Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education

Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education

Volume 6 Number 3 Friday 9 Feb 1996

Contents:

Evaluating Training--Let Your User Group Talk to You Feedback sought on course material Reminder: CSEE Preliminary Program CFP OOPSLA96 Educators' Symposium CFP 5th Reengineering Forum post doc in Software Engineering Ad CFP First Australian Conference on Computer Science Education
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:13:39 -0600

From: sdmce@access.digex.net (sdmce)

Subject: Evaluating Training--Let Your User Group Talk to You

Standard training evaluation techniques such as the Level 1 evaluation conducted at the end of a training session or a Level 2 follow-up evaluation a few weeks or months later yield valuable insights into training effectiveness. However, they provide only one viewpoint, that of the individual student or student's manager. At CDSI, we implemented a User Group to complement our written evaluations. Modeled it after the User Groups sponsored by commercial software vendors, our User Group, which is currently comprised of all local graduates of our Software Process Management Training series, generates suggestions for improvements and recommends new training services and products. The User Group is a highly interactive evaluation technique. Before each meeting, held quarterly, our SEPG polls the group for agenda items. The top 2 items become the subject of the large group "town meeting"; the next 3 topics of interest are the subject of spirited group discussions held over dinner. Our SEPG chairperson leads the large group meeting, and SEPG members facilitate the small group discussions. After dinner, the full group reconvenes for a report on suggestions made during dinner. We also use a trained facilitator to help keep the meeting on track, to encourage participation, and, most importantly, to help us hear the suggestions objectively. We have already experienced noticeable benefits from our User Group meetings. The Group has generated more than 100 recommendations to date. For example, the User Group recommended that we survey students' tools skills prior to our hands-on workshops and assign a skilled tools user (of project management software, for example) to each student team. Implementing this suggestion solved a problem that had frustrated some of our student teams. The Group also requested two slides per page, double-sided copying of course materials; heeding this request reduced our reproduction costs and saved trees. At our next meeting, User Group members want to make presentations on how they're transferring training skills to their individual projects. This activity will help our SEPG, which sponsors our training, evaluate how well students are able to use the training materials to produce project plans and documented procedures. For information on the CDSI Software Process Management User Group, please contact Kathy Beckman, Training Manager, Computer Data Systems, Inc., 301-921-7027, e-mail: sdmce@access.digex.net.
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:12:09 -0600

From: "Bo I. Sanden" <bsanden@isse.gmu.edu

Subject: submission: Feedback sought on course material

I am developing material on real-time software design with Ada 95 suitable for a graduate or upper-level undergraduate course, under a DISA grant. The material will become part of the ASSET repository. The main contribution is a number of practical real-time examples organized by application types. The designs are according to the entity-life modeling (ELM) approach, which is documented in my book "Software systems construction with examples in Ada" (Prentice-Hall 1994) and elsewhere. Previous knowledge of ELM is not required; the designs are intuitive.

Contents:

1. Introduction and overview 2. Ada 95 tasking syntax. Mutual exclusion. 3. Periodic applications. Cyclic executives. RMS. Example: Throttle control (cruise control system) 4. Approaches to the design of concurrent real-time software. Methods based on data flow. Entity-life modeling. 5. Finite-state machine applications. Examples: Automobile cruise control, automatic garage door, car window, microwave oven, bicycle odometer. 6. Applications with delayable tasks. (The application relies on tasks to space actions in time.) Examples: Home heating system, power allocation in a closed system, buoy problem, remote temperature sensor. 7. User threads (user tasks). Examples: Supermarket checkout with credit card attachment, automated store. 8. Assembly-line problems. Examples: Airport baggage handling, LEGO car factory, bottling factory. 9. Race conditions.(Situations with conflicting strategies.) Example: Multi-elevator control system. 10. Resource contention, deadlock prevention. Examples: Flexible manufacturing system, automated switchyard. 11. Data transfer applications. Example: MIDI patch bay. 12. Summary. A set of overhead slides is now available. I will provide hard-copies in their current form in exchange for feedback on contents and structure. Bo Sanden Assoc. Prof., Software Engineering George Mason University bsanden@gmu.edu http://www.isse.gmu.edu/faculty/bsanden
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:26:10 -0600

From: Nancy Mead <nrm@SEI.CMU.EDU

Subject: Reminder: CSEE Preliminary Program

Abbreviated Preliminary Program 1996 Conference on Software Engineering Education April 21-24, 1996 Daytona Beach, FL For a complete preliminary program, write to kpierce@d.umn.edu, or see the sei home page at http://www.sei.cmu.edu Sponsors Software Engineering Institute IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering Technical Committee on Software Engineering Education The SEI is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. In cooperation with Association for Computing Machinery IWCASE International Workshop on CASE YOU'RE INVITED Join your colleagues at the 9th Conference on Software Engineering Education (CSEE). Educators, trainers, managers, and administrators come gather together to exchange ideas about how to enhance software engineering training and education. CSEE attracts international participation and attendees come from industry, academia, and government. Our purpose is to influence educational directions, stimulate new approaches, promote collaboration, and generate interactive exchanges among all educational stakeholders. The Program The program includes keynote speakers, refereed papers, panel discussions, tutorials, and facilitated discussion groups. There will be opportunities to organize additional meetings, workshops, or Birds-of-a-feather sessions while you are there. Proceedings published by IEEE Computer Society Press will be distributed to attendees. Keynote Addresses: Dennis Frailey, Texas Instruments Innovate or Perish - The Opportunity for Software Engineering Education Barry Boehm, University of Southern California Helping Students Learn Requirements Engineering Robert B. Grady, Hewlett-Packard Company Lessons from Industrial Adoption of Software Engineering Practices Presentations and Panels: - -Undergraduate Curriculum: Integrating a Problem Solving Methodology and Group Skills into CS1 A Joint CS/E&CE Undergraduate Option in Software Engineering Software Engineering - From the Beginning - -Software Process Improvement: PANEL: CMM-Based Software Process Improvement Training: The First 2 Years Personal Software Process: A User's Perspective - -Undergraduate Projects Individual Assessment of Group Projects in Software Engineering - A Facilitated Peer Assessment Approach Balancing Process and Product Teaching Software Engineering Through Project-Oriented Course - -Graduate Software Engineering Education Curriculum The Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Masters of Software Engineering Specialization Tracks Carnegie Mellon's Software Development Studio: A Five Year Retrospective A Software Maintenance Process Architecture - -Tools-Based Education Panel: Use of Large, Domain Specific CASE tools in Undergraduate Curricula Integration of Software Tools in Software Engineering Education - -Practitioner Training A Model for Professional Training and Education within a Software Engineering Organization Process Improvement for Software Engineering Training The People Side of Software: A Lesson Plan for Establishing a Successful Training Program Stretching the McDonnell Douglas Software Training Budget: Striking a Balance Between In-House and Outsourcing - -Meeting Professional Needs Panel: Meeting Industry's Needs - Should we Teach the Software Engineering of the Past? Industry and University Partnership Through Consortia - -Software Engineering Education and Industry Panel: Changing Culture: An Industry Perspective on Graduate Software Engineering Education An Industry/Academic Partnership that Worked: An In Progress Report - -Leading Edge Issues Teaching and Testing Integrating Ethics and Professional Issues In a Software Engineering Class Using the World Wide Web to Promote Software Engineering Education
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:09:00 -0600

From: kpierce@d.umn.edu (Keith Pierce)

Subject: CFP OOPSLA96 Educators' Symposium

CALL TO PARTICIPATE OOPSLA '96 Educator's Symposium October 6-10, 1996 San Jose, California The OOPSLA Educators' Symposium is specifically designed for professionals who have a vested interest in object technology education and training. This one-day symposium is a unique forum for educators and practitioners to discuss their educational needs and their ideas in incorporating object technology into courses, curricula, and training plans. The symposium will include invited talks, paper presentations, panel(s), demonstrations, and possibly OOPSLA workshop report(s). We solicit papers, and proposals for panels, demonstrations, and workshop reports. Topic areas include: teaching experience in object technology at any level, effective object technology case studies and exercises, collaboration efforts between academia and industry for technology education and training, needs analysis for education and training, and innovative pedagogical approaches and techniques for teaching object technology. Selection will be based on relevance, clarity, and originality, as well as technical and educational merit. Deadline for submissions 1 March 1996. To see the complete call, contact OOPSLA Hotline: oopsla96@acm.org Web: http://www.acm.org/sigplan/oopsla/ Educators' Symposium Chair - Mahesh Dodani IBM Object Technology University 4828 Oak Way Raleigh, NC 27613 Phone: (919) 848-9898 FAX: (919) 254-3449 Email: dodani@vnet.ibm.com
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:11:09 -0600

From: Elliot Chikofsky <CHIKOFSKY@neu.edu

Subject: CFP 5th Reengineering Forum

Call for Presentations 5TH REENGINEERING FORUM 27-28 June 1996 St. Louis, Missouri "Reengineering: Gateway to a New Century" The Reengineering Forum is a combined industry/research review of the state of the art and the state of the practice in reengineering of software, systems, and business processes.. It is a meeting place for key people in the reengineering and reverse engineering fields: developers, researchers, and leading-edge users. Presentations are invited on all aspects of reengineering in practice: -- coping with the year 2000 millennium date crisis -- reengineering for applications and systems for the Intranet & Internet -- business process reengineering experience -- IT transformation to better support the enterprise -- experience with reengineering tools -- planning of reengineering projects -- reengineering cost/benefit analysis -- systems reengineering -- user interface reengineering -- transition planning -- software & data reengineering -- related topics... Our objective is to form a broad perspective snapshot of the present state of the field. Technical and user experience presentations are sought; sales pitches are discouraged. Blue sky, "what I really need is...", and reality-check presentations are welcome. The Forum includes presentations describing the current state and directions of products, prototypes, and approaches by experienced users, tools developers, and industrial and academic researchers. As a principal technical meeting of the reengineering field, a major focus of the Forum is to allow ample opportunity for one-on-one and group discussion among presenters and attendees. Interaction is paramount. The Forum is held as much to be a meeting place for the speakers to compare notes on the future of the field as it is for attendees to learn about the state-of-the-art and new developments. Since 1990, the Forum has been successful as a key resource for software and business systems professionals who are looking for, or developing, solutions for coping with existing system assets. Presentation and panel session proposals are due by March 1, 1996. Submit a 1-2 page description to: Karen White, TASC, 55 Walkers Brook Drive, Reading MA 01867 USA krwhite@tasc.com fax 617-942-7100 For more information: http://www.reengineer.org/forum The Forum also welcomes proposals for Discussion Round Table sessions. These are focused working discussions on technical topics. Round Table topics have included: reengineering economics models; development of a DoD reengineering strategy; revisiting the IEEE Software taxonomy of reverse engineering and reengineering; the role of standards in maintenance and reengineering. The Forum is a working meeting of the reengineering field, with a "rolling admissions" policy for accepting presentations. Some speaker slots are kept open until days before the meeting to enable previously undiscovered work and new results/developments to be presented. This yields a high-quality, timely, and very current program for Forum attendees. Speaker foils are published as the proceedings with as late a deadline as logistics will allow. Final dates/time for all speakers are assigned at the last possible minute, maximizing speaker participation in the entire meeting and retaining flexibility for the best possible program. Speakers are encouraged to be full participants in the Forum, and not just dropping in to give a presentation. As a meeting of the field, speakers pay an attendee fee. General Chair: Elliot Chikofsky, DMR Group, 404 Wyman Street, Suite 450, Waltham, MA 02154 USA 617-487-9000 x157; fax 617-272-8464; e.chikofsky@computer.org Program: Karen White, TASC, 55 Walkers Brook Drive, Reading, MA 01867 USA 617-942-2000 x2654; fax 617-942-7100; krwhite@tasc.com Exhibits: Judith Marx Golub, Software Management Network, B-10 Suite 237, 4546 El Camino Real, Los Altos, CA 94022 USA 415-969-5522; fax 415-969-5949; j.golub@computer.org Tutorials: Contact the General Chair or Program Chair. 5th Reengineering Forum is sponsored by the non-profit Reverse Engineering Forum Inc. In cooperation with: - -- Naval Surface Warfare Center - Dahlgren Division - -- Center for the Application of Information Technology (CAIT) at Washington University - St. Louis Cooperation pending with several national and international computing societes and professional organizations This year, the Forum joins with the NSC Forum of the National Software Council. The NSC Forum meeting on 25-26 June in the same location will focus on the national debate on the licensure or professional registration of software engineers, particularly regarding work on safety-critical systems. For information on the NSC Forum, see the Web site: http://www.nscusa.org/forum96
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:12:46 -0600

From: white@rbse.jsc.nasa.gov (Sharon White)

Subject: post doc in Software Engineering Ad

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING POST-DOCTORAL POSITIONS OPEN * Domain-Specific Architectural Design Language Generation Project * Legacy Program Understanding Through Program Slicing and Plan Recognition Project Qualifications and Experience The Institute for Space Systems Operations (ISSO) and the Repository Based Software Engineering (RBSE) research program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake announce two AEROSPACE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Post-Doctoral Fellowships to be awarded for a period of two years with a possible extension to three years based on funding and a successful project review. Applicants are sought who have research interests and experience in one or more of the areas of Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Software Design and Reuse, Reverse Engineering, and Language Design and Implementation. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in CS, CE, or a closely related field at time of appointment. Knowledge of Compiler theory and Language theory is a plus. Compiler writing experience is desirable as well as familiarity with Lex and Yacc or similar compiler-writing tools. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential as well as the ability to work with others in a collaborative research setting. Duties will consist primarily of research and implementation issues as defined in the project description for each funded Fellowship. The application procedure is described on the WWW pages associated with the project. Applications will be accepted until position is filled. Appointment can be made as early as January 1, 1996 or as late as Summer 1996. APPLICATION PROCEDURE and PROJECT DESCRIPTION For application procedure, project description, and other information concerning the Domain-Specific Architectural Design Language Generation Project see the WWW page: http://rbse.jsc.nasa.gov/~white/postdoc.html. For application procedure, project description and other information concerning "Legacy Program Understanding Through Program Slicing and Plan Recognition" see the WWW page: http://rbse.jsc.nasa.gov/eichmann/isso. INFORMATION CONCERNING ISSO and RBSE For a complete listing of all Post-doctoral fellowships to be awarded through ISSO see the ISSO home page: http://www.uh.edu/isso/. For information regarding the Repository Based Software Engineering Program (RBSE) at UHCL and its parent organization Research Institute for Computing and Information Systems (RICIS) see the WWW page: http://rbse.jsc.nasa.gov/.
Date: 9 Feb 1996 09:14:40 -0600

From: michaelw@karl.cs.su.oz.au (Michael Wise

Subject: CFP First Australian Conference on Computer Science Education

The First Australasian Conference on Computer Science Education will be held at Sydney, Australia, on July 3-5 1996. The conference solicits submissions which describe innovations in teaching computer science, information systems, and information technology, at all post-secondary levels. Typical subjects include * new course content, * new curriculum structure, * new methods of instruction, * new methods of assessment, * new tools to aid in teaching or learning, * and new results evaluating alternative approaches. These innovations may be in the context of formal courses or self-directed learning; they may involve introductory programming, service courses, specialist undergraduate or even postgraduate topics. The ACM SIGCSE conference provides a model for the style of paper, and ACM recognition is being sought for this event. Also we particularly welcome work directed at issues of local importance (eg quality management in teaching, teaching for indigenous people, attracting and retaining female students, articulation between vocational and university education). The program committee will select the papers to appear, based on their potential to enhance learning outcomes in CS, IS and IT courses at universities in the Australasian region. Submissions are limited to 10 pages. We are seeking to arrange publication of the proceedings. Submission deadline is April 1 1995. We prefer electronic submissions, by using anonymous ftp to deposit a postscript file in the directory pub/acse96 at ftp.cs.su.oz.au If this is not feasible you may send 5 paper copies to Professor J. Rosenberg Dept of Computer Science F09 University of Sydney 2006 Australia. Program Committee - - John Rosenberg (Sydney) Program chair - - Judith Gersting (UHawaii) - - Gopal Gupta (James Cook) - - John Hurst (Monash) - - Andrew Lister (Qld) - - Chris McDonald (UWA) - - Cedric Richardson (UTS) - - Ken Robinson (UNSW) - - Jeff Rohl (UWA) - - Joy Teague (Deakin) - - Ewan Tempero (VUWellington) - - Janet Verbyla (Flinders) General Chair: Alan Fekete (Sydney) Finance/Local Arrangements: Michael Wise (Sydney) For more information contact John Rosenberg or Michael Wise by email (johnr@cs.su.oz.au or michaelw@cs.su.oz.au) or by fax: +61 2 3513838 or phone +61 2 3513423. Also, visit us on the Web at http://www.cs.su.oz.au/acse96/

FASE Volume 6 Number 3 Send newsletter articles to one of the editors, preferably by category: Articles pertinent to corporate and government training to Kathy Beckman, sdmce@access.digex.net; Academic education, and all other categories, to Keith Pierce, kpierce@d.umn.edu (Messages routed to fase-submit@d.umn.edu still go to Keith) Send requests to add, delete, or modify a subscription to fase-request@d.umn.edu Send problem reports, returned mail, or other correspondence about this newsletter to fase-owner@d.umn.edu, or kpierce@d.umn.edu You can retrieve back issues by anonymous FTP from from ricis.cl.uh.edu or through WWW at URL http://ricis.cl.uh.edu/FASE/ Keith Pierce -- Academic/Misc Editor and ListMaster University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812-2496 USA Phone: 218- 726-7194 Fax: 218-726-6360 Email: kpierce@d.umn.edu Kathy Beckman -- Corporate/Government Editor Computer Data Systems One Curie Ct., Rockville MD 20850 USA Phone: 301-921-7027 Fax: 301-921-1004 Email: sdmce@access.digex.net David Eichmann -- FASE Archivist University of Houston - Clear Lake Box 113, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058 USA Web: http://ricis.cl.uh.edu/eichmann/ Phone: 713-283-3875 Fax: 713-283-3810 Email: eichmann@rbse.jsc.nasa.gov or eichmann@cl.uh.edu Laurie Werth -- Advisory Committee Taylor Hall 2.124 University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 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