[csidc:2003] - Fw: CSIDC: New software and message boards by "Gvozden Marinkovic" <mgvozden@eunet.yu>

----- Original Message -----
From: <SSaul@COMPUTER.ORG>
To: <CSIDC2003@COMPUTER.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 9:47 PM
Subject: CSIDC: New software and message boards


> Dear CSIDC competitor,
>
> I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy new year and
> to welcome you to CSIDC 2003. This year about 170 teams are taking part,
> the highest number since the competition began. We expect that the
> competition will be strong and we urge all teams to look at the reports of
> previous on the competition’s website. Of course, we expect this year’s
> winners to be of an even higher standard than last year.
>
> We are allowing two teams to register from each university. More than two
> teams from each university may take part. However, we will accept only two
> final reports from each university. This means that if a university has
> registered two teams and ten teams are taking part in the competition, the
> university must run its own “semi-finals” and select the best two reports
> to submit.
>
> CSIDC Forum
> This year sees two innovations. The first is a bulletin board, the CSIDC
> Forum on which students can leave messages and feedback. We encourage
> students to use this facility constructively to share their experiences.
>
> You can enter the CSIDC Forum at http://www.computer.org/csidc/forum.htm.
> Use of the Forum requires registration.  Computer Society members can use
> their Web Account user name and password.  Non-members can register for a
> user name and password that will allow them to access the Forum.
>
> ARTiSAN Software
> The second innovation is the availability of a powerful software
> development tool, and a section of the CSIDC Forum devoted to the software
> tools. This bulletin board will be moderated by Kathy Land, a member of
the
> CSIDC Executive Committee.
>
> ARTiSAN Software Tools has kindly offered to provide free use of Real-time
> Studio for competition entrants. Real-time Studio is a System and Software
> Design product based on UML (the Unified Modeling Language). For further
> information about Real-time Studio, see the ARTiSAN web site at
>
> www.artisansw.com
>
> The use of this design tool should help you with the design, code
> development and documentation of your competition project, and we hope
that
> it will help you to follow a good engineering approach. There is no
> obligation to use the design tool, and you are not required or expected to
> provide models with your submission. However you may very well find it
> useful to include diagrams or other information extracted from your models
> in the competition report.
>
> However, you should remember that the CSIDC Executive Committee would like
> teams to make good use of modern software design techniques (the
> competition concerns all stages of the design process from the original
> idea to its implementation, testing and documentation). You should also
> remember that Microsoft are giving an additional prize to the team (one of
> the ten finalists) that makes best use of good software engineering
> principles in their report at the World Finals.
>
>
> To take advantage of this offer, you should complete the following steps.
>
> 1. Download an evaluation copy of Real-time Studio from the ARTiSAN web
> site at http://www.artisansw.com/eval
>
> 2. The evaluation registration will give you a 15 day license key. Once
you
> have the software up and running, you should get your head of department
or
> mentor to send a copy of the registration e-mail to
education@artisansw.com
> containing the following text:
>
> “Could you please supply an evaluation license of Real-time Studio to
> <student's e-mail address> for use during the CSIDC 2003 competition? I
> confirm that the license will only be used for work directly associated
> with the competition.
>
>  Signed by your mentor or head of department”
>
>  3. Attach the same "NewRequest.txt" file that you created as part of the
> registration process and attached to the evaluation registration e-mail.
>
> 4. When this request is received, ARTiSAN Software Tools will supply a
> license for Real-time Studio that will last for the duration of the
> project. This license will be linked to the same machine as the 15 day
> evaluation license you first requested from the web-site.
>
> You may request a maximum of one license for each student participating in
> the project, and one for the project Mentor. The licenses do not have to
be
> for machines belonging to the University.
>
> Note that ARTiSAN does not have the resources to provide direct technical
> support to students taking part in the competition. It is anticipated that
> a FAQ for Real-time studio will be set up on the competition website and
> students will be urged to use this facility to share their experience of
> Real-time studio.  ARTiSAN will also monitor the ARTiSAN board on the
> Forum, and may provide help with questions posted there.
>
> Once again, I would like to wish every team taking part in the competition
> good luck. Of course, not every team can win. However, all teams that make
> an effort to take part in the competition will learn much about tackling a
> serious project and working together in a team.
>
> Volunteers Needed
> Finally, I would like to ask for your help. I need volunteers in the
> academic world and industry to evaluate project reports. It would help the
> organizers of the competition if mentors (or even students) could recruit
> volunteers. The only rule is that a mentor cannot be an evaluator (except
> under special circumstances). An evaluator is a member of a team of
> evaluators who receives about six projects and has to select the best
> projects from the batch to send to the next level of judging. It is
> expected that this work will require about a day of the evaluator’s time.
>
> If you can identify one or more possible evaluators, please write to Kathy
> Land at SUSAN.LAND@northropgrumman.com (and send a copy to me
> alanclements@ntlworld.com).
>
>
> Best wishes
>
> Alan Clements
> CHAIR CSIDC
> alanclements@ntlworld.com
>
> IEEE Computer Society
> 1730 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
> Washington, DC  20036
> tel: +1-202-371-0101
> fax: +1-202-728-0884
> email:  ssaul@computer.org
>