Instructor

Gerhard Fischer, University of Colorado, Boulder

Abstract

The participants will be acquainted with software engineering themes for the future. These themes will be instantiated with new conceptual frameworks and illustrated with innovative systems. The presentation will be linked as much as possible to the concerns and experiences of the participants. The objective of the tutorial is to provide the participants with opportunities to think differently about the future challenges facing software engineering research and practice and to illustrate with concrete examples how these challenges can be addressed.

The tutorial will focus on three major themes: (1) design, specifically collaborative design which is of critical importance in upstream activities in software engineering; (2) social creativity which is required because complex design transcend the unaided, individual human mind; and (3) meta-design which creates environments for users to be involved as active contributors rather than as passive consumers.

The themes of the tutorial will be illustrated with specific theoretical frameworks and innovative systems developed by the presenter and his colleagues and other research groups working on these topics. The relevance of these themes has been demonstrated by their impact on research, education, and design practices in companies, educational institutions, and research organizations with which we have collaborated.

Biography

Gerhard Fischer is a professor of computer science, a fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science, and the director of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design (L3D) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has done research in software engineering, design, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, computer-supported learning, and software design for people with disabilities. He has published and taught in these disciplines (in the USA, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, etc.).