Report on the Second Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2)

This technical report records and discusses the Second Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2). The report includes a description of the alternative, experimental submission and review process, two workshop keynote presentations, a series of lightning talks, a discussion on sustainability, and five discussions from the topic areas of exploring sustainability; software development experiences; credit & incentives; reproducibility & reuse & sharing; and code testing & code review. For each topic, the report includes a list of tangible actions that were proposed and that would lead to potential change. The workshop recognized that reliance on scientific software is pervasive in all areas of world-leading research today. The workshop participants then proceeded to explore different perspectives on the concept of sustainability. Key enablers and barriers of sustainable scientific software were identified from their experiences. In addition, recommendations with new requirements such as software credit files and software prize frameworks were outlined for improving practices in sustainable software engineering. There was also broad consensus that formal training in software development or engineering was rare among the practitioners. Significant strides need to be made in building a sense of community via training in software and technical practices, on increasing their size and scope, and on better integrating them directly into graduate education programs. Finally, journals can define and publish policies to improve reproducibility, whereas reviewers can insist that authors provide sufficient information and access to data and software to allow them reproduce the results in the paper. Hence a list of criteria is compiled for journals to provide to reviewers so as to make it easier to review software submitted for publication as a “Software Paper.

Generative AI Assistants in Software Development Education: A vision for integrating Generative AI into educational practice, not instinctively defending against it

The software development industry is amid another disruptive paradigm change - adopting the use of generative AI (GAI) assistants for programming. Whilst AI is already used in various areas of software engineering, GAI technologies, such as GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT, have ignited peoples' imaginations (and fears). It is unclear how the industry will adapt, but the move to integrate these technologies by large software companies, such as Microsoft (GitHub, Bing) and Google (Bard), is a clear indication of intent and direction. We performed exploratory interviews with industry professionals to understand current practice and challenges, which we incorporate into our vision of a future of software development education and make some pedagogical recommendations.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in IEEE Software (upcoming Special Issue, March/April 2024, focusing on AI and Software Engineering Education & Training

Learning through practice via role-playing: Lessons learnt

Software engineering is the establishment and use of sound engineering principles in order to obtain economically software that is reliable and works efficiently on real machine. Sound software engineering closely related with socio-technical activity that depends on several human issues which are communication, collaboration, motivation, work environment, team harmony, engagement, training and education. These issues affect everything for students to fully understand software engineering and be prepared for software development careers. Therefore courses offered in the university must also consider the sociological and communication aspects, often called the socio-technical aspects. One popular method is to use role-playing exercises. Role-playing is a less technologically elaborate form of simulation for learning interpersonal skills and is analogous to rehearsal. It is particularly helpful when students are having difficulties to relate lessons learnt in the university to the applicability of the knowledge in the real implementation. This is because many students view software engineering as meaningless bureaucracy and have little interest in the knowledge delivered in the lecture hall. This scenario impedes the expansion of current knowledge and inhibits the possibility of knowledge exploration to solve range of industry problems. Simply lecturing about software engineering will never engage students or convince them that software engineering has value. Given this student bias, the goal of teaching software engineering often becomes convincing students that it has value. To achieve this, students need to experience firsthand the sociological and communication difficulties associated with developing software systems. In this paper, we argue that in teaching software engineering we must cover two essential things; delivery of knowledge and skills required in the software engineering domain in a form of lecture and hands-on practice to experience the value of the knowledge and skills learnt. We report on our experiences gained in deploying role-playing in master degree program. Role-playing is used as pedagogical tool to give students a greater appreciation of the range of issues and problems associated with software engineering in real settings. We believe that the lessons learnt from this exercise will be valuable for those interested in advancing software engineering education and training

Exploration and practice of talent training mode in Sino-foreign cooperative schools -- taking Software engineering as an example

With the deepening of globalization, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools plays an important role in China’s higher education. Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools refers to the degree education program set up by Chinese higher education institutions and foreign higher education institutions. This mode of cooperation can not only provide Chinese students with broader learning opportunities and international educational resources, but also promote educational exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries. As an important subject in the field of information technology, software engineering has broad employment prospects and development potential, so it has been widely used and promoted in Chinese-foreign cooperative education. This paper will take the software engineering major as an example to explore and practice the talent training model of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, aiming to provide reference for other majors and Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools

Pelatihan Dasar Software SketchUp Kepada Remaja RT.04 RW.01 Desa Pepe Kecamatan Tegowanu Kabupaten Grobogan

The world of education is one of the sectors that has been affected and has undergone drastic changes in teaching and learning activities from face-to-face to online. The activities that students must participate in, namely the student study service (KKN), must also be carried out independently around their environment. In the current pandemic situation, teenagers in the village have much free time that can be filled with beneficial activities and increase knowledge and abilities, so it is necessary to carry out additional skills training. This KKN is a community service activity carried out by one of the students of the Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Semarang is conducting basic SketchUp software training for teenagers in RT.04 RW.01 Pepe Village, Tegowanu District, Grobogan Regency. KKN students conduct training by making videos to explain the material and doing hands-on practice from house to house with several teenagers in the village. The teenagers seemed enthusiastic and interested in the software used and in the world of civil engineering and architecture. The activity went smoothly and provided benefits in increasing knowledge and abilities after training

Подход к созданию комплексной учебной программы для подготовки ИТ-менеджеров

Рассматриваются подходи к обучению программной инженерии в мировой практике, а также принципы, которые используются при построении комплексной дистанционной учебной программы «Профессионал управления программными проектами» (“Software Project Management Professional”, SPMP). Обосновывается набор методик и учебных курсов.Розлядаються підходи до навчання програмної інженерії у світової практиці, а також принципи, що використані при побудові комплексної дистанційної учбової програми «Професіонал Управління Програмними Проектами» (“Software Project Management Professional”, SPMP). Обгрунтовується вибор методики та учбових курсів.The article describes approaches to training Software Engineering in the world practice and so major principles used while creating the complex distance education program “Software Project Management Professional” (SPMP). The justification for the selected curricula and methodology is also being considered

Професійні компетентності майбутніх інженерів-програмістів з проектування програмного забезпечення: методика викладання

The article is devoted to one of the competence components of a mobile-oriented environment for professional and practical training of future software engineers. It is shown that the introduction of higher education standard 121 "Software Engineering" for the first (bachelor) level of higher education in Ukraine has generated a number of training quality assurance problems associated primarily with the low level of detailed competencies and program learning outcomes. By solving these problems, the detailed design of the system of professional competencies for future software engineers is developed. The article deals with the approaches to developing one of the most important special professional competences of future software engineers – the ability to participate in software design, including modeling (formal description) of its structure, behavior, and processes of functioning. Based on a historical and genetic review of the software engineering training practice of future software engineers in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, recommendations for choosing forms of training organization, selection of training content, ways of students' and teachers' activities in software engineering, modeling and designing tools; assessment of the appropriate competence formation level are formulated. The example of organizing design training in conditions close to industrial-studio training is considered. The problems of transition from architectural to detailed design and project implementation are shown. Prospects for further development of this study are to substantiate the third (after requirements engineering and design engineering) engineering component of software engineering – the software construction.Стаття присвячена одній з компетентнісних складових мобільно-орієнтованого середовища професійно-практичної підготовки майбутніх інженерів-програмістів. Показано, що запровадження стандарту вищої освіти 121 "Інженерія програмного забезпечення" для першого (бакалаврського) рівня вищої освіти в Україні породило низку проблем забезпечення якості підготовки фахівців, пов'язаних, насамперед, з низьким рівнем деталізації компетентностей та програмних результатів навчання. Вирішуючи ці проблеми, розроблено детальний дизайн системи професійних компетентностей майбутніх інженерів-програмістів. У статті розглянуто підходи до формування однієї з найважливіших спеціальних фахових компетентностей майбутніх інженерів-програмістів - здатності брати участь у проектуванні програмного забезпечення, включаючи моделювання (формальний опис) його структури, поведінки та процесів функціонування. На основі історико-генетичного огляду практики навчання інженерії програмного забезпечення майбутніх інженерів-програмістів у США, Великій Британії, Канаді, Австралії, Новій Зеландії та Сінгапурі сформульовано рекомендації щодо вибору форм організації навчання, відбору змісту навчання, способів діяльності студентів і викладачів в інструментальних засобах інженерії, моделювання та проектування програмного забезпечення; оцінювання рівня сформованості відповідної компетентності. Розглянуто приклад організації проектної підготовки в умовах, наближених до виробничо-студійного навчання. Показано проблеми переходу від архітектурного до робочого проектування та реалізації проекту. Перспективи подальшого розвитку даного дослідження полягають в обґрунтуванні третьої (після інженерії вимог та інженерії проектування) інженерної складової програмної інженерії - конструювання програмного забезпечення

Embracing ambiguity: agile insights for sustainability in engineering in traditional higher education and in technical and vocational education and training

Embracing reflective practice and retrospection, with a goal of identifying commonalities, this paper examines delivery of engineering subjects in both traditional higher education (THE) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Reflections on actions and autoethnography were employed to examine the teaching and learning experiences of three educators across two higher education (HE) institutions (HEIs), in the greater Chinese context. Literature reviews and historical contexts are outlined to support the approaches and insights identified. The paper presents a number of common characteristics and challenges identified across both THE and TVET. Drawing on the successful embrace of ambiguity and change in recent software engineering (SE) development paradigms, recommendations are then made for how the agile SE themes can be applied in a larger sense to address the wider challenges facing both THE and TVET. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time engineering education has been examined and contrasted in the contexts of THE and TVET. The similarities and common challenges may represent a new focus for related work, and the presented insights, from agile methodologies in software engineering, represent a new perspective for viewing future HE and TVET sustainability