Prof. Anthony Finkelstein: Ten Open Challenges at the Boundaries Software Engineering & Information Systems

In this talk, intended to provoke discussion, I will suggest 10 important open challenges at boundaries where Software Engineering & Information Systems meet. I will focus on challenges are both intellectually demanding and of industrial importance. I will suggest some approaches to meeting these challenges and will lay stress upon the interdisciplinary opportunities they give rise to.

Bio

Anthony Finkelstein a graduate in systems engineering holding a BEng, MSC and PhD. He is Professor of Software Systems Engineering at University College London (UCL), a leading UK research university. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at the National Institute for Informatics, Tokyo, Japan. He is Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Science and was Head of the Department of Computer Science at UCL. He has published more than 220 scientific papers and secured more than £20m of research funding. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS) and has been active professionally in both, serving on numerous Boards and Committees.

Most recently he has been appointed Chair of the BCS Science & Engineering Engagement Committee and received a special 'Outstanding Contribution Award' from the International Conference on Software Engineering. In 2009 he received the Oliver Lodge Medal of the IET for achievement in Information Technology. He has been recognised for his contributions to the field of requirements engineering and for his professional service by the IEEE. He was a winner of the prestigious International Conference on Software Engineering 'most influential paper' prize for work on 'viewpoints' and a winner of the Requirements Engineering 'most influential paper' prize for work on traceability. He was a member of the winning team of the first Times Higher Education 'Research Project of the Year'.

He has served on numerous editorial boards including that of ACM TOSEM and IEEE TSE, and was founder editor of Automated Software Engineering. He also chaired numerous international meetings and was General Chair of the International Conference on Software Engineering. He was keynote speaker at Automated Software Engineering. He was the founder Chair of IFIP WG 2.9 (Software Requirements Engineering) an international research society and was keynote speaker at the International Conference on Requirements Engineering. He established a leading research group in software systems engineering at UCL and played a key role in the foundation of London Software Systems, a major new research institute. He served on the UK 2008 Research Assessment Exercise panel for Computer Science and Informatics and was a member of the Committee of Visitors for the US National Science Foundation. He has provided consultancy advice to a very large number of high profile companies and government organisations. He has acted as an expert in complex technology disputes and is highly experienced at technology due diligence on start-up companies. He was recently awarded the UCL 'Entrepreneurial Spirit' award, an institutional honour marking his contributions to knowledge transfer. He has established three successful 'spinout' companies providing respectively professional services, product software and an innovative software.

Dimitris A. Beis: Total Integration - The Case of Information Systems for Olympic Games

The Olympic Games, the most demanding Sports Mega Event, have evolved through the years to complexity levels unparallel in any man designed process. Information Systems play the key role both as an enabler and critical performer for an Olympic Event if not surpassing at least in equal terms with the stars of the Games, the Athletes. Just data registering of records and performance of sports and athletes is not a viable option today for the Olympic Games. The total integration of all functions that make the 15 dream days of the Olympics is the target. Olympic family services, spectator services, cultural integration, media and broadcasting services, world participation and host city performance in transportation, crowd regulation and security must be supported in a first time easy to use, reliable and sub second response performance with 100% availability of all systems. The IS implemented in support of the last three Olympiads in Sydney, Athens and Beijing will be presented, critical issues of success factors analysed and expected developments projected.

Bio

Scientific Secretary and Member of the Board of the Greek Energy Council until December 2009 responsible for the proposal to the government of the long term energy strategy for Greece. As Scientific Secretary he was responsible for recommending to the Board the yearly energy white paper as the head of the Secretariat of the Council.

Prior to this position D. A. Beis was General Manager for Technologies for the Athens 2004 Olympics Games Organising Committee. The field of responsibilities for the Athens 2004 Games included Information Technologies, Telecommunications, and Energy. During games time he was a member of the Olympic Games Operations Board that delivered the "DREAM GAMES" as acknowledged by the President of the International Olympic Committee. D. A. Beis is currently energy advisor to the International Olympic Committee.

For his work in the planning and design of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and in particular the work undertaken in cooperation with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and the Athens Economics University for the work in applying Operations Research methodologies and developing the PLATO tool ( Process Logistics Advanced Technical Optimiser), he was awarded, together with Professors P. Loucopoulos, C. Zografos and J. Pyrgiotis, the first prize in 2005 from the Operations Research Society in England and a commendation from the Edelman OR Society of the USA.

Prior to the appointment to the Athens Olympics, D.A.Beis occupied a variety of top management positions both in the private sector and the Greek Government. In brief from 1973 till 1988 he was responsible for the design and implementation of engineering projects including the design and construction of the Energy Control Centre for the Public Power Corporation. From 1989 till 1992 he was responsible for the introduction of advanced information systems for the Greek Government, while from 1993 till his appointment to the Olympics Committee he was responsible successively for the planning of energy production facilities and later for the privatisation of the electricity incumbent company.

D.A. Beis holds the degrees of BSc (Eng) from Aston University in England, Diploma of Technical Sciences of UMIST, MSc and DIC in Systems Analysis from Imperial College in London.

From 1999 until 2004 Mr D. A. Beis was Visiting Professor at UMIST.

Mr Beis hold at various times the following Membership of Professional Bodies: Technical Chamber of Greece, CIGRE, UNIPEDE ( Informatics Committee), and Member of the Directing Committee of EURELECTRIC in Brussels.