Welcome from the Program Chairs COMPSAC 2009

Welcome to Seattle and COMPSAC 2009, the 33rd edition of the IEEE Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference. This year’s theme – Harmonizing Humans, Computers, and Software in Services Environments – reflects some of the new challenges that our global society faces at present. As a world-wide forum, COMPSAC can address those challenges by bringing together both researchers and practitioners from various countries and cultures and by offering them unique opportunities to share their ideas, perspectives, and experience with others. The technical program of COMPSAC 2009 continues to feature academic and industrial practice papers covering a relatively wide research area. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: social networks, security, requirements analysis, software architecture, software quality and testing, evolution, formal methods, embedded systems, mobile and pervasive computing. Other new emerging and multidisciplinary research and development work, industry-academia collaborations, and curriculum design, are all part of COMPSAC. For COMPSAC 2009, we have received 231 submissions covering both the academic and the industrial sectors from different parts of the world. Each paper was evaluated by at least three reviewers for its technical content and suitability to the conference tracks and topics. After a rigorous peer review and selection process which took many hours of work, 46 regular papers and 29 short papers were accepted for presentation and included in the conference proceedings. The regular papers publish mature results. The short papers represent quality work that could spur discussion. Several fast abstracts that discuss promising but preliminary results were also accepted. In addition, the technical program includes 3 keynote addresses, six panel discussions, 14 workshops, and a doctoral symposium with papers presenting work-in-progress by PhD candidates. The success of COMPSAC 2009 would not have been possible without the effort and hard work of many volunteers. First, we would like to thank all Track Chairs and the members of the Program Committee for their important service to this community in soliciting quality submissions, reviewing papers, and thus providing invaluable help for the acceptance decisions. Their effort was vital in assuring the high quality of the technical program. We also thank Sheikh Ahamed and Rajesh Subramanyan for playing critical roles in organizing the workshops and the panels. We would like to give our special thanks to Carl Chang, the Steering Committee Chair, who has been providing invaluable guidance and support throughout the entire conference preparation process and to Tony Hey, who has offered important advice about a number of key issues as General Chair. Thanks are also due to all our colleagues – faculty, staff, and students – at Iowa State University for managing the flow of papers and reviews, for operating the corresponding software support systems, for developing the conference website, and for organizing the Program Committee meeting in March 2009. Particular recognitions go to Hua Ming and Laurel Tweed for their tireless work in keeping things running.