•  AOSD.09
•  Program
•       Keynotes
•       Research Track
•       Industry Track
•       Panel
•       Workshops
•       Demonstrations
•       Birds of a Feather
•       Student Events
•  Registration
•  Travel Information
•  Call For Contributions
•       Research Papers
•       Industry Papers
•       Workshop Proposals
•       Demonstrations
•       BoFs
•       Student Events
•       Student Volunteers
•  Promote AOSD.09
•  Past Conferences

Spring School

Note – The deadline to get the conference rate for some hotels (see Accommodations page) will pass before the submission date for the Spring School and Poster Event. Please consider submitting your work and reserving your hotel earlier. Earlier submission will also have the advantage of quicker feedback.

The AOSD.09 Spring School takes a number of practical steps in facilitating students journey through the AOSD-related research program. This event will benefit all students: from those studying for bachelors to PhD students in their final year.

In the morning, the Spring School kicks off with a panel by AOSD experts on "Evaluation of AOSD Research." Experts from four different AOSD sub fields – analysis and design, formal methods, languages and applications – will talk about the specific techniques used in these sub-fields for thesis evaluation. Each expert will have 10 minutes for presentation after which a panel discussion will be held on common issues and pitfalls in PhD evaluation. Students are welcome to participate in the question/answer session of the panel.

The Spring School will be attended by the following experts:

Sunday afternoon is dedicated to two practical workshops: Workshop on Thesis Evaluation and Workshop on Writing Collaborative Research Papers.

Workshop on Thesis Evaluation

This workshop is a follow-up event on the morning's panel. The students will be invited to be grouped into four AOSD areas: analysis and design, formal methods, languages and applications. Each group will be lead by the expert from the panel assisted by a number of post-doctoral researchers. Each student will be encouraged to prepare an evaluation plan for his/her project (using the information from the panel presentation) and will receive help/feedback from the expert and post-doctoral researchers.

Time permitting, each student will then present their evaluation plan to the group.

Workshop on Writing Collaborative Research Papers

This workshop will encourage students to put their work into perspective with respect to the other work in their general research area and promote lasting future collaborations.

Students will be allocated into small groups on the basis of their research topics and/or interests. Each group will work on integrating their respective research into a coherent piece. Each group will work on preparing a one-page outline for a collaborative research paper. Experts and post-doctoral researchers will facilitate this process. By the end of the workshop the groups will submit their outline papers. A group of academics will evaluate the papers and provide feedback. The feedback will be given at the Poster Event. The group members will also be advised on some venues for submission of the extended papers. During the Poster Event, the posters of the respective groups members will be placed close to each other and the groups will have a chance to discuss both their individual and the group research idea with the experts present at the Poster Event.

Question/Answer Session

Experts on AOSD will be invited to discuss issues – questions, worries and pitfalls – about research raised by students. We will collect these issues from students before the event, and from AOSD experts that have experience with advising students and conducting research.

Since we expect everyone would have worked hard throughout the day, this event will be held in a relaxing environment (e.g., a coffee shop or restaurant).

Example issues are:

• When have I done enough of a literature study?
• How do I identify and formulate precisely my contributions?
• Is my timing and planning feasible?
• Are negative results also contributions?
• How do I evaluate and validate my work?
• What's the difference between foundational work and related work?
• Am I doing engineering research or scientific research?
• How can I get useful and constructive feedback from the people who are guiding or advising me?

Note that we encourage you to attend both the Spring School and the Poster Event, since both events are related.

Program Schedule

Submission Guidelines

If you are a student working on a thesis or a major project in AOSD, we would like to encourage you to participate in the Spring School. We welcome combined submissions for both the Spring School and the Poster Event.

In order to be one of the participants, please submit a two page overview including:

• Your research hypothesis - this is one sentence stating the assumption(s) you make, which you are going to address in your work. Note that for beginning researchers this sentence can be rather vague and broad, whereas for students nearing the deadline of their thesis this is probably a very precise and concrete statement.
• A list of the contributions you (expect to) make.
• Your three main important question, worries, pitfalls, ... These can be taken from, but are not limited to, the list above.

Students are requested to express their intention to participate by sending the organizers an initial email by January 20, 2009 – the expression of interest date. A two-page overview should be submitted by February 15, 2009 (extensions available with prior request). Those students desiring an early decision (for travel planning purposes) may submit their two-page overview prior to February 15, 2009.

How to Submit

Send your submission to the Student Events Chairs (Ruzanna Chitchyan and Celina Gibbs) at students at aosd.net. The Student Events Chairs will confirm receipt of the submission.