Student Organization Event

Collaborative between ACM & UPE

Software Engineering as a Profession

Dennis J. Frailey
Principal Fellow, Raytheon Company
Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer, ACM

Tues., Oct. 19th
2:30, 480 Dreese Labs
All interested parties are invited.
A late pizza luncheon will be served.

Abstract:
Since the term "software engineering" was coined at a NATO conference
in 1968, the field of software engineering has slowly matured and
evolved into a recognized engineering profession. The need for
carefully engineered software is becoming more and more evident and
the principles of software engineering are slowly being learned,
codified, taught and practiced. Various infrastructure elements are
being established, such as standards, licensing and certification
mechanisms, educational standards, and so forth.

Yet there is still considerable debate about exactly what software
engineering is, whether it is truly a form of engineering, and whether
it is, could be, or should be a true profession.

This talk summarizes the state of software engineering today, examines
the arguments for and against the professionalism of software
engineering, and discusses some of the good and bad results of recent
attempts to establish software engineering as a disciplined,
engineering field.

Bio:
Dr. Dennis J Frailey is a Principal Fellow at Raytheon Company in
Plano, Texas and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Southern
Methodist University. He also teaches courses in software engineering
and computer science for UCLA, National Technological University and
the University of Texas Software Quality Institute. At Raytheon, his
primary duties are to provide technical and management support to
software development projects. This includes writing proposals,
negotiating program plans, estimating cost, reducing cycle time, and
solving complex computational problems. He is also the master
instructor for Raytheon's software project management course and chair
of the advanced studies committee, which establishes and manages
graduate education programs for engineering employees. In previous
assignments he worked as a computer architect, software project
manager, head of the software engineering process group, real-time
operating system developer, compiler designer, and speechwriter for
company executives.

Dennis was one of the original faculty members and developers of the
SMU software engineering masters degree program. He is a former vice
president of the ACM and former president of the Dallas Association
for Software Engineering Excellence. He has over 100 technical
publications including articles in three encyclopedias, and has been a
keynote speaker at the ACM SIGADA conference, the Conference on
Software Engineering Education and Training, Euromicro 2003, and
several other events.

Dr. Frailey is vice-chair of the industrial advisory committee of the
Texas Board of Professional Engineers and an accreditation visitor and
team chair for ABET -- the Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology. He holds an MS and PhD in computer science (Purdue) and a
BS in mathematics (Notre Dame).

Dennis taught computer programming to Stu Zweben, CSE Department Chairperson, when both were at Purdue.

Host: Richard Sharp - UPE and Jeffrey Mathew