Forum for Advancing Software Engineering Volume 6, Number 01, Fri Jan 26 15:21:47 CST 1996 Topics: WORKING GROUPS Working Group on Software Engineering Education EDUCATION/TRAINING SOURCES AdaIC News for Educators and Trainers TRAINING METHODS Survey -- Learning Menus for Software Engineering Training FACULTY POSITIONS University of Missouri - Rolla CALLS FOR PAPERS 3rd Working Conference on Reverse Engineering A------------------------------------------------------- From: Nancy Mead Subject: Working Group on Software Engineering Education An informal working group on software engineering education and training has been established. The mission, activities, membership, etc. are outlined below. The group is facilitated by Nancy Mead at the Software Engineering Institute. If you would like to be an active member in the group, please contact Nancy at nrm@sei.cmu.edu . Members are expected to attend working meetings and work on actions identified by the group. Members are responsible for their own labor and travel, as noted below. Working group on Software Engineering Education and Training Mission - improve the state of software engineering education and training practice in professional development - propose solutions for world at large - propose solutions to broader issues Activities - investigate issues, propose solutions, and take appropriate actions - publish state of the practice Information (results from actions of group) - publish working group activities and results Membership - professionals in industry, government, and academia willing to work toward improving software engineering education (see mission) - invitation only (Professionals are welcome to join the working group at any time. If the working group begins to get too large, the issue will be revisited.) - meet 2 days, twice yearly - members responsible for their own labor and expenses Purpose - share information and best practices on software engineering education - investigate issues and proposing solutions and actions - promote industry, government, academic collaboration - promote software engineering education as a student (customer)-centered activity - promote investment in training by management and employees - clarify the role of education and its benefit - obtain and publish data on software engineering education at all levels A------------------------------------------------------- From: kpierce@d.umn.edu (Keith Pierce) Subject: AdaIC News for Educators and Trainers The Ada Joint Programming Office (AJPO) administers the Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC) which is now accessible through AJPO's home page at . This site includes much of interest to educators and trainers, such as: * a freely availabe Ada95 compiler * freely available Ada curriculum materials for university courses * a keyword search for university, defense school, and commercial or computer-aided training: Ada course titles, descriptions, and materials. * lists of texts * a free downloadable Ada text * lists of Ada training tapes * A Memo by Donald J.Reifer on advancing a Computer-Based Training (CBT) strategy for use in educating and training practitioners to effectively use the features of the Ada programming language. A------------------------------------------------------- From: sdmce@access.digex.net (Kathy Beckman) Subject: Survey -- Learning Menus for Software Engineering Training In "How Software Personnel Learn New Skills" published in the December, 1995 issue of IEEE Computer (Volume 28, No.12) , Capers Jones of Software Productivity Research, Inc. describes the results of a study his company conducted on methods software engineers can use to stay current and learn new skills. He identified the following 10 methods, or "learning channels," and commented on their effectiveness: 1. In-house education (most effective overall because focused on specific topics needed by the software organization) 2. Commercial education (often the best source for new topics) 3. Vendor education (often mandatory if using vendor's tool) 4. University education (academic offerings may not be state of the art, but some schools are partnering with businesses to eliminate this gap) 5. Conferences (good for introducing new software technologies) 6. Self-study, including print, video, and audio (good for introductory level, established technologies) 7. Self-study/CD-ROM (offerings expanding greatly) 8. On-line education (another expanding learning channel) 9. Professional books (good source, but software engineers cite lack of time to read on the job) 10. Software journals (niche journals on specialized software engineering topics and vendor journals contain the most in-depth articles) Mr. Jones concludes that "no single educational channel appears sufficient by itself." As a result, he finds that the "larger, more progressive U.S. software firms" offer a comprehensive menu of learning options to their software engineers that typically includes: -entry-level training for new personnel (4 to 10 weeks) -in-house topical training (5 to 15 days) -vendor training (1 to 5 days) -funding for one external seminar -funding for one conference -tuition reimbursement programs for job-related university courses -access to technical libraries -Internet access -self-study courses (print, video, CD-ROM) Here's a question for our FASE subscribers: What is the learning menu in your organization for software engineers and software managers? Please reply to Kathy Beckman, e-mail: sdmce@access.digex.net. I will collate and publish results in a future issue. A------------------------------------------------------- From: jlu@umr.edu Subject: Faculty Vacancy THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ROLLA Department of Computer Science The Department of Computer Science invites applications for a tenure-track position at the level of assistant professor. Employment will begin August 15, 1996. Qualifications for the position include an earned doctorate in Computer Science before August 15, 1996. The faculty member is expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses as well as engage in research in distributed files and databases; and have an interest in software engineering. Research in the Department is active in the areas of parallel and distributed computing, scientific computing, software engineering, and intelligent systems. The University of Missouri-Rolla is the primary science and engineering campus of the University of Missouri system and as such provides opportunities for interdisciplinary research with faculty members in other departments. The UMR Intelligent Systems Center also provides interdisciplinary research opportunities and faculty members may become research investigators in that center. The Department grants the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees and currently has about 100 graduate students. Departmental hardware includes a variety of workstations: SUN, SUN Sparc 20, IBM, SGI and NeXT, as well as an iPSC/860 32 processor multicomputer. A wide range of software is available for use by students and faculty. The committee will begin the review of applications on February 15, 1996. Applications will be accepted until April 1, 1996. Applicants should send a vita and a statement of research and teaching interests, and arrange to have three letters of reference sent to: Chairman, Faculty Search Committee Department of Computer Science University of Missouri-Rolla Rolla, MO 65401 Phone: 314-341-4492 E-mail: csdept@cs.umr.edu For additional information, you may access the Department's home page via Mosaic at http://www.cs.umr.edu. UM-Rolla is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and especially encourages applications from both minorities and women. A------------------------------------------------------- From: Elliot Chikofsky Subject: CFP - 3rd Working Conference on Reverse Engineering 3rd Working Conference on Reverse Engineering Friday-Sunday November 8-10, 1996 Monterey, California, USA in conjunction with ICSM'96 Papers due April 22, 1996. Sponsorship pending from: - IEEE-CS TCSE Committee on Reverse Engineering - ACM SIGSoft - Reengineering Forum Web site: http://www.ee.gatech.edu/conferences/WCRE Anonymous ftp: ftp.ee.gatech.edu:/pub/WCRE/ Reverse engineering has become a central activity not only in maintaining and upgrading existing software, but also in the evolutionary development of new software systems. There is an increasing synergy between forward and reverse engineering processes, as software engineers build new systems whichcapitalize on valuable existing software assets. This growing emphasis on software evolution and the economic pressures to salvage huge software investments has generated a strong demand for tools and methodologies to support reverse engineering activities. Researchers in industry and academia are being drawn to the interesting and pressing problems fundamental to reverse engineering. The Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE) is the premier research-oriented conference addressing the theory and technology of recovering information from existing software and systems. Our purpose is to explore innovative methods of extracting the many kinds of information that can be recovered from software, software engineering documents, and systems artifacts, and to examine innovative ways of using this information. WCRE is a "working" conference, emphasizing focused discussion interspersed with paper presentations. It allows researchers and practitioners to discuss research approaches as a group and to compare notes on the state-of-the-art and direction of all aspects of software and data reverse engineering. The Working Conference will discuss current research directions (including the role of formal semantics, object-oriented methods, incremental approaches, and domain modeling/knowledge), examine enabling technologies, and consider future requirements of methods and tools for supporting: == Reverse Engineering to recover: - specifications - designs - business rules - interface descriptions - architectures - implementations - multi-component threads - control structures - algorithms - domain concepts - objects - reusable components - data structures - requirements (functional and performance) - behavioral properties - data models == Reverse Engineering to achieve: - enterprise-wide system analysis and understanding - system documentation, visualization, animation, and rationalization - program restructuring, translation, and parallelization - migration to new languages, user interfaces, or hardware platforms - business process reengineering - test generation, planning, and coverage verification - performance optimization and architecture standardization - reuse and maintenance assistance - domain engineering and synthesis - validation of changed systems - program understanding - trait-based cluster analysis and duplication detection. Overarching issues in guiding and enabling reverse engineering research will also be explored. These include: - providing frameworks for leveraging research efforts - integrating reverse engineering with forward engineering - performing human factors studies - formalizing the methods and theory of the field - validating reverse engineering technology. Papers reporting on systems that experiment with real data and address problems of real economic importance are strongly preferred. Preference will also be based on the extent to which an approach builds on previous results, existing tools and knowledge bases, as well as whether the results can be built upon. Authors are encouraged to show how their reverse engineering technology fits with a forward engineering framework. All papers should explicitly state the goals of systems or approaches described and should use accepted, standard terminology (ref. IEEE Software, January 1990). In addition to system-oriented papers, we welcome papers describing publicly available data sets that may form a basis for comparison across research efforts. Papers describing case studies of reverse engineering efforts and the processes involved are also sought. Papers should be original work, limited to 10 proceedings pages, at most 6000 words. Papers must not have been previously published nor have been submitted to, or be in consideration for, any journal, book, or conference. SUBMIT SIX (6) COPIES by APRIL 22, 1996 to: Linda Wills School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 777 Atlantic Drive Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 USA phone 404-894-4565 fax 404-894-9959 Notification will be sent to authors by June 28, 1996. Camera-ready copy is due on August 15, 1996. The Working Conference attendance will be limited to 75 to 100 active researchers in Reverse Engineering and related fields, to enable meaningful discussion. Presentations covering the essential points of the work are limited to 20 minutes (strictly enforced), followed by discussion. Authors of appropriate research-quality submitted papers have first opportunity to attend; general registration will then be in order received after July 15. Proceedings of the Working Conference will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press. The 1993 and 1995 WCRE proceedings are available (cs.books@computer.org; phone +1-714-821-8380 or +1-800-CS-BOOKS). Questions may be directed to wcre@computer.org. General Chair: Elliot Chikofsky DMR Group Inc. & Northeastern University, USA e.chikofsky@computer.org Program Chairs: Linda Wills Georgia Institute of Technology, USA linda@ee.gatech.edu Ira Baxter Semantic Designs, USA idbaxter@semdesigns.com Program Committee: Brenda Baker, AT&T Bell Laboratories (USA) Paul Bailes, University of Queensland (Australia) Keith Bennett, University of Durham (UK) Michael Blaha, OMT Associates (USA) Shawn Bohner, MITRE Corporation (USA) Gerardo Canfora, University of Naples Federico II (Italy) Betty Cheng, Michigan State University (USA) Aniello Cimitile, University of Naples Federico II (Italy) James H. Cross II, Auburn University (USA) Kathi Hogshead Davis, Northern Illinois University (USA) Premkumar Devanbu, AT&T Research (USA) Helen Edwards, University of Sunderland (UK) David Eichmann, University of Houston - Clear Lake (USA) Harald Gall, Vienna University of Technology (Austria) Cordell Green, Kestrel Institute (USA) Jean-Luc Hainaut, University of Namur (Belgium) John Hartman, Ohio State University (USA) Stan Jarzabek, National University of Singapore (Singapore) W. Lewis Johnson, USC / Information Sciences Institute (USA) Kostas Kontogiannis, University of Toronto (Canada) Julio Cesar Leite, Pontificia Univ do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Mitch Lubars, Scientific & Engineering Software (USA) Larry Markosian, Reasoning Systems (USA) Ettore Merlo, Ecole Polytechnique - Univ of Montreal (Canada) Hausi Muller, University of Victoria (Canada) John Mylopoulos, University of Toronto (Canada) James Neighbors, Bayfront Technologies (USA) Philip Newcomb, The Software Revolution (USA) Jim Qun Ning, Andersen Consulting (USA) Michael Olsem, USAF Software Technology Support Center (USA) Alex Quilici, University of Hawaii (USA) Howard B. Reubenstein, GTE Laboratories (USA) Spencer Rugaber, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) Scott Tilley, Software Engineering Inst (USA) Giuseppe Visaggio, University of Bari (Italy) Daniel Weise, Microsoft Research (USA) Mark L. Wilson, Naval Surface Warfare Center (USA) Alexander S. Yeh, MITRE Corporation (USA) E------------------------------------------------------------------- FASE Volume 6 Number 01 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