The fourth OOPSLA `98 DesignFest is about design and creativity. The DesignFest event has been created to give OOPSLA attendees the opportunity to learn more about design by doing it. DesignFest is not about passively sitting and listening to experts talk about design. DesignFest is about sharpening design skills by rolling up your sleeves and working on a real problem with others in the field! People like Ward Cunningham, Ralph Johnson and Grady Booch.

In the DesignFest, participants will work in small groups to solve a particular design problem, bringing to bear their experience and skills in object-oriented design and/or in working on similar problems. The goal is to learn new techniques from each other and to uncover and articulate the analysis and design patterns that we already use unconsciously.

This year the following 4 problems have been chosen:

The DesignFest required pre-registration, but if you do not want to miss the opportunity to roll up your sleeves ask the OOPSLA info booth. If space permits, you are more than welcome to participate. Sessions take place on Sunday and Tuesday afternoon.

But that's not all. This year the DesignFest is going to be even more challenging than previously: The DesignFest will be followed by a CodeFest. In the CodeFest, teams of student programmers will implement the designs created during the DesignFest. In this way, the DesignFest participants will be able to see how good their designs really are. For the other people, it is a great chance to see how the different teams solve the design problem and see an actual application grow during the conference. The CodeFest will take place during the conference in public places. Students from different universities will sit in public places while working on the implementations. All conference attendees are invited to look over the shoulders of the students and discuss their approaches. The intention is to create lively discussions so that we can all learn from it.

The results of all groups and the student implementations will be presented at the DesignFest panel held on Thursday. There will also be a poster exhibit for the final reports from each design team. Again, all conference attendants are invited to look at the results and supply their professional opinions. This is a public event.

After OOPSLA, the design problems and the solutions developed at OOPSLA will be published on the DesignFest Web site and, of course, they will be implemented during the CodeFest.

More information can be obtained by visiting our web site: http://designfest98.instantiated.on.ca/ Organizers: Henry Baragar, Deloitte Consulting/DRT Systems Travis Griggs, Key Technology Bruce Klein, Grand Valley State University Torsten Layda, Swiss Exchange Rob van den Berg, ITT Publitec Elena Volynskaya, ICON Solutions, Inc.

Last edited 24 September 1998 14:24:19