SIGCSE 2016, the flagship conference on computer science education, took place in Memphis TN in March, with a big collection of Virginia Tech students, faculty, and alumni taking on a variety of important roles. My grad student Mohammed Seyam and I presented a paper on teaching mobile software development with Pair Programming. Cliff Shaffer and his students and alums had multiple papers and exhibits. Greg Kulczycki served on a panel.  And, most notably, Steve Edwards was program co-chair this year!

Mohammed Seyam’s paper and talk focused on Teaching Mobile Development with Pair Programming. It explored his investigation of Pair Programming (PP) when teaching mobile software design in an upper level CS course. PP has been shown to be useful in some teaching situations, but Mohammed is the first to look at it in teaching mobile. He also had an entry in the graduate Student Research Competition that took a broader look at the balance between PP, hands-on activities, and traditional lectures when teaching mobile software design, for which he was named a finalist.

As always, SIGCSE featured interesting and engaging keynotes. John Sweller talked about the impacts of cognitive load theory on CS education. Barbara Boucher Owens and Jan Cuny received service awards from SIGCSE and gave keynotes that reflected their life experiences. It was particularly good to see Jan Cuny receive an award given her contributions to diversity in leading broadening participation in computing programs at the NSF. Karen Lee Ashcraft talked about breaking the glass slipper, and how organizations historically (and continually) have crafted jobs and workplaces that encourage stereotypes. This was a bolder and more developed version of a talk she gave at NCWIT 2015.

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There is a lot of conversation on campus this spring about “Destination Areas,” a term that refers to ambitious new areas of growth in research and education at Virginia Tech.  You can learn much more about this discussion at the “Beyond Boundaries” site, which summarizes the bold challenge our new President and Provost has given us—to define what an internationally-recognized, global land-grant institution like Virginia Tech should look like in 2047.  The specifics of the Destination Areas are still emerging.  However, it is clear that computer science can and will play a pivotal role in all of them.  For example, a central Destination Area is in “Data and Decision Sciences.”  Our research and teaching emphasis in big data analytics allows us to play a leadership role in the definition of this destination area.   Other destination areas have working titles such as “Intelligent Infrastructure and Human-Centered Communities” and “Integrated Security,” so it is not difficult to make the case that CS is part of the discussion!

While we look forward to helping make Virginia Tech an even more attractive destination for new students and faculty, we also think about another kind of destination at this time of year, namely the next destination for our graduates.   It is always deeply gratifying to see the excitement of our soon-to-be alumni as they make plans for their next destination.  We will award over 200 BS degrees this year, along with over 30 M.S. and about 20 Ph.D. degrees.  For some, the next destination will be graduate school, military service, or a faculty position.  For others it will mean joining a spectacularly wide array of companies or agencies, from small start-ups in Blacksburg or Austin or San Francisco, to large contractors in Richmond or Charlotte or Arlington, to multinational companies in New York City or Seattle or Mountain View.  For all of our alumni, new and old, we are glad you decided to make CS@VT your destination for a few years, and we hope that decision has prepared you well for all your subsequent destinations!

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