Overview
Programming languages play a critical role in computer science by providing a flexible and robust means by which human beings interact with and control computer systems. Programming language design and implementation has advanced significantly in the recent past in response to the increasing pervasiveness of computer science and technology. Unfortunately, higher-education curriculum has not kept pace, and so it does not appropriately reflect the expansive growth and evolution. This lag is critical because an up-to-date curriculum is essential to prepare a globally competitive workforce, that is able to generate and to apply new knowledge, and to take the lead in advancing computer science and technology.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together leaders in the field of programming languages with expertise in research, teaching, and industrial use to discuss the role of programming language design, implementation, and application in undergraduate computer science education. Workshop participants will critically evaluate current practices and identify transformational changes needed to best prepare undergraduates to participate in the rapidly changing field of computer science and technology.
Possible topics that will be considered at the workshop include:
- Evaluation of emerging trends in computer science and their implications for programming language design, implementation, and application, including:
- the emergence of multi- and many-core processors
- the proliferation of widely-used general-purpose languages
- the mainstream acceptance of type-safe languages and managed runtimes (virtual machines)
- the growth of domain-specific languages
- the growing complexity of software systems (operating, runtime, application)
- the increasing importance of distributed and Internet computing
- the heterogeneity of computing devices
- the advances in theorem-proving technology and implications for software verification
- Evaluation of the impact of these trends on programming language curriculum
- evaluation of the degree to which current curriculum integrates recent advances in technology and provides the necessary foundation for students to adapt to changing circumstances
- identification of essential programming language concepts to support the future of computing
- discussion of the relationship between programming and programming language instruction
- exploration of new ideas for teaching essential concepts
- discussion of whether new technology might dramatically change programming language instruction
- discussion of how the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of computer science should affect programming language instruction
- examination of how best to attract and retain students with particular attention to women and underrepresented minorities.
- Strategies for designing a new curriculum
- characterization of the relationship between programming languages instruction and instruction in other areas of computer science
- development of materials documenting the importance of programming language instruction with real-world examples
- creation of a clear description of essential programming language concepts
- development of a repository of materials for teaching such concepts
- discussion of how U.S. programming language curricula can leverage or impact that of other countries, world-wide.
This list is not exhaustive nor does it limit the potential topics of discussion at the workshop.
Following the workshop, participants will produce a report consisting of selected white papers, edited based on discussions at the meeting, and a summary of the ideas discussed at the workshop.
The resulting report will be posted on the SIGPLAN web site with a mechanism to solicit additional feedback from the wider community with the hope of encouraging further discussion.
Participation and Submission Information
Meeting participants will include the members of the steering committee and other members of the community selected by the steering committee on the basis of submitted three-page white papers on the topics covered by the workshop. The steering committee will select papers based on the topics of the papers, the expertise of their authors, and the need to obtain a diverse and representative set of perspectives including those of underrepresented groups.
Submissions should be made electronically from the web site
www.sigplan.org/pl-workshop
no later than April 9th.
Organizers
- Workshop Co-Chairs
- Kathleen Fisher (AT&T Labs Research)
- Chandra Krintz (UC Santa Barbara)
- Steering Committee
- Eric Allen (Sun Microsystems)
- Ras Bodik (UC Berkeley)
- Kim Bruce (Pomona College)
- Matthias Felleisen (Northeastern Univ.)
- Stephen Freund (Williams College)
- Robert Harper (CMU)
- Michael Hind (IBM Research)
- Jim Larus (Microsoft Research)
- Doug Lea (SUNY Oswego)
- Greg Morrisett (Harvard)
- Lori Pollock (Univ. of Delaware)
- Stuart Reges (Univ. of Washington)
- Martin Rinard (MIT)
- Olin Shivers (Northeastern Univ.)
Important Dates
- White papers due: April 9th
- Notifications: April 21
- Workshop May 29-30, Harvard University
- Report publication: July 1
Workshop Web Site:
http://www.sigplan.org/pl-workshop/