Forum for Advancing Software engineering EducationForum for Advancing Software engineering Education
Volume 6 Number 17 August 16, 1996
Contents:
Reminder: Deadline for CSEE&T Submissions
Software Engineering Education Site - part of SEweb
Software Management Workshops
University-Industry Collaboration -- Some UK Experiences
Seminar - Safety-critical issues in requirements engineering
CFP: 10th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training
Subject: Reminder: Deadline for CSEE&T Submissions
A reminder that deadlines for the 10th Conference on Software Engineering
Education are fast approaching. All submissions (papers, panels, workshops,
presentations, experience reports, tutorials) are due by September 1, 1996.
For more information, see the call at the end of this issue, or contact me.
Subject: Software Engineering Education Site - part of SEweb
http://tuvalu.cs.flinders.edu.au/seweb/se-ed/
A World Wide Web site concerned with software engineering education issues. It
provides information on university and other courses in Australia, and some
limited information on international and general offerings. It also provides
information for those interested in developing, discussing and delivering
software engineering education.
The software engineering education site is only one of the subject areas in
the SEweb project of the CSIRO in Australia.
http://seweb.dit.csiro.au/
SEweb aims provide access to a wide range of software engineering information
resources, with a focus on Australian resources, but also covering
international offerings. It is worth a visit.
Subject: Software Management Workshops
A Joint Logistics Commanders education and training working group will
broadcast two training sessions this fall. They are free to anyone who
would like to participate. The topics of the broadcasts are "Practical
Software Measurement" (Sept. 5), and "Open Systems for Executives" (October
17), two US Department of Defense initiatives for DOD managers.
For detailed description of the workshops, see the web site
http://diamond.spawar.navy.mil/specs/jlc/broadcst.html.
Any additional questions or comments concerning the broadcast availability,
email Dwayne Hardy at hardy_dwayne%p-ascnc2.mrouter@seaa.navsea.navy.mil or
call (703)418-4574 and ask for "JLC Broadcast".
Subject: University-Industry Collaboration -- Some UK Experiences
EDITOR'S NOTE.
The following article is a response from Alan Jones, University of Teesside,
UK. to an article by Pete Knoke, University of Alaska Fairbanks,
"INDUSTRY/UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION: FINDING PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT LEVEL,"
published in FASE V6 n15. Pete Knoke comments,
"I believe his (Alan Jones') concerns are very valid, especially re.
"wastage". I am glad to have his feedback, and I thank him for providing it.
It is definitely not good to raise hopes that can't be satisfied. Perhaps the
language of the solicitation can be chosen to make sure that unrealistic hopes
do not arise. Unfortunately, I find that with press releases the originator's
control of language is (to say the least) limited."
INDUSTRY/UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION - SOME UK EXPERIENCES
Re: Pete Knoke's case study (FASE V6 n15) about procuring projects for
Computer Science seniors at UAF.
I read his account with growing alarm at the similarities between his
procurement method and one we changed radically two years ago because of
disastrous industry responses.
I am leader of an advanced postgraduate one-year Master's programme in
Software Engineering. Details of this programme have appeared previously n
FASE. We used to advertise by mailshot and telephone (not advertising or
editorial) for project 'offers' in order to address two main targets: a)
setting up relevant industry collaborations for software engineering projects
b) giving graduate students choices to control their owneducation (the
postgraduate ethos).
Like Pete, I have a model of the "right person"; he or she is the problem
owner, someone with a 'wish-list' characterised by one or both of i) I wish I
had the resource to do this, and/or ii) I wish I knew more about this.
When such a person is found, I 'sell' the advantages of very low-cost student
labour with high-skill state-of-the-art capability/skill. When this person
'buys-in' to the personal, project or company advantages, he or she becomes
a 'mover-and shaker' to effect the successful acceptance of an
industry-university collaborative project with the company management. Notice
that many more contacts are made than projects are needed, but that it is very
difficult to cut-off a contact once made without appearing very churlish or
greedy. After all, we want the project, don't we?
It is not always uphill; various alert companies, like British Telecom and
British Steel, are proactively engaging in developing links with
universities.
We started operations in 1990. By 1994, with 17 students, I had procured 43
projects. In that year, the School of Computing and Mathematics here at
Teesside was confirmed as Excellent in its teaching of computing. The
assessors singled-out the postgraduate courses for especially favourable
mention, and this included the industrial collaboration. Teesside was
confirmed in the top rank for computing, and is the only 'new' university in
the top rank alongside Cambridge, York, Exeter, Manchester and Kent.
But it was very expensive, time-consuming work and I had started to notice
customer resistance to the provision of projects. Typically, my wastage rate
was about 50-55%. I note with alarm that Pete Knoke's wastage rate is 80%.
In a quality view, such waste is bad business; bad for the University image,
in not closing the loop and engaging a student on to an offered project; bad
for future procurement, because in future the whole exercise may seem
fruitless from the industry point of view.
We applied Crosby quality analysis to cut down the number of frustrated
projects. A frustrated project is a client problem without student effort or
interest. From 1995, students have exercised their preferences to pre-select
areas of interest. We now operate a procurement phase that maintains the
postgraduate ethos of choice but only pursues the exact number of projects
needed. A by-product is our ability to further engage the mover-and-shaker by
guaranteeing a particular student with a particular CV when making the
initial contact, and to flush-out and kill-off any luke-warm response by
making plain our need to procure a project for a particular student.
This change of approach has maintained our Industry-Collaboration links,
cut-down our costs of procurement and corrected a dangerous image of
unreliability that had been secretly growing within our Industry community.
Alan Jones, University of Teesside,
School of Computing and Mathematics,
Cleveland TS1 3BA
Tel 01642 342681 fax 01642 230527 email alan.jones@tees.ac.uk
Subject: Seminar - Safety-critical issues in requirements engineering
REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING SPECIALIST GROUP OF THE BCS
Half-day meeting - 4 speakers & panel session
THEME: Safety-Critical Issues in Requirements Engineering
VENUE: Seminar Room X/D007
Main Building
Department of Computer Science
University of York
DATE: September 18th 1996
TIME: 2:00pm - 5:00pm
ABSTRACT:
The engineering of requirements for safety-critical systems places
particular demands upon the development process. There are complex issues
of traceability, specification, and certification. Not only that, but the
issue of software safety must be examined at the Systems level in order to
fully understand the effect of the software on the overall system safety.
This in turn means that safety requirements can originate from many
disparate sources and disciplines, and that they must be examined using a
wide variety of analytical techniques.
This RESG meeting will explore these concepts and provide attendees with a
broad coverage of the relevant issues. The meeting will consist of four
presentations followed by a panel discussion. We have selected speakers
who will between them identify the open research questions, promising
technical directions, and examples of best-case industrial practise. We
are very pleased to announce the following speakers from academia and
industry:
John McDermid (University of York)
Amer Saeed (University of Newcastle)
Barry Hebbron (University of Teesside)
Mike Gainford and Jason Beerling (Rolls-Royce)
The Department of Computer Science is easy to reach by road and by rail,
and is housed within the University of York's campus. The campus is
well-known for its lake and wildfowl and is in close proximity to the
historic city of York.
ADMISSION: Free to members of the RESG and students
5 pounds sterling to others
(BCS members are eligible for discounted membership of the RESG)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT:
1. The meeting or access to York, contact Dr Andy Vickers by phone on
01904 434 727 or by email on andyv@minster.york.ac.uk
2. Membership of the RESG, contact Dr Sara Jones, School of Information
Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB
Fax: 01707 284303 (S.Jones@herts.ac.uk)
3. The RESG or BCS, visit our web home page http://www.OiT.co.uk/resg
__________________________________________________________________________
DR ORLENA GOTEL
Dept Computer Science Tel: +44 (0)171-477-8000 x3700
City University Fax: +44 (0)171-477-8587
Northampton Square Email: olly@soi.city.ac.uk
London EC1V OHB http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/homes/olly
Subject: CFP: 10th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training
You are invited to participate in the 10th Conference on Software Engineering
Education and Training (CSEE&T) April 13-16, 1997, in Virginia Beach, Va. The
theme of the conference is Transitions to the 21st Century.
Educators, trainers, executives, managers, and administrators gather to
exchange ideas about how to enhance software engineering training and
education. The CSEE&T attracts international participation from industry,
academe, and government. The purpose of the CSEE&T is to influence
educational directions, stimulate new approaches, promote collaboration, and
generate interactive exchanges among software engineering stakeholders.
Government, business, and academe are changing rapidly as emerging
technologies create possibilities that were unheard of ten years ago. New
platforms have shifted the emphasis from centralized systems, to distributed
environments, to the Internet. Advances in telecommunications and networking
have changed the focus from proprietary systems to data and information.
Satisfying customer requirements quickly and accurately within this framework
of profound change has resulted in new software engineering approaches,
methodologies, and tools.
Education and training need to evolve to meet the challenges ahead. The
question for the future is how and in what way we educate and train software
engineers and their managers.
Conference topics include
The future of software
. predictions for the future
. the emergence of true artificial intelligence
. technology challenges ahead
. the changing role of software in business management
. changes to the software engineering organization
The software engineering profession
. competencies that will be needed in the future
. the impact of new life cycles, methodologies, and tools
. the people side of software engineering
The effects of change on software engineering curricula
. software engineering education and the customer's voice
. new education and training philosophies and paradigms
. how to measure the return on investment from education and training
. how to create a "learning" academic institution
Innovative approaches for software engineering courses
. cutting-edge programs in software engineering
. examples of high-performing curricula
. motivations for educators and trainers to explore new learning approaches
. the Internet as a tool for educators and trainers
Industry-academia collaboration
. the current state of collaborative efforts
. lessons learned from the collaborative model
. examples of highly successful collaborations
. how to measure the effect of collaboration on companies and communities
. the effect of collaboration on software engineering education and training
. how much collaboration is necessary
Alternative delivery methods
. new tools and techniques available to educators
. the classroom setting versus learning online in the office or at home
. comparative studies of different delivery methods
Advanced training and education management methods
. total quality management applied in an academic setting
. how educators can be trained to be better teachers
. the role of the student in education management
. compensation and reward systems for educators
. how to apply statistical process control to education
. whether or not students are empowered to learn
Submission guidelines and procedures
We request papers and proposals for workshops, panel discussions, experience
reports, and presentations. We welcome proposals for half- and full-day
tutorials. We invite innovative suggestions for informal meetings, such as
poster sessions or birds-of-a-feather sessions. Submissions should relate to
the conference theme and topics, though this is not mandatory.
Submit five copies of a paper or proposal. Put only the title and beginning
text of the submission on the first page of a paper. Provide a separate
cover sheet with title, all authors' names, affiliations, complete
addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
Accepted contributions will appear in the conference proceedings, published
by IEEE.
Important dates
All submissions (papers, panels, workshops, presentations, experience reports,
tutorials) are due by September 1, 1996. Notification of acceptance will be
made by November 1, 1996. Final presentation materials must be received by
January 1, 1997.
There will be a limited number of exhibit tables available at the CSEE&T.
The tables will be provided at no charge to conference participants and
will be distributed in the order requests are received.
Program Committee
Clark Archer, Winthrop University
Kathy Beckman, Computer Data Systems, Inc.
Neal Coulter, Florida Atlantic University
Jorge Diaz-Herrera, SEI
Chuck Engle, Defense Information Systems Agency
Bernice Folz, University of St. Thomas
Gary Ford, SEI
Christopher Fox, James Madison University
Dennis Frailey, Texas Instruments
Thomas Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Michael Lutz, Rochester Institute of Technology
Mike McCracken, Georgia Institute of Technology
Cliona McGowan, European Software Institute
Kathleen O'Connor, Motorola Inc.
George O'Mary, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace
Judy Phelan, Bell Atlantic
Karl Reed, La Trobe University
Hossein Saiedian, University of Nebraska
Laurie Werth, University of Texas, Austin
Send submissions to
Charlene Rauber
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
4500 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Phone
412 / 268-3007
FAX
412 / 268-5758
Internet
education@sei.cmu.edu
Larry Tobin
General Chair
Lawrence Tobin Associates
Internet
ltatrain@erols.com
Keith Pierce
Program Chair
University of Minnesota, Duluth
Internet
kpierce@d.umn.edu
Sponsored by the SEI.
Co-sponsorship with the IEEE Computer Society is pending.
In cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
The SEI is a federally funded research and development center funded by the
U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University.>Program
Committee
FASE Volume VOLUME Number NUMBER
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University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812-2496 USA
Phone: 218- 726-7194
Fax: 218-726-6360
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Computer Data Systems
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Laurie Werth -- Advisory Committee
Taylor Hall 2.124
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 USA
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Nancy Mead -- Advisory Committee
Software Engineering Institute
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