SWForum.eu The Way Forward: Workshop on Future Challenges in Software Engineering

Thank you for joining us at the SWForum.eu Way Forward Workshop on "Future Challenges in Software Engineering" in Milan. Your presence and contributions made the event a resounding success. Special thanks to our esteemed speakers for their enlightening presentations and engaging discussions, which created a vibrant atmosphere of knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

Discover captivating event highlights showcased in our gallery section. Elevate your expertise by downloading speakers' presentations and accessing the post-workshop news piece – a trove of valuable resources to empower your approach to future software engineering challenges. Excitingly, the post-workshop report is now ready for download, offering a comprehensive overview, key insights, and actionable recommendations derived from the workshop. Immerse yourself in this wealth of knowledge today!

Watch the Way Forward Workshop video now.

The SWForum.eu Way Forward Workshop on Future Challenges in Software Engineering, “in-presence”, a highly interactive workshop taking place on 27 June 2023 at Politecnico di Milano, in the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (DEIB). 

The SWForum project aims to create a self-sustainable online forum that facilitates and encourages both researchers and practitioners as well as projects in software, digital infrastructure and cybersecurity to create intersections of expertise and a multidisciplinary approach to research and innovation.

The project is at the end of its funding period, but it would like to continue nurturing the discussion in the community. This "in-presence" workshop aims at grouping together researchers and practitioners interested in discussing and creating new ideas and initiatives around the following crucial areas that will be discussed in four separate sessions:

Software Engineering and AI

The remarkable worldwide impact of the new Large Language Models is only the latest manifestation of the growing mutual influence that AI and software engineering are exerting on each other. In order to build these powerful systems that gave us applications like ChatGPT, software engineers are employing well-known best practices – such as extensive libraries of open source, reusable components (TensorFlow, etc.) – and developing new ones, such as sophisticated techniques for dealing with the massive datasets used to train models (e.g., federated learning approaches). Conversely, the decades-old dream of AI-enabled assistance for software engineers is being realized, with “coding assistants” now producing large percentages of programming output. But how far can we go with AI-enabled software engineering? Can current software engineering practices cope with the complexities of AI architectures and applications, including validation (explainability) and security? The goal of this session is to explore the current state of the art from both perspectives to arrive at recommendations for future directions.

Software Engineering for Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is reaching significant and promising advancements and represents one of the ground-breaking initiatives that are expected to change the way we conceive programming today. Most of the research on quantum computing today is still focusing mostly on addressing technical problems at the physical and hardware level and programming a quantum computer still means combining low-level quantum logic gates in a quantum circuit or formulating a problem in terms of a specific mathematical structure. A crucial issue from the software engineering standpoint is the identification of effective design and programming abstractions that allow people skilled in computer science to take advantage of the enormous power of quantum computing still keeping the complexity of design and programming activities under control and enabling analysis and testing of the developed code. Moreover, aspects concerning the design, deployment, and operation of hybrid systems where components running on quantum architectures coexist with other traditional components are now emerging. Open questions also concern the theoretical background. For instance, is an overreaching Theory of Quantum Computing still missing? What types of algorithms are fundamental to quantum computing? Is a new language theory based on quantum computing capabilities necessary? What quantum computing capabilities make existing NP computational problems be moved to the P class? Is semantic reasoning a P problem class? The goal of this session is to discuss about the current status of research in all the above areas and identify gaps and challenges for future research.

Security in the Computing Continuum

There have been significant efforts to incorporate “security by design” into software development, while at the same time, more and more software development is done by using code from existing software libraries. One of the key challenges is to ensure that the software components found in libraries are “safe”. Furthermore, security in the computing world is very similar to security in the supply chain world – if one link in the chain or in the process is unsafe or insecure, this can make the whole system or the whole software unsafe or insecure. These issues can be addressed in terms of ensuring safety and security via verification and certification, but this can be both a costly and time-consuming process that may be beyond the capabilities of the SME community. The intention of the workshop will also be to discuss these aspects and to see if there are any potential opportunities for addressing these issues in more effective and efficient ways.

Sustainable Software Engineering

Sustainability within software is often considered to be how easily or well a particular piece of software can be maintained or developed in the face of changing or developing environments around it. As such there are numerous tools and methodologies that can be used to improve the sustainability of software. This session aims to showcase best practices around the development and management of software tools and services. We would aim to see innovative uses for commonplace tools as well as policy innovation alongside technical innovation to improve software’s sustainability.

Workshop format

The workshop will take place in presence, will be highly interactive and will be focused on open discussions in the areas listed above, guided by inspiring talks (see the call for talks below).

A summary of the discussion and of the new ideas emerging from it will be reported in a paper jointly prepared by the workshop participants and possibly submitted to an international magazine.

Join us at the SWForum.eu workshop in Milan, Italy, on 27 June 2023, to share your expertise and shape the future of software engineering, AI, quantum computing, security, and sustainability.

Registration is free but mandatory until 22 June 2023. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to contribute, connect, and engage in stimulating discussions with fellow professionals in the industry.

We are looking for contributions related to the following topics: Software Engineering and AI, Software Engineering for Quantum Computing, Security in the Computing Continuum and Sustainable Software Engineering.

Call for Talks

Talk proposals will be evaluated by the organising committee on the basis of their novelty, importance in the software engineering context, and potential impact.

Accepted talks will be the basis for the discussion at the workshop.

Submit your contributions today and be a part of an inspiring day filled with knowledge, collaboration, and networking. We can't wait to welcome you to this exceptional event!

Deadlines

Organising Committee

• Juncal Alonso - TECNALIA, Spain
• Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• John Favaro, Trust-IT, Italy
• Mark Miller, Conceptivity, Switzerland
• Vlado Stankovski, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• David Wallom, University of Oxford, UK

See the Attendance list here.