Conference Committee Meeting -- Minutes

Holy Cross College, Worcester MA, September 13, 2014


Attendees

Laurie King (LK) (Co-Chair)
Karl Wurst (KW) (Co-Chair)
Padmaja Bandaru (PB)
Lawrence D'Antonio (LD)
Frank Ford (FF)
Michael Gousie (MG)
Krista Hill (KH)
Mark Hoffman (MH)
Susan Imberman (SI)
Stoney Jackson (SJ)
Val Kolesnikov (VK)
Stan Kurkovsky (SK)
Bonnie MacKeller (BM)
Aparna Mahadev (AM)
Sandeep Mitra (SM)
Kelly Powers (KP)
Jim Teresco (JT)
Kevin Walsh (KW)
Richard Wyatt (RW)

1. Introductions

The attendees introduced themselves.

2. Submission/Review/Publication Schedule

11/03/15 Submission Papers, Panels, Demos, Tutorials, Workshops
12/01/15 Review Papers, Panels, Demos, Tutorials, Workshops
12/22/15 Notification Papers, Panels, Demos, Tutorials, Workshops
01/02/15 Submission Faculty and Graduate Student Posters
01/12/15 Review Faculty and Graduate Student Posters
01/17/15 Notification Faculty and Graduate Student Posters
01/24/15 Camera Ready Papers, Panels, Demos, Tutorials, Workshops
02/20/15 Submission Undergraduate Poster Student Abstracts
03/13/15 Notification Undergraduate Student Poster
03/23/15 Camera Ready Undergraduate Student Poster Abstracts
03/27/15 Early Registration

The Camera Ready date for Undergraduate Student Poster Abstracts was changed from 03/20/15 to 03/23/15.

3. Web Site / Submission System

Nothing new reported.

4. Area Chairs Responsibilities / Reports / Question -- until 11.00am

a. Conference Chairs / Local Arrangements-- Laurie King, Karl Wurst

The main hotel is the Marriott Courtyard at $93/night. Out block is held until March 23. There are 40 rooms held for each night, and this number may be able to be increased.

All of Hogan is reserved.

For the programming contest, we can have 10 teams/ room. We can accommodate 30 teams. Laptops cannot be used. There are three labs available: a LINUX lab, an old Windows lab, and a new Windows lab. These three labs need to be "unified", and they will look like the LINUX lab.

Parking: there will not be a roped-off section. Parking will be hard on the Friday, but easy on the Saturday. Signs will be needed.

Vendors: uncertain at present, and will talk to National Partners chair. Karl will handle the vendors, if any.

b. Program Chairs -- Jim Teresco

The CFP will be done soon.

Last year there were not enough reviewers. The need for reviewers is to be mentioned in the CFP.

The idea of having a workshop for K-12 was proposed. The time for it might be Saturday morning or perhaps Saturday afternoon. The duration could be 1.5 hours, or 3 hour: both seemed acceptable.
There was discussion of whether to integrate the K-12 w/s into our regular program versus having a separate K-12 w/s track and a separate call. The latter seemed to be favoured, but no decision was reached.

[At this point, the meeting went on a tour of Hogan, after which the current item continued.]

c. Papers Chairs -- Ian MacDonald, Stan Kurlovsky

The number of sessions is flexible.
We should aim for a paper acceptance rate no greater than 50%.

d. Panels and Demos Chairs -- Susan Imberman, Yana Kortsarts

The has been a low submission rate here. Mention was made of having lightening talks, which would be of just 10 minutes duration, and that they might replace the demos. [At this point, the meeting broke for lunch, after which the current item continued.]

e. Tutorial and Workshop Chairs -- Bonnie MacKellar, Krista Hill

It was suggested that we restrict the number of workshops to three. No decision was reached.

f. Faculty Posters Chair Chairs -- John Russo

No discussion as Russo was not present. It was reported, however, that he would like another person to serve as his co-chair, and it was agreed that we would try to do this.

g. Undergraduate Poster Chairs -- Sandeep Mitre, Alice Fischer, Bob Duggan, Aparna Mahadev

It was agreed that these posters can be on any Computer Science topic

There should be at least a rough upper limit on the number of undergraduate posters, with the actual limit to be determined.

Criteria already exist for evaluating the undergraduate poster abstracts. It was asked if faculty poster could be evaluated in the same way.

It was noted that a printer is need for the printing of the prize certificated, and reported that this can be accommodated.

h. Programming Contest Chairs -- Frank Ford, Del Hart, Kevin Walsh

The programming languages to e made available are: C++, Java.
Teams are to get a random identification number to secure blind judging.
A briefing room is needed from about 8.45am for about 50 persons. It was reported that all this can be accommodated.
The labs are to be opened at 8.00am
the registration table is to be in the contest area.
A breakfast are is needed.
Overheads are needed to display the team standings.
A person to answer technical matter is needed in each contest room.
A printer is needed in each room
There is to be one machine per team.
Teams can bring in anything that is not electronic.
There are to be no more than 30 teams.
Assuming that there is to be at most 30 teams (as expected), only teams from Colleges are allowed; in particular, there cannot be any teams from high schools.

i. Hackfest Chairs -- Stoney Jackson, Heidi Ellis

It was suggested that this might be run by an outside organization.

j. Registration Chairs -- Mark Hoffman

Mark said that a second person is needed.
Comptool will be used.
Persons are needed for the registration table.
Registration fees remain as they were for last year. It was explicitly agreed that W/s registration will also not change from last year.
Persons registering for a w/s often do not recall having done so, or which w/s they wanted. For this year, persons registering for a w/s are to be emailed the details of their w/s. It this procedure fails to correct the problem, further changes (of an as yet unspecified nature) will have to be made for the following year.
Registration for High School teacher: we will have a special registration fee for the Saturday only for K-12 teachers; it is $50.
It was further agreed that there is to be a new registration category: k-12 teachers can attend the entire conference (thus obviating the need for the previous point) and that such registrants cannot become CCSC members. and do not get a copy of the proceedings. This will require a a new category in Comptool.

k. publicity Chairs -- Nadine Hanebutte

[No one was present, so no remarks.]

l. Speakers Chairs -- Ingrid Russell, Val Kolesnikov

It was reported that there are no suggestions yet, but the chairs are working on it. Larry suggested Sepandar Kamvar of MIT.

m. K-12 / CSTA Chairs -- Kelly Powers, Padmaja Bandaru

It was suggested that we might have a panel on K-12/College Computer Science.

5. Facilities Tour -- starting at 11.00am

(See above.)

6. Area Chairs Responsibilities / Reports / Question -- continued after tour

(See above.)

7. Lunch

(See above.)
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Wyatt
(CCSCNE Secretary)