Software Engineering Education Needs More Engineering

To what extent is “software engineering” really “engineering” as this term is commonly understood? A hallmark of the products of the traditional engineering disciplines is trustworthiness based on dependability. But in his keynote presentation at ICSE 2006 Barry Boehm pointed out that individuals’, systems’, and peoples’ dependency on software is becoming increasingly critical, yet that dependability is generally not the top priority for software intensive system producers. Continuing in an uncharacteristic pessimistic vein, Professor Boehm said that this situation will likely continue until a major software-induced system catastrophe similar in impact to the 9/11 World Trade Center catastrophe stimulates action toward establishing accountability for software dependability. He predicts that it is highly likely that such a software-induced catastrophe will occur between now and 2025. It is widely understood that software, i.e., computer programs, are intrinsically different from traditionally engineered products, but in one aspect they are identical: the extent to which the well-being of individuals, organizations, and society in general increasingly depend on software. As wardens of the future through our mentoring of the next generation of software developers, we believe that it is our responsibility to at least address Professor Boehm’s predicted catastrophe. Traditional engineering has, and continually addresses its social responsibility through the evolution of the education, practice, and professional certification/licensing of professional engineers. To be included in the fraternity of professional engineers, software engineering must do the same. To get a rough idea of where software engineering currently stands on some of these issues we conducted two surveys. Our main survey was sent to software engineering academics in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Among other items it sought detail information on their software engineering programs. Our auxiliary survey was sent to U.S. engineering institutions to get some idea about how software engineering programs compared with those in established engineering disciplines of Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. Summaries of our findings can be found in the last two sections of our paper.

Learning Software Engineering via Internet

In recent years, education authorities worldwide, including the German Federal Government, have invested heavily in the development of e-learning and multimedia materials for institutions of higher learning. While for some subject matters the benefits of e-learning seem obvious, there are subjects, often consisting of a number of tenuously connected topics or requiring a balance of learning and training, for which it is a valid question whether appropriate learning materials can be presented via the Internet. Software Engineering belongs to this second group, both for its broad collection of topics and, particularly, for the required emphasis on teamwork and communication training.

Software Engineering and eLearning: The MuSofT Project

eLearning supports the education in certain disciplines. Here, we report about novel eLearning concepts, techniques, and tools to support education in Software Engineering, a subdiscipline of computer science. We call this "Software Engineering eLearning". On the other side, software support is a substantial prerequisite for eLearning in any discipline. Thus, Software Engineering techniques have to be applied to develop and maintain those software systems. We call this "eLearning Software Engineering". Both aspects have been investigated in a large joint, BMBF-funded research project, termed MuSofT (Multimedia in Software Engineering). The main results are summarized in this paper.

Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems: A Second Research Roadmap

The goal of this roadmap paper is to summarize the state-of-the-art and identify research challenges when developing, deploying and managing self-adaptive software systems. Instead of dealing with a wide range of topics associated with the field, we focus on four essential topics of self-adaptation: design space for self-adaptive solutions, software engineering processes for self-adaptive systems, from centralized to decentralized control, and practical run-time verification & validation for self-adaptive systems. For each topic, we present an overview, suggest future directions, and focus on selected challenges. This paper complements and extends a previous roadmap on software engineering for self-adaptive systems published in 2009 covering a different set of topics, and reflecting in part on the previous paper. This roadmap is one of the many results of the Dagstuhl Seminar 10431 on Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems, which took place in October 2010.

Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Issues Illustrated by Examples of Marital Satisfaction in Later Life and the Structure of Psychopathology Before and After Psychotherapy

Talk at the Symposium "Opportunities and Challenges of Longitudinal Perspectives"

The grammar of ornament : illustrated by examples from various styles of ornament /

With contributions by J.B. Waring, J.O. Westwood and M.D. Wyatt.

Modern Housing in town and country. Illustrated by examples of municipal and other schemes of block dwellings, tenement houses, model cottages and villages, also plans and descriptions of the cheap cottage exhibition,

Mode of access: Internet.

A dictionary of the English language : in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers, to which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar /

v.1. A-Jym -- v.2. Kay-Zoo.

Hints on light and shadow, composition, etc. : as applicable to landscape painting : illustrated by examples /

Mode of access: Internet.

A practical treatise on painting : in three parts : consisting of hints on composition, chiaroscuro, and colouring : the whole illustrated by examples from the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch schools /

Pagination, part 1: 31 pages, 9 leaves of plates; part 2: vi, 45 pages, 8 leaves of plates; part 3: ix, 64 pages, 8 leaves of plates.

Instrument engineering [by] Charles Stark Draper, Walter McKay [and] Sidney Lees

Mode of access: Internet.

A practical treatise on painting : in three parts : consisting of hints on composition, chiaroscuro, and colouring : the whole illustrated by examples from the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch schools.

Each part has also been published separately, and has special t. p. and pagination.

An introduction to the study of botany; in which the science is illustrated by examples of native and exotic plants...Designed for the use of schools and private students.

Mode of access: Internet.

The synonymous, etymological, and pronouncing English dictionary; in which the words are deduced from their originals, their part of speech pointed out, and their synonyms collected, which are occasionally illustrated in their different significations, by examples from the best writers;

Mode of access: Internet.

Modern tunnel practice, illustrated by examples taken from actual recent work in the United States and in foreign countries.

Appendix: Glossary of some of the more unusual terms used in tunneling: p. 301-307.