Program Chair: John Vlissides, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Practitioner Reports Chair: Jim Doble, Tavve Software Company

Panels Chair: Ron Crocker Motorola, Inc.

OOPSLA 2001 continues the tradition of quality and diversity in technical offerings. Here is a brief guide to the sessions and events comprising the technical program:

• Invited talks provide a forum for world-class speakers to present expert yet accessible accounts of important and timely topics.
• Technical paper presentations discuss new research in object-oriented languages, systems, and applications. The 27 technical papers were selected after a rigorous peer review of 145 submissions. Some of these papers present work that foreshadows the future of OO systems; others describe and analyze the underpinnings of common OO languages, design methods, and applications.
• Practitioner Reports relate how OO languages, systems, middleware, methods, and tools are used in practice. Some of these reports describe what it’s like to adopt a new language, apply a new methodology, or use a new tool. Others distill the experience of one or more projects. The reports describe both benefits and drawbacks of approaches used in practice.
• Poster sessions present technical contributions in an informal setting. These sessions contain some of the newest research, often still in-progress. Authors are present to discuss their work, usually one-on-one.
• Demonstration sessions offer a chance to see software in action in a similarly informal (and commercial-free) context. In many cases, demos show the software discussed in technical sessions, tutorials, and other presentations.
• Panel sessions are the place where experts are encouraged to disagree publicly. The six panel sessions this year cover a spectrum of issues in software development, from understanding the impact of research to the future of object computing.
• DesignFest and CodeFest are our most hands-on events. Participants work in teams to design and implement solutions to assigned problems. The participants present their results and lessons learned at a wrap-up session at the end of the conference.
• This year we introduce two sessions in a new crossover track dubbed “Intriguing Technology.” Designed to appeal to both researchers and practitioners, Intriguing Technology presentations describe best practices, introduce systems that make research ideas more widely accessible, discuss experiences that might spur further research—in short, any work that’s “intriguing” to the OOPSLA audience.

In addition to these, as well as Tutorials, Workshops, Exhibits, and social events, there are two embedded symposia at OOPSLA:

• The Doctoral Symposium provides a forum for graduate students to share ideas and receive guidance.
• The Educators’ Symposium includes presentations and discussions on teaching object-oriented technology in both academics and industry.

There’s something here for everyone who works with object-oriented software. Whether you’re a programmer or technical lead, student or faculty member, researcher or practitioner–you stand to benefit greatly from the state-of-the-art technologies and practices on display at OOPSLA 2001.

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