Keynote Speakers

Monday, June 30

WENDY HALL, CBE, FREng
Professor of Computer Science
University of Southampton, U.K.

What is Web Science and why is it important to CSE?

The World Wide Web has changed the world. It has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate. We increasingly live in a Web-dependent society in a Web-dependent world. The Web is also the largest human information construct and it is growing faster than any other system. However, it is a striking fact that there is no systematic discipline to study the Web. We need to understand the current, evolving, and potential Web but at the moment we have no means of predicting the impact that future developments in the Web will have on society or business. Web Science aims to anticipate these impacts. It is the study of the social behaviours in the Web at the inter-person, inter-organizational and societal level, the technologies that enable and support this behaviour, and the interactions between these technologies and behaviours. It is therefore inherently interdisciplinary and at even the simplest level represents a fundamental collaboration between computer science and the social sciences. 

Computer Science as a discipline has not grasped the Web and the implications of its development. Most Computer Science departments do not teach "Web Science" fundamentals let alone specialist courses in this area, either with or without contributions from the social sciences or other relevant disciplines. This talk will explore the fundamentals of Web Science and make the case for Computer Science educators to meet this challenge head-on. Not only will it revitalise Computer Science degrees, it will also encourage the development of new degrees that we argue will attract a wider diversity and increasing number of students in the future.

Short Bio

Wendy Hall is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) 2002-2007. She was the founding Head of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia (IAM) Research Group in ECS.

She has published over 350 papers in areas such as hypermedia, multimedia, digital libraries, and Web technologies.

She is currently senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Vice President of the ACM and is a Past President of the British Computer Society (2003-2004). She is a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, a member of the Executive Committee of UKCRC, and Chair of the newly formed BCS Women's Forum. She is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the new Company, Garlik Limited, and is a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council.

She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday honours list in 2000, and became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the same year.

She was recently awarded the 2006 Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership.

Tuesday, July 1

PHILLIP D. LONG, Ph.D.
Office of Educational Innovation & Technology
Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A.

Scalable Apprenticeships: Reconnecting Students Through Technology

Today’s students are typically over scheduled and hyper-connected, yet increasingly disconnected with their education. The classroom into which they step for core science, technology and engineering subjects is often removed from both the practice of the disciplines being taught and the technology tools which pervade other aspects of their life. A significant challenge is to reconnect the excitement and discovery that drew faculty into their disciplines back to the learning environments of STEM and CSE students they teach. Peer Instruction (inserting discussion and formative assessment into lecture) and project-based learning are two promising attempts at recapturing the process of science and engineering in introductory coursers.

Recent experiments in freshman project-based seminars such as nanoscale engineering and a major redesign of the introductory Course 6 (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) at MIT are exploring ways to bring apprenticeship back to both small and large classes. Through Python-based tutoring tools, layered mentoring that includes just-in-time “guest laboratory assistants” to achieve 1:4 instructor-student ratios in large courses, and careful attention to learning space design new strategies for scaled apprenticeships are being forged.

Short Bio

Phillip Long is the Associate Director, in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and leads the outreach effort projects that emerged from the MIT iCampus project. He is responsible for research and evaluation of innovative uses of technology in the MIT education. He is working to integrate MIT iCampus technologies into the MIT learning experience and support its dissemination to other institutions around the world. His current research interests focus on designing learning spaces to support active learning, emerging technologies and the use of virtual worlds.

Dr. Long's professional activities are numerous: New Media Consortium Board (2006-09), current chair of the NMC Board, NMC Project Horizon (2005 to present), 2006 Syllabus Conference Campus Host, 2006, the SAC Program Committee (2005-07, 06 Chair), Adobe Higher Education Advisory Board (2007), Steven's Institute of Technology WebCampus board, past member of the US Army Distance Learning Subcommittee, MIT DSpace Policy Committee and many others. Dr. Long is also a Senior Associate with the TLT Group, a non-profit dedicated to improve teaching and learning by making more appropriate and cost-effective use of information technology.

Dr. Long is a lapsed behavioral ecologist, having studied birds from the north slope of Alaska to the coast of Patagonia. His area of research was the evolution of mating systems and the biological bases for cooperation. He continues to enjoy birding and adding to his life list when he is not pursuing his other hobbies of sailing and running.

Wednesday, July 2

ROGER D. BOYLE, Professor
Head of the School of Computing
University of Leeds, U.K.

Neither Rocket Science nor Washing Machine Science,
but Computer Science.

Greyer haired computer scientists can easily remember the glory days, but waves of recent publications and opinion seem to have seen clouds on our horizon.

But maybe we worry too much and too soon.  Every fairytale heroine goes through a glum patch before living happily ever after, and perhaps Prince Charming is just around the academic corner.

How did we get into the glum patch?  What will Prince Charming look like when he sweeps us off our feet?  What will life be like for us back at his place? We'll talk a bit about how we got to where we are in an effort to put ourselves into perspective, then think about the opportunities the Prince might bring.

But it's always possible that fickle Prince Charming has found another {boy, girl} and we will wait in vain: so we'll look closely at these clouds, and think about how real they are.

And thence well have a go at "you are here" for CS in universities, and that might help us in moving towards Prince Charming, wherever he may be, and not towards the cloudy horizon.  Knowing where we are and where we are trying to head should then have some relevance for how and what we teach our students: they don't like (or need) history lessons, but they are unlikely to be able to head for tomorrow without knowing where yesterday was; they need a comprehension of the grand challenges that face us (but maybe not the "Grand Challenges"); they should know they aren't going to be building rockets, but they aren't going to be mending washing machines either.

But we probably also need to think about where they have come from, because they certainly aren't grey haired computer scientists.

Short Bio

Roger got some degrees, but not a job, in maths in the 1970s. Trying to become a combinatorialist via a back door, he learned some computer programming and discovered that systems work could be fun, and they pay you.

Dark forces enticed him into an academic track in the 1980s where he began by teaching some networking, numerical analysis and image analysis.

Since that time he has taught across the curriculum and published widely in vision, networking and intelligent tutoring systems. He has held the major positions in his Department's management and is currently in his fourth year as Head.

In the 1990s he converted an interest in how and what students learn into regular participation in ITiCSE, SIGCSE and related activities, where he has also published widely.

Roger has a wide range of interests inside and outside computing: one of them is declaiming opinions in a loud voice, all too often over a beer. He has plans to retire "some time before 2020".

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ITiCSE 2008 Conference Program

• Program-at-a-Glance Draft
• Program listing by title
• Program listing by presenter
• Individualized Program-at-a-Glance Draft

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Venue Description

• Conference Venue and Address
• Building Plans: Ground Floor; Mezzanine

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Information for Presenters

• Information for Poster and Student Poster Presenters
• Information for Tips & Techniques and Demonstration Presenters

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Exhibitors

Exhibitor Sponsored Sessions:

• Microsoft Research: Monday, June 30
• Google Code University: Tuesday, July 1
• Intel Corporation: Wednesday, July 2

All exhibitor sponsored sessions will take place at the Auditorium from 1:00 PM to 2:35 PM.

Hall Exhibitors:

• EMC
• Routledge

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Social Events

Note that only events marked with ** are included in the registration fee. 

Sunday 29

• 09:00 AM, Full day excursion to Royal Palace and Toledo
• 09:00 AM, Full day excursion to El Escorial and Segovia
• 07:30 PM, Pre-Conference Welcome Drinks at the Conference Venue**

Monday 30

• 07:30 PM, Madrid Civic Reception at Cecilio Rodriguez Gardens**

Tuesday 1

• 09:00 PM, Conference Banquet at Pedro Larumbe Restaurant**

Wednesday 2

• 04:00 PM, Half day Coach Tour and Prado Museum
• 04:00 PM, Half day Coach Tour and Queen Sophia Museum
• 05:00 PM, Half day Hapsburgs Walking Tour

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Last updated May 2008  

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 2007 Facultad de Informática, UPM