Call for Papers: 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering Methods in Spreadsheets (SEMS'16)

http://spreadsheetlab.org/sems-16/

A STAF workshop
July, 2016, Vienna, Austria


* Important Dates *

Deadline for abstracts: April 11, 2016
Deadline for submissions [EXTENDED]: April 22nd, 2016
Notification of acceptance: May 25, 2016
Camera-ready: June 17, 2016
Workshop date: July 4, 2016


* Topic *

Spreadsheets are heavily used in industry as they are easy to create and evolve through their intuitive visual interface. They are often developed as simple tools initially, but over time, spreadsheets can become increasingly complex, up to the point where they become too difficult to maintain. Indeed, in many ways, spreadsheets are similar to "professional" software: both are used for storage and manipulation of data and the presentation of results to the user. But unlike in "professional" software, in spreadsheets activities like design, implementation, and maintenance have to be undertaken by end-users, not trained professionals. This makes applying methods and techniques from other software technologies a challenging task.

The role of SEMS is to explore the possibilities of adopting successful methods from other software contexts to spreadsheets. Some, like testing and modeling, have been tried before and can be built upon. For methods that have not yet been tried on spreadsheets, SEMS will serve as a platform for early feedback.

The SEMS program will include an industrial keynote, followed by a brainstorming session about the topic, a discussion panel of industrial spreadsheet usage, presentations of short and long research papers, and plenty of lively discussions. The intended audience is a mixture of spreadsheet researchers and professionals.

Topics of interest to SEMS'16 include, but are not restricted to, the following:

- Understandability/Maintainability of spreadsheets
- Error finding/Debugging
- Modeling with spreadsheets
- Learnability
- Alternatives for the spreadsheet interface
- Comparative studies of spreadsheet environments

If you have doubts on the suitability of your paper, feel free to send us an email: sems16[at]spreadsheetlab.org


* Submission, Selection & Publication *

We welcome both full research papers (max. 15 pages) and short papers (max. 5 pages) written in English and prepared using the specific LNCS templates. Each research paper will be subjected to at least three reviewers from the PC. Paper submissions will be made electronically using the EasyChair service (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sems2016). All submissions must be original work, and must not have been previously published, nor be under consideration for publication, elsewhere. At least one author of each accepted paper must register and participate in the workshop. However, we incentivate all the authors to attend the workshop to foster discussion.

Accepted papers will be published in the STAF Workshop Post-Proceedings by Springer Verlag in their LNCS series.

Additionally, we solicit industrial case reports (max. 2 pages) for panel discussions (no particular format required) with all participants. The industrial case submissions will be reviewed and discussed by the organizers and three members of the program committee in a formal video meeting.


*Keynote*

Speaker: Sumit Gulwani, Research Manager & Principal Researcher at Microsoft, Redmond.
Title: Spreadsheet Programming Using Examples


* Workshop Format *

The industrial keynote will be followed by presentation of all accepted papers during the workshop. Furthermore, we will organize a discussion panel for the industrial case reports. We encourage spreadsheet users from industry to report their experience and specific spreadsheet issues, so that all attending researchers can propose and discuss possible solution approaches with them.


* Organizers *

- Jácome Cunha (jacome@fct.unl.pt), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
- Daniel Kulesz , University of Stuttgart, Germany
- Sohon Roy, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands


* E-mail *

sems16[at]spreadsheetlab.org


* Program Committee *

- Martin Erwig, Oregon State University, USA
- João P. Fernandes, Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
- Felienne Hermans, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Birgit Hofer, Graz University of Technology, Austria
- Richard Paige, University of York, UK
- João Saraiva, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
- Peter Sestoft, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Leif Singer, Automattic Inc., USA


* Steering Committee *

- Felienne Hermans, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Richard Paige, University of York, UK
- Peter Sestoft, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark