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01/11/2005: "CUSEC this weekend"

I'll be appearing at CUSEC, the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference, in Ottawa, Ontario this weekend. The conference runs at Carleton University, which I have not seen in almost fifteen years. The conference runs Friday 1/14 to Sunday 1/16 and registration is still available at Cdn$55.

The Ottawa-area XP user group, led by Dave Rooney, will be meeting informally Thursday night (1/13) at a pub somewhere in the city. I don't yet know the details, but you can find Dave through Google and ask him directly.

I'll be delivering a keynote address (Friday at lunch) talking about differences between writing software in an academic setting and in "the real world", and while this is a well-trod topic, I think I have a few unusual insights to share. Certainly, the audience will be the judges of that. Alistair Cockburn will also be delivering a keynote at the conference, so there will be strong Agile presence. I look forward to that.

I will also sit on a panel (Sunday afternoon) and discuss something wonderful and interesting, although I confess I don't yet know what. That's the fun about panels: the spontaneity of them.

I really enjoy talking to students, especially finding out about their experience (if any) with Agile software development. It's encouraging to see them exposed to Agile concepts before any other software principles have had much of a chance to galvanize within them. I would dearly enjoy working with graduates, helping them make the transition from school to industry, providing them with the kind of training they get in dribs and drabs their first year or two on the job. I hope that this conference will give me the opportunity to find out what these students feel they're missing as they set out into the cold, cruel world.

If you bring your copy of JUnit Recipes to the get-together Thursday night, I'll sign it in exchange for one beer. No limit!