Overview

We are at the beginning of an era of Ultra-Large-Scale Software-Intensive Systems (ULSSIS). Developing these systems will pose extraordinary challenges in systems and software engineering. Many industries now face demands for systems of kinds never before constructed, e.g., networked personal transportation systems, globally integrated ultra-high-bandwidth, ultra-large-scale monitoring and control systems; etc. Many fundamental issues in such systems are of kinds not adequately addressed by past research efforts. There is a particularly large gap between current knowledge in of software development and the needs of ultra-large-scale (ULS) systems. As one example, the scale of ULS systems will likely be inconsistent with the paradigm of tight centralized control of system and software design at the heart of current theory and practice. The publication of the report, Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future, by the Software Engineering Institute, has helped catalyze several major research initiatives around the world. ULSSIS 2008 will provide a venue for creating an international research community around this area.

ULSSIS 2008 will provide an international forum for researchers from across disciplines who are interested or working in ULS systems to come together to exchange and develop ideas in this area. Topics could include but are not limited to software tools for ULS system development; computational emergence (e.g., digital evolution); mechanisms for obtaining globally good outcomes despite conflicting goals (e.g., computational mechanism design); architectural decentralization of large-scale design (e.g., design rules); the economics of large-scale design; the integration of very large-scale parts (e.g., service-oriented architecture); health, quality-of-service, and self-management and adaptation in very large systems; global and cross-cultural development of software-centric systems; organizational aspects; fundamental architectures and mechanisms (e.g., to exploit massive parallelism).

Workshop goals

The primary goals of ULSSIS 2008 are to

·         identify and refine fundamental open research problem formulations for a discipline of ULS systems research

·         identify and begin to advance promising and novel attacks on these problems

·         ensure that the software engineering research community plays a leading role in defining ULS systems as multi-disciplinary research area

·         build research community around the topic.

Plans for discussion

The workshop organizers are committed to a workshop format that strongly foster productive discussions leading to new technical insights and a stronger research community. ULSSIS 2008 will encourage discussions by soliciting short position papers of up to four pages, selecting papers with the potential to change the ways that people think, and by giving authors just enough time to communicate the essentials. We do not plan to run the workshop as a mini-conference dominated by formal presentations with limited question-answer periods. We do intend to promote industry participation to the extent possible to foster a productive dialog between academic and industry perspectives.

Participation

We strongly encourage the participation of both researchers and senior industry personnel involved in ULS systems research and development.  Participation in the workshop is by invitation based on acceptance of a position paper.  We retain the option to open the workshop once the initial participant list is established, up to a maximum number consistent with the intended, discussion-focused format. We seek short, sharp position papers of 2-4 pages. We will make papers available on our web site prior to and after the meeting, and as a technical report. We are are working with the ICSE Workshop committee on plans for a published proceedings.

How to Submit

Be sure to format your paper according to the guidelines for ICSE submissions. Submit of your paper through CyberChairPro by clicking here.

Critical Dates

• 24 January  - deadline for workshop paper submission
• 1 February - notification of acceptance by workshop chairs
• 18 February - camera-ready deadline for workshop papers (firm deadline)

Program Committee

The program committee for this workshop will include the following people

• Linda Northrop, Software Engineering Institute, CMU, lmn AT sei.cmu.edu

• Kevin Sullivan, University of Virginia, sullivan AT cs.virginia.edu

• Betty Cheng, Michigan State University, chengb AT cse.msu.edu

• Douglas Schmidt, Vanderbilt University, schmidt AT dre.vanderbilt.edu

• Rick Kazman, University of Hawaii and the Software Engineering Institute, kazman AT sei.cmu.edu

• Richard Gabriel, IBM, gabriel  AT dreamsongs.com

• Mark Klein, Software Engineering Institute, CMU, mk AT sei.cmu.edu

• Kurt Wallnau, Software Engineering Institute, CMU, kcw AT sei.cmu.edu

• William Griswold, University of California, San Diego, wgg AT cs.ucsd.edu

• Hausi Mueller, University of Victoria, BC, Canada, kcw AT sei.cmu.edu

• Chuck Howell, Mitre Corporation, howell AT mitre.org

• And several others to be listed here shortly

Previous instances of this workshop

Earlier workshops on ULS systems were held at ICSE and OOPSLA in 2007 and 2006, respectively.

·         http://www.dreamsongs.com/Feyerabend/Breathturn2006.html

·         http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~sullivan/ICSEULS1/