Software Engineering Institute

May 2, 2023—The Software Engineering Workshop for Educators returns for its 20th anniversary on August 1-3. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) hosts this annual workshop to foster an ongoing exchange of ideas among educators whose curricula include subjects spanning software engineering, computer science, and related fields. The free workshop for accredited college-level educators will include trainings, breakout meetings, and the event’s signature artifact-sharing sessions. Registration for in-person attendance is open now through July 25. Registration for virtual attendance ends July 28.

“The hybrid format really worked well for us last year,” said Grace Lewis, workshop co-facilitator, SEI principal researcher, and lead of the Tactical and AI-Enabled Systems (TAS) initiative. “We are very happy to welcome some of our educators in person for the traditional artifact-sharing activities and all our educators for three sessions of online instruction and discussion on topics relevant to the present and future of software engineering education.”

In-person attendees will participate in morning sessions led by SEI researchers. Participants will dive into selected topics and share experiences, ideas, and tangible artifacts for introducing software engineering topics into the college curriculum. The exchange of classroom artifacts such as syllabi, slide decks, and homework assignments began with the 2011 workshop and quickly became a favorite part of the event.

The afternoon sessions will be open to in-person and virtual attendees. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) associate professor Andrew Begel will lead training about supporting neurodivergent students in college and onward. Rotem Guttman, an SEI senior cybersecurity researcher, and William R. Nichols, an artificial intelligence infrastructure engineer at the SEI, will lead two trainings centered around their experience teaching at CMU. Their first session will give a tour of their award-winning Cyber Forensics and Incident Response Capstone Class. Their second session will walk participants through the process of creating their own experiential learning content, starting from learning objectives and progressing through to a complete course plan.

The event will also feature a retrospective on the workshop by its founders: SEI Fellow Linda Northrop, CMU adjunct faculty and former SEI researcher Len Bass, and ABET Fellow and former SEI researcher Larry Jones.

“We are excited to welcome the founders back to the workshop to reflect on the changes over the years,” said Robert Nord, principal member of the SEI staff and event co-facilitator. “The workshop’s initial focus on software architecture has evolved, as has the content of software architecture, the academic landscape, and new technology. All these factors could impact teaching content and approaches. A lot has changed in 20 years, and we are eager to engage educators in a discussion on what has, and should, stay the same and how the workshop should evolve to address future needs.”

Learn more about the Software Engineering Workshop for Educators on the event’s website and register to attend.