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Contents

• CSEET Overview and Notes
• CSE Overview and Notes
• Software Engineering Body of Knowledge
• Computer Security
• Reuse Tapestry Ties/Benefits

The overall theme of CSEET was Software Engineering Coming of Age. This conference also had several subordinate themes:

1. Professional Issues (Accreditation, Licensing, Ethics)
2. Training Curricula
3. Distance Education
4. Methods/Process
5. Undergraduate and Graduate Curricula

Details on these topics (and others) can be found in the conference proceedings (one copy is available from me and more copies can be purchased from the IEEE).

Several trends can be observed, both at this conference and on the Internet/Web:

• The shortage of skilled software personnel in both industry and academia continues and appears to be accelerating. The shortage of people with software development has been obvious for some time (as of the date of this report, there were 5,500 computer jobs for the Atlanta area posted on one website). There is also a shortage of professors in the colleges and universities to teach the material (over 700 faculty job openings are currently open in the literature). While the number of students adopting Computer Science as a major is dropping significantly, the faculty population seems to be dropping faster (caused by both retirement and a movement to higher paying jobs in industry). Reliance on adjunct faculty from industry is at an all-time high, and availability of adjunct faculty is diminishing. For example, the Computer Science and Information Systems Department at Kennesaw State University currently has 16 full-time professors and 25 adjunct professors.

• The Personal Software Process (PSP) and Team Software Process (TSP) is increasingly being viewed as a significant tool for improving software quality. Several universities are currently using it or teaching it (including Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University in the Atlanta area).

  A Summer Faculty Workshop series on the PSP and the TSP is being held at Southern Polytechnic State University. It is sponsored by Southern Poly in conjunction with the Software Engineering Institute, and the instructors are Dr. Bob Cannon of the University of South Caroline, Dr. Jorge Diaz-Herrera of Southern Poly, and Dr. Tom Hilburn of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Dates are:

  Personal Software Process (PSP)	26-29 July 2000
  Introductory Team Software Process (TSPi)	31 July - 3 August 2000

• A lot of emphasis is being placed on the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. However, very little was said about the licensing of software engineers, which was a hot topic last year. Texas was the first state to require software engineers to carry a license (but the Texas law applies only to commercial software engineers, specifically excluding DoD contractors).

• Software Engineering educational efforts are entering the universities in a wide variety of forms. However, they are typically being taught by Computer Science professors, and, often, these professors do not usually have an appreciation of or experience in software engineering. Again, there is a growing reliance on adjuncts from industry, and these adjuncts are actual practitioners and Software Engineers.

CSE Overview and Notes

There is no one particular theme to the CSE, although distinct interest areas were evident in:

• Graphics and Visualization
• Algorithms
• Databases
• Distributed and Parallel Computing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Web-based Technology
• Networks and E-commerce
• Software Engineering
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Information Technology
• Distance Education
• Object Orientation
• CS1 and CS2 (introductory Computer Science courses)

Over 800 people (mainly university professors) were pre-registered for this international event. Representatives from most of the major publishers, such as Addison-Wesley and Prentice-Hall, and technology leaders, such as Microsoft and Borland, were also present, providing professors with the opportunity to evaluate the latest and most popular books from each publisher and request desk copies and to evaluate the latest tools for adoption at the university (Microsoft, for example, gave away copies of Windows 2000 Professional to every attendee).

There were many events in addition to the normal technical sessions, including:

• The Doctoral Consortium, where students enrolled in a PhD program give short, critiqued presentations of their research ideas and ongoing research.

• Numerous panels, seminars, and birds-of-a-feather sessions on topics including, but not limited to:
  • CS1 and CS2
  • Starting Computer Engineering Programs
  • Student Outcomes Assessment
  • Information Systems Accreditation
  • Curriculum 2001: The ACM/IEEE-CS Task Force
  • ABET/CSAB Integration (these are Engineering and Computer Science accreditation boards)
  • Support for Integrating Adjunct Professors
  • Information Technology Programs assimilated into Computer Science Departments
  • Software Engineering Programs assimilated into Computer Science Departments
  • Team Software Projects
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Ethics and Social Issues, including Computer Network Security
  • Funding Opportunities with the National Science Foundation

• Exhibits of latest books and technologies, including, but not limited to:
  • Latest and most popular books from all the leading publishers. Professors used this opportunity to review books on the spot and order/pick up free evaluation copies.
    
    CLICK HERE to view pictures of the exhibit area.

  • Latest technologies from the Ada community. I was one of several volunteers who manned the SIGAda booth (sponsored by both SIGAda and the Ada Resources Association, a consortium of Ada technology companies including Rational and Aonix), where we gave away hundreds of free CDROMs, including the "Discovering Ada" CDROM (a full multimedia tutorial on Ada95) and the "BURKS 4" CDROM (a collection of freeware compilers for 20 different languages, including, but not limited to, compilers for Ada95, C++, Java, APL, Pascal, FORTRAN, Eiffel, FORTH, ICON, LISP, Modula-2, Perl, Prolog, Smalltalk, and Tcl/Tk). We also sold copies of the Ada and Software Engineering 4-disc CDROM set. Over 100 colleges and universities are teaching Ada to Freshman, and many more are including Ada in their courses on comparative languages.
    
    CLICK HERE to view pictures of the SIGAda booth and volunteers.

  • Latest technologies from Microsoft (Visual Studio 6.0 and Windows 2000), Borland (J (for Java) Builder), and the National Science Foundation.
    
    CLICK HERE to view pictures of the technology booths.

Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK)

The IEEE Computer Society has entered a pilot partnership with five colleges to offer professional software engineering standards-based training courses based on the SWEBOK. The program is designed to enhance the ongoing professional devleopment of software engineers, promote timely skills training for industry practitioners, encourage the wider use of standards, and advance the professional status of software engineers by encouraging the offering of standards-based training courses. Sourthern Polytechnic State University is the pilot site for this program serving the southeastern United States (including LMAS) and will offer the following courses starting in May 2000:

• Software Lifecycle Management
• Software Engineering Project Management
• Software Process Improvement
• Software Engineering Risk Management
• Software Requirements
• Estimating, Measuring, and Controlling Software Cost and Schedule
• Software Engineering Metrics and Measurements

A special presentation on the SWEBOK will be made at the DoD Software Technology Conference (30 April - 5 May 2000) by Jim Moore of MITRE and Perry DeWeese of Lockheed Martin.

Computer Security

The security of our computer networks has become a national concern, and the 4^th Annual National Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education has been scheduled for 23-25 May 2000. It is sponsored/supported by the White House Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, the National Security Agency, the Office of Personnel Management, James Madison University, and others. The call for papers has been released.

Reuse Tapestry Ties/Benefits

Numerous benefits from this conference fall under my Reuse Tapestry activities (CLICK HERE to find out more about my activities, particularly Reuse Tapestry). Many new assets discussed at this conference are set to be distributed with the upcoming Update 3 Ada and Software Engineering Library 2-disc CDROM set, which is scheduled for release at the DoD Software Technology Conference starting 30 April 2000.

See the Ada and Software Engineering (ASE) Library websites at Free Software (sponsored by Walnut Creek CDROM) and Kennesaw State University for more information on Reuse Tapestry, of which the ASE Library is a part.

NAVIGATION

• Questions or comments? Send email to Rick Conn