE or
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From there, click on "TTU Faculty Mailing
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Back issues (dating from the very first issue) can be found on the
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<http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase/archive.htm>
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<http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase/reverse.htm>
in reverse order, or
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<ftp://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase/archive>.
The FASE Staff:
Don Bagert, P.E. -- Academic/Misc Editor, ListMaster, and Archivist
Dept. of Computer Science
8th and Boston
Texas Tech University
Lubbock TX 79409-3104 USA
Phone: 806-742-1189
Fax: 806-742-3519
Email: Don.Bagert@ttu.edu
URL: http://www.cs.ttu.edu/faculty/bagert.html
David Carter -- Corporate/Government Editor
College of Technology
Motorola University
1700 Golf Road 10th floor, Schaumburg IL 60196
Phone: 847-576-4849
Fax: 847-538-3692
Email: D.Carter@motorola.com
Laurie Werth -- Advisory Committee
Taylor Hall 2.124
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712 USA
Phone: 512-471-9535
Fax: 512-471-8885
Email: lwerth@cs.utexas.edu
Nancy Mead -- Advisory Committee
Software Engineering Institute
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
Phone: 412-268-5756
Fax: 412-268-5758
Email: nrm@sei.cmu.edu