ICT4S Unworkshop Computing+Sustainability+Education (Friday, May 18, 2018)

In conjunction with the 5th International Conference on ICT4S, Hart House, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, May 18, 2018

The concept of sustainability has emerged in a number of fields including Artificial Intelligence, High-Performance Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, Requirements Engineering, Software Engineering etc., as well as being a part of the ACM CS2013 Core Curriculum as a Core Tier 1 topic.

In order for computing to make a significant positive contribution to socio-ecological transformation, there needs to be a transformation in the mindsets, skillsets, attitudes and behaviours of computing as a profession. As educators, we have a moral imperative to guide learners to be critically aware of the impacts and potential opportunities attached to their desired profession in working towards a positive future. It is therefore imperative that we develop pedagogies, curriculum, resources and a supportive community for Computing Education for Sustainability.

However, in a crowded computing curriculum, computing students have little chance to learn about the concepts needed to analyze sustainability beyond the technical scope of systems they develop in class.

The Computing, Sustainability, and Education workshop take a three-prong approach to tackling this challenge of lack of uptake in Sustainability Education within various areas of Computing, by:

  1. Fostering community growth that researchers on pedagogical approaches, methods, techniques, tools, and processes for teaching sustainability in the computing curricula;
  2. Expanding on the efforts of the pioneering practitioners that include (single, multi- and/or interdisciplinary)  modules or courses to integrate sustainability into computing education; and
  3. Providing a forum where the participants will collaboratively discuss and create curricula for ICT4S and SE4S education (including a list of tentative core subjects/issues and suggested core literature).

This is a one-day workshop (May 18, 2018), will be dedicated to the identification and integration of current experiences and the exploration of future delivery methods, techniques, and content on Sustainability within SE/ICT4S setting.

The primary output of the workshop will be to lay the foundations for producing a state-of-the-art review of the current state of practice to provide a roadmap of emerging themes, trends, as well as highlighting open issues and challenges.

Objective

The primary objective of the workshop is to establish a forum for educators, researchers, and practitioners interested in the design and development of a curriculum for sustainable software engineering. The workshop also aims to establish a common ground on the key topics on Sustainable Education for Computing.

Submissions

The workshop solicits a number of contribution types:

  • Extended abstracts (2 pages): if accepted can be conveyed in a 10-15 minute talk;
  • Posters: with a 2-page abstract;
  • Positional papers: specifically discussing what we can do to improve teaching sustainability within the computing curriculum (4-6 pages);
  • Idea papers: that presents implementable proposals that participants will build on the proposals and ideas in these papers, with the goal of initiating the planning, development, and execution of some of the ideas during the workshop itself (4-6 pages);
  • Experience papers: on teaching sustainability within the computing curriculum (6-10 pages);
  • Demos: up to 5 minutes (also with 2 pages abstract);
  • Open collaboration papers (long or short) (new submission format). Here, author(s) can solicit for open collaboration on a paper. The solicitation starts at least two months before the submission deadline, via a form on the workshop webpage. The paper will be hosted and written via a collaborative edition platform e.g. overleaf etc.
  • Full research papers (10 pages).

We also encourage the submission of new and interactive formats, which can be presented as such at the workshop, and published in the workshop proceedings with textual descriptions.

The submission, review process, and communication will be performed via Easychair.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed for relevance to the workshop and academic and practical soundness. The accepted submissions will be published with CEUR WS proceedings, listed in all literature databases (DBLP, Google Scholar, Scopus etc.), as we want to maintain an open access policy.

Important Dates

  • Submission Deadline: April. 08th, 2018 (Anytime on Earth) via Easychair
  • Decisions to authors: April 22nd, 2018
  • Camera Ready due: April 29th, 2018
  • Registration of at least one author: April 29th, 2018
  • Workshop: May 18th, 2018

Organisers

Location

Faculty of Information (iSchool), Bissell Building (5th Floor, Room BL538), University of Toronto. The address is 140 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6.

Programme

  • 08:30 – Breakfast
  • 09:00 – Welcome
  • 09:10 – Introductions: Who am I? Why am I Here? What are my Expectations?
  • 10:00 – Jari Porras, PERvasive Computing and COMmunications for sustainable development,
    Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
  • 10:45 – Refreshments
  • 11:15 – Samuel Mann, Otago Polytech, NZ
  • 11:45 – Elina Eriksson, KTH, Sweden
  • 12:30 – Lunch
  • 13:20 – Birgit Penzenstadler, California State University, Long Beach, USA
  • 13:50 – Colin C. Venters, Reflections on Software Engineering for Sustainability (SE4S) Summer School, University of Huddersfield, UK
  • 14:20 – Steve Easterbrook, Reflections of the ICT4S Summer School 2017, University of Toronto, Canada
  • 15:00 – Steve Easterbrook, The Systems Thinking Playbook, University of Toronto, Canada
  • 16:00 – Brad Bass, School of the Environment Lab Visit, University of Toronto