Introduction to education and training track

Abstract

The attendees of ICSE comprise some of the top researchers in software engineering and also many educators of software engineering. Traditionally, however, these two groups do not talk to each other about educational issues. Then there are the practitioners who attend ICSE who have their own opinions about the relevance, strengths, and shortcomings of current software engineering education offered in universities. The goal of this year's track on Software Engineering Education and Training at ICSE is to bring these three communities together to discuss some urgent questions that have profound effect on how we structure our educational programs. Considering the tremendous changes taking place in the software engineering industry, and in the industrial world in general, it seems appropriate to confront the needs of the software engineering educators.Consider just the following increasingly common developments: Outsourcing of software projects Pervasiveness of software in all areas of commerce, industry, and society Increasingly distributed platforms Open-source development Globalization, leading to international (multi-cultural) distributed software teamsHow should these developments change the way we teach software engineering? Should textbooks be updated? Should software engineering play a different role in the computer science curriculum, that is, be more pervasive? How are professors in universities handling these issues?These are some of the questions we address in this track. In particular, we consider current challenges, current solutions, and future challenges. We are pleased to have six distinguished researchers to present their views and fifteen presenters from universities around the world presenting their innovative approaches in their classrooms. We expect lively and active discussion between the speakers and the audience.