At the end of February, the Software Engineering Conference 2024, opens an external URL in a new window (SE24) took place at the JKU campus - the annual symposium of the Software Engineering area of the Gesellschaft für Informatik, opens an external URL in a new window (GI). The LIT Cyber-Physical Systems Lab and the Institute for Business Informatics - Software Engineering organized the event (General Chairs: Prof. Rick Rabiser und Prof. Manuel Wimmer).

A total of 50 talks were accepted and held for the main program. In addition to the exciting tracks such as the Student Research Competition, the Industry Program, and the Ernst Denert Software Engineering Prize, five workshops and one meetup on various topics were held as well as a panel of Research Software Engineering. Please find details about the program here: https://se2024.se.jku.at/detailprogramm/, opens an external URL in a new window.

Also, three interesting keynotes were given:

Janet Siegmund is Professor of Software Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology. On Wednesday, she presented her keynote titled  "New Perspectives on the Human Factor in Software Engineering", in which she emphasized the importance of the human factor and the insights gained from research in this area.

Bernd Greifeneder is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dynatrace. He presented the keynote "How Dynatrace innovates at scale" on Thursday. Dynatrace has established itself as a pioneer in the application of AI for observability and security. Greifeneder shared insights on how the company has scaled and innovated and how collaboration with research talent from the university has opened up new opportunities.

Hermann Sikora is Chairman of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Software GmbH and Spokesman of the Management Board of RAITEC GmbH. He presented the keynote "Are we ready for the Software Factory?" on Friday. He discussed the evolution of software development, the importance of programming-in-the-large and the potential impact of generative AI on software engineering on an industrial scale.

You can find more details about the keynotes on the SE24 website: https://se2024.se.jku.at/keynotes/, opens an external URL in a new window

You did not attend the conference and want more information? No problem, we have compiled a review from four perspectives for you:

From the perspective of a General Chair 

"I was surprised by the number of registrations we ultimately received. We had expected 200, but there were over 280, with over 120 from Austria and over a quarter from industry. This demonstrates the broad interest in Software Engineering. Not despite, but precisely because of the current developments in the field of AI, Software Engineering (with and for AI) is becoming increasingly important," Rick rejoices over a successful conference.

From the perspective of a speaker 

Shubham Sharma presented his paper titled "Modularization Guidelines to Support Control Software Variability in IEC 61499", opens an external URL in a new window at one of the workshops. "The discussion after my presentation was insightful as new impulses were given. For example, the question was raised regarding which aspects of the presented guidelines could be automated and presented in a future paper," says Shubham.

From the perspective of a conference guest

"I particularly liked the combination of workshops, community work, and a regular conference with presentations. I also found it exciting that various scientific works were highlighted and ultimately awarded in two competitions," summarizes Sven Mehlhop his impressions. Sven is a doctoral student at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oldenburg and attended the SE for the first time this year.

From the perspective of a Student Volunteer 

A total of 28 student volunteers contributed to the success of the conference. Anna-Lena Hager was one of them. As part of the technical team, she spent her time at the "Software Engineering im Unterricht der Hochschulen", opens an external URL in a new window (SEUH) conference collocated with SE. SEUH has been a forum in the German-speaking area for many years, where scholars present, discuss, and collectively improve the quality of teaching by sharing their successes, failures, and experiences in Software Engineering education. "At the end of the event, we student volunteers were invited to a panel discussion. The organizers emphasized that they particularly appreciate criticism. It was an interesting discussion - especially the topic of AI was extensively discussed," Anna-Lena says.