After the jury’s deliberation, it is our pleasure to inform you that the winner of the AST 2021 Industrial Competition was the paper entitled:

presented by Alessio Bucaioni and co-authored with Fabio Di Silvestro, Inderjeet Singh, Mehrdad Saadatmand, Henry Muccini and Thorvaldur Jochumsson.

The jury selected this paper mainly due to the potential of this research to be transferred to industry, especially in the context of Industry 4.0. We want to thank the participation of the authors and the jury which was composed by Dr. Laura García-Borgoñon from ITAInnova, Nicolás Sánchez from G7 Innovation and Dr. Gustavo Aragón from Deloitte.

Registration period

The registration pages will remain open until May 16th for pre-conference co-located events and until May 23th for the main conference and workshops.

For mor info, please visit https://conf.researchr.org/track/icse-2021/icse-2021-awards#Award-Recipients-at-ICSE-2021

We are proud to announce the recipients of the three main ICSE Awards 2021:

• The Most Influential Paper Award goes to Andrea Arcuri and Lionel Briand for their ICSE 2011 paper entitled A Practical Guide for Using Statistical Tests to Assess Randomized Algorithms in Software Engineering, addressing the key challenges of using statistical tests in software engineering.
• The Harlan Mills Award goes to Prof. Dieter Rombach in recognition of his outstanding contributions and leadership in research, teaching, and technology transfer in the area of empirical software engineering.
• The ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award goes to Prof. Prem Devanbu for profoundly changing the way researchers think about software by exploring connections between source code and natural language.

Do not miss their talks at ICSE 2021!

Registration for ICSE 2021 authors has been postponed to Feb 12th. But the sooner you register the better!!

The registration for ICSE 2021 is open. All information is on the website: ICSE 2021 Registration

The JSEET track accepted 31 out of 93 submissions, which means a 33% acceptance rate. Check here the list of accepted papers.

The ICSE-SEIP track accepted 41 out of 121 submissions, which means a 33.8% acceptance rate. Check here the list of accepted papers.

We announce that we extended the deadline for papers submission. The new dates are the following:

• Abstract submission: 9 Feb 2021
• Paper submission: 12 Feb 2021
• Notification: 12 Mar 2021

The submission to ACM Student Research Competition has a new deadline: January 21. See details here.

The new deadline is Jan 22 (extended from Jan 12). Abstracts are due on Jan 15. Check it here.

The submission to ACM Student Research Competition has a deadline extension by one more week. So, the new deadline is January 11. See details here.

It is with great sadness that we announce that TechDebt 2021 is going virtual. We share the concerns and feelings of ICSE 2021 organizers and believe that going fully virtual is the right way forward. For a detailed explanation, please read the announcement on ICSE’s website.

On December 26, the list of accepted paperas for the technical track was made public. The list is available here.

SEIS track accepted 11 papers out of 33 submissions, which means an acceptance rate of 33.3%.

ICSE 2021 received 615 submissions. Of these, 13 were desk rejected for double-blind or formatting violations. The remaining 602 papers went through a thorough review process, with at least three reviewers, one meta-reviewer, and an area chair per paper. Following an online discussion, the program committee decided to accept 138 papers, including 30 conditional ones. We will announce the acceptance rate after finalizing all conditional decisions.

We are extremely grateful to the PC: They wrote over 1800 reviews, 550 meta-reviews, placed over 10,000, comments, made over 3500 edits to improve your reviews – all while also teaching, advising your students, and taking care of their families during a pandemic.

We announce that we will have the following very exciting two keynotes:

KEYNOTES

• Jeffrey Kephart - Title: Viewing Autonomic Computing through the Lens of Embodied Artificial Intelligence: A Self-Debate
• Fiona Polack - Title: Uncertain mMdels of Unknown Realities: Modelling and Simulating Complex Biological Systems

More info can be found here: https://conf.researchr.org/info/seams-2021/keynotes

In order to reinforce diversity, this year ICSE 2021 is applying a One Role Policy (i.e., nobody can participate in more than one committee -including OC-). We thank all the chairs for their big effort to reach this out. The obtained results are promising: we have got more diverse and balanced committees than in previous years, including people from all continents and a higher percentage of women.

The following 20 workshops have been accepted for ICSE 2021. More details here.

• SEH: 3rd ICSE International Workshop on Software Engineering for Healthcare
• BoKSS: Body of Knowledge for Software Sustainability
• Q-SE 2021: The 2nd International Workshop on QuantumSoftware Engineering
• MET’21: 6th International Workshop on Metamorphic Testing
• GI: Genetic Improvement Workshop
• BotSE: Third International Workshop on Bots in Software Engineering
• WAIN’21: 1st Workshop on AI Engineering –Software Engineering for AI
• APR: International Workshop on Automated Program Repair
• RoSE’21: 3rd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering
• SER&IP 2021: 8th International Workshop on Software Engineering Research and Industrial Practice
• SBST: The 14th Search-Based Software Testing Workshop
• SERP4IoT: 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering Research and Practices for the IoT
• WETSEB 2021: 4th Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain
• DeepTest 2021: Third International Workshop on Deep Learning for Testing and Testing for Deep Learning
• CloudIntelligence: Workshop on Cloud Intelligence: AI/ML for Efficient and Manageable Cloud Services
• SESoS/WDES 2021: Joint 9th International Workshop on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems and 15th Workshop on Distributed Software Development, Software Ecosystems and Systems-of-Systems
• SEmotion’21: The Sixth International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering
• SoHeal: 4th International Workshop on Software Health in Projects, Ecosystems and Communities
• SEthics: 2nd International Workshop on Ethics in Software Engineering Research and Practice
• EnCyCriS 2021: The 2nd International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems

The current trends in the global Covid-19 pandemic make it very unlikely that we will be able to hold a physical conference in Madrid in May 2021 with sufficient assurances of safety. It is with great sadness that we announce that ICSE 2021 and its co-located events and workshops will be held virtually. We did not take this decision lightly, but we believe that going fully virtual is the right way forward.

This is obviously not what we had in mind, four years ago, when we put in a tremendous effort to get ICSE to Madrid. We have been working hard since on what would have been the first ICSE to be held in Spain. We aimed to make it an unforgettable event where you could relish Spanish food, music, dance and other cultural activities. Unfortunately, this will have to wait for better times.

Despite the challenges that everybody is facing these days, we are delighted that ICSE continues to be the prime venue for high quality research. We have seen numerous submissions that follow the numbers of the previous years and we are excited about a great program to come. We have studied past virtual conferences and we have reached out to you on social media, to understand how we can make the virtual ICSE experience a great success and interesting for everybody. The most frequent comment that we have received was that virtual conferences are lacking the social interaction that is so important for our community, so we made this our number one goal.

We will be following initiatives of other conferences and integrate many interactive events into the program and leave ample room for effective networking opportunities. On top, we have the novel idea to enable decentralized watch parties. Instead of watching ICSE alone at home, we support the organization of local events, in which small groups of people can meet and enjoy the conference together. A watch party can be as big as a lecture hall or as small as your living room, you can eat together, discuss research over coffee, join social events (or create your own!), or just get together to be less alone. We will provide a central platform for finding and registering watch parties, everything else is up to you. This is your chance to be an inspiring host that brings the community together, be it at home, in your research lab, or maybe even as an open invitation for people in your area. More details about the organization will be announced on the ICSE website and the Twitter channel soon!

The whole team is fully committed to making the virtual ICSE an awesome experience for everybody, we hope that you are on board, too. Sincerely, Natalia Juristo, General Chair, ICSE 2021

We would be grateful if you could fill in this short survey on the ICSE community’s wishes for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activities and support - with an emphasis on inclusivity, given that many attendees will be virtual.

The following table displays the evolution of the number of submissions to the SEIP, SEIS, NIER and JSEET tracks in the last four years.

We are currently in the process of designing the concept and program for ICSE 2021 and we expect that virtualization will (at least) play a role again. In this current year, many conferences have gone virtual and you have probably attended several of them already.

We would like to hear about your experience and learn what we can do to make ICSE 2021 a great experience for you! Please complete this short survey

We also ask you to kindly participate in this discussion by commenting this Sebastian Proksch’s Tweet

ICSE 2021 has received 26 submissions in the call for workshops!

ICSE 2021 Technical Track has received 615 submissions! One less than for ICSE 2020.

Join our mailing list to receive updates about TechDebt 2021 and engage with the TechDebt community.

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is a cosmopolitan city that combines the most modern infrastructures and the status as an economic, financial, administrative and service centre, with a large cultural and artistic heritage, a legacy of centuries of exciting history.

Strategically located in the geographic centre of the Iberian Peninsula at an altitude of 646 m above sea level, Madrid has one of the most important historic centres of all the great European cities. This heritage merges seamlessly with the city’s modern and convenient infrastructures, a wide-ranging offer of accommodation and services, and all the latest state-of-the-art technologies in audiovisual and communications media. These conditions, together with all the drive of a dynamic and open society –as well as high-spirited and friendly– have made this metropolis one of the great capitals of the Western world.

It has been populated since the Lower Palaeolithic era, although it was not until 1561 that King Philip II made Madrid the capital city of his vast empire. The historic centre, also known as the “Madrid of Los Austrias” (in reference to the Hapsburg monarchs), and the spectacular Plaza Mayor square –inaugurated in 1620 and one of the most popular and typical sites in Spain– are a living example of the nascent splendour of the city in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Near the Plaza Mayor is the area known as the “aristocratic centre” where the jewel in the crown is the Royal Palace, an imposing building dating from the 17th century featuring a mixture of Baroque and classicist styles. Beside it is the Plaza de Oriente square, the Teatro Real opera house, and the modern cathedral of La Almudena which was consecrated in 1993 by Pope John Paul II. The Puerta del Sol square is surrounded by a varied and select area of shops and businesses, and the “Paseo del Arte” art route –whose name derives from its world-class museums, palaces and gardens– are further elements in an array of monuments which includes particularly the Bank of Spain building, the Palace of Telecommunications, and the fountains of Cibeles and Neptune.

Art and culture play a key role in Madrid’s cultural life. The capital has over 60 museums which cover every field of human knowledge. Highlights include the Prado Museum, one of the world’s most important art galleries; the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, with over 800 paintings ranging from primitive Flemish artists through to the avant-garde movements. And the Reina Sofía National Art Centre, dedicated to contemporary Spanish art and containing works by Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Juan Gris, among others.

Madrid’s extensive and beautifully maintained parks and gardens –like the Retiro park, formerly the recreational estate to the Spanish monarchs, the Casa de Campo and the Juan Carlos I park– offer inhabitants and visitors the chance to enjoy the sunshine, stroll, row on its lakes or feed the squirrels, in one of the greenest capitals in Europe. The importance of its international airport, which every week receives over 1,000 flights from all over the world, its two Conference Centres, the modern trade fair ground in the Campo de las Naciones, and over 80,000 places in other meeting centres make Madrid one of Europe’s most attractive business hubs.

But if there’s one thing that sets Madrid apart, it must be its deep and infectious passion for life that finds its outlet in the friendly and open character of its inhabitants. Concerts, exhibitions, ballets, a select theatrical offering, the latest film releases, the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of the best Spanish and international gastronomy, to savour the charms of its bars and taverns… all these are just a few of the leisure options on offer in Madrid. There is also a tempting array of shops and businesses featuring both traditional establishments and leading stores offering top brands and international labels.

Madrid’s lively nightlife is another key attraction of Spain’s capital, due to its variety and the exciting atmosphere to be found in its bars, pubs, clubs and flamenco halls. Other daytime entertainment options include traditional outdoor dances, popular festivities and the San Isidro bullfighting festival, regarded as being the most important in the world.

See all the information on the destination at:

Madrid is the main communications hub for the Iberian Peninsula. All the main routes to the rest of Spain and Europe lead out of the city. The region has a modern transport network with airports, trains and roads, which are constantly being renovated and extended. Madrid has a good road network –mainly motorways– which takes you quickly around the region. This –mostly free– network has six major routes that link Madrid with other Spanish cities. Within the Region of Madrid there are four ring roads around the capital with access from all the motorway routes. These ring roads provide easy access to the population centres in the metropolitan area of Madrid.

Madrid is also the centre of the Spanish railway network, with international, inter-city, high speed and regional services. The Renfe national railway company runs all these rail services, as well as the local lines.

The airport is just 13 kilometres outside the city centre. Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport is Spain’s busiest airport, and one of Europe’s top five. It is also the main European hub for flights to Latin America.

BY CAR

• A-1 Motorway Irún (Basque Country).
• A-2 Motorway Barcelona.
• A-3 Motorway Valencia.
• A-4 Motorway Seville.
• A-5 Motorway Badajoz (Extremadura).
• A-6 Motorway A Coruña (Galicia).
• More information: Travelling in Spain by car

BY AIR

Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport

• Connections: Direct flights with many European cities and major capitals around the world. Madrid – Barcelona air shuttle. Daily connections with major Spanish cities

• Location/Services: Located 12 kilometres from the city. Taxi, bus and underground services and C-1 suburban train line. 24-hour fast bus service.

• Admission: Taxi: fixed rate from the airport to the city centre (inside the M-30 ring road): €30 Taxi supplement for other routes: €5.50. Free luggage transport. Metro surcharge: €3. Express Bus Line: €5. C-1 suburban train line: €2.6 (Free for passengers disembarking from or connecting to an AVE high-speed train link) Return trip: €5.2

• More information: Flying to Spain, Spain’s main air connections

BY TRAIN

Renfe Spain Pass

• This pass offers the chance to travel around Spain for all non-residents. This system is very practical, as it can be used on all AVE long-distance and mid-distance high-speed trains. The Renfe Spain Pass is valid for one month from the first trip and comes in two formats (Business/Club and Tourist). It can be purchased up to six months in advance, and is available for 4, 6, 8 or 10 journeys. More information: Renfe Spain Pass

Atocha railway station

• Connections: High-speed AVE to Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Valladolid and Segovia, among others. International connections to Paris and Lisbon. Long-distance services to all regional Spanish capitals.

• Services: Regular metro, bus and taxi services.

Chamartín railway station

• Connections: International connections to Paris and Lisbon. Long-distance services to all regional Spanish capitals.
• Services: Regular metro, bus and taxi services.

More information

• Travelling to Spain by train
• Getting around Spain by train

Access to the historic centre from the airport and Madrid’s main train and bus stations is quick and easy using the metro (for information on how to get into the city from the airport, see the How to get there section). It runs every day from 6 am to 1:30 am, and metro station entrances are marked with the letter ‘M’.

Buses are also a good option. They operate from approximately 6 am to 11:30 pm on Mondays to Fridays and run on special bus lanes in the city’s principal streets. Bus routes and their frequency are displayed at the stops. You can travel with rucksacks (as long as they are held in the hand and not on the back), with suitcases (the same size as airline hand luggage) and with folding bicycles. On Saturdays and Sundays they run from approximately 7 am to 11 pm.

To get around at night there are special night buses, popularly known as “búhos” (“owls”). They depart from Plaza de Cibeles square and have an ‘N’ in front of the route number. They run from Sunday to Friday and on public holidays from 11:55 pm to 6 am. On Saturdays and the eve of public holidays they run from 11 pm to 7 am.

Nevertheless, many people prefer the comfort of taxis when travelling at night. They run all day, and are white with a red stripe, and the city’s crest and their licence number on the side. They can be hailed in the street when the green light is on. Otherwise they can be found at taxi ranks or you can order them by telephone using the radio taxi service. Tariffs are displayed inside the taxis and comprise the minimum fare, flag-down charge, kilometre charge and other extras such as night service, public holidays, and station or airport service. The total cost is displayed on a meter.

To get to Madrid’s suburbs and surrounding areas, you can either take the bus or the train. Renfe Cercanias, the local train service, runs from 5-6 am to around midnight, and offers frequent daily services to places of interest for tourists such as Alcalá de Henares, El Escorial and Aranjuez.

Prado Museum

This gallery in Madrid has the most complete collection of Spanish painting from 11th-18th centuries, and numerous masterpieces by great universal artists such as El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Bosch, Titian, Van Dyck and Rembrandt. The quality and variety of its collection makes the Prado one of the world’s best-endowed museums. It combines a first-class collection of Spanish painting, the most important works of the Flemish and Italian schools, and various fine examples of the German, French and English schools. It is home to numerous masterpieces of universal art such as Las Meninas by Velázquez, the two Majas by Goya, Nobleman with his hand on his chest by El Greco, the Garden of Delights by Bosch, and The Three Graces by Rubens, among other priceless pieces. Although the museum was created to house primarily works of painting and sculpture, it also contains major collections of drawings, engravings, coins and medals, as well as items of clothing and decorative art.

Reina Sofia National Art Centre

The Reina Sofía National Art Centre opened its doors to the public in 1990 with a major collection of Spanish and international art covering the period between the late 19th century to the present day. Two years later Pablo Picasso’s Guernica was installed, a key work that plays a fundamental role in the museum’s discourse and activities. Located in an old hospital building dating from the late 18th century by the architect Francesco Sabatini, the growth of its collection created a need for an extension, and 2005 saw the inauguration of a new building designed by Jean Nouvel. The 18,000 items in the museum’s collection have in recent years been rearranged to create an itinerary that explores its most distinctive features, such as Surrealism, the pavilion of the 1937 Republic, and Spanish Informalism of the 1950s in an international context. It currently revolves around three major sections: ‘1900-1945: The irruption of the 20th century. Utopias and conflicts’, ‘1945-1968: is the war over? Art in a divided world’, and ‘1962-1982: From revolt to post-modernity’. The Reina Sofía is also a space for research, experimentation and reflection, and offers a wide programme of temporary exhibitions and public activities.

Tyssen-Bornemisza Museum

In the nearly one thousand works on display, visitors can contemplate the major periods and schools of western art, from the Renaissance through Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, Romanticism and the art of the 19th and 20th centuries to Pop Art. The museum also features works from some movements that are under-represented in state-owned collections, such as Impressionism, Fauvism, German Expressionism and the experimental avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. It also boasts an important collection of 19th-century American painting which is unique among European museums. Durer, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Kandinsky, Picasso, Hopper and Rothko are some of the great painters whose works enthrall visitors. This international collection, which is now state-owned, was originally private, the result of the exquisite taste of its two main creators, Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1875-1947) and his son, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002). In 2004 the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collection was added, with more than 200 pieces on loan, complementing the styles and genres already present in the Permanent Collection.

Royal Place

Madrid’s Royal Palace was built in the 18th century by order of Philip V on the site of the old Alcázar fortress, a former Moorish castle. Sachetti began the works in 1738, and the building was completed in 1764. Sabatini designed the southeast wing and the great staircase, or staircase of honour. It has a square floor plan with a large central courtyard. The Puerta del Príncipe gateway on the east side gives access to the central courtyard. The Sabatini and Campo del Moro Gardens are among the Palace’s other attractions, as well as its several different façades. There is some debate as to its artistic style; it is thought by some experts to belong more to the Baroque, and by others to the Neo-classical style. Of particular note among its numerous rooms are the Royal Guards’ Room, the Columns Room, the Hall of Mirrors and King Charles III’s room. It also contains paintings by Velázquez, Goya, Rubens, El Greco and Caravaggio.

Main Square

Main Square is a symbol of Madrid and must not be missed. Building work began on this huge open area in the city centre in the 17th Century under the orders of Felipe III, whose bronze equestrian statue adorns the square. It was opened in 1620 and is rectangular in shape, with arcades running around the edges. This site used to be the venue for many public events, such as bullfights, processions, festivals, theatre performances, Inquisition trials and even capital executions. Underneath the arcades there are traditional shops, as well as a wealth of bars and restaurants. In the square a number buildings stand out, such as Casa de la Panadería, with its fresco-decorated façade, and Casa de la Carnicería.

Alcalá Gate

This is one of the most well-known monuments in Madrid. Built between 1769 and 1778 under the orders of King Carlos III, it was designed by Francisco Sabatini and erected as a triumphal arch to celebrate the arrival of the monarch at the capital. The granite gate is 19.5 metres tall and is elegant and well-proportioned. The façade features a number of decorative elements with groups of sculptures, capitals, reliefs and masks, among others.

Buen Retiro Park

Located in the heart of Madrid, its origins date from the reign of Philip IV, when the Buen Retiro Palace was built by the Count-Duke of Olivares. The Astronomical Observatory and the Buen Retiro Royal Porcelain Factory were added during the reign of Charles III. During the reign of Ferdinand VII, the pier on the pond and the Casa de Fieras zoo was built. Among the most prominent spots, the park includes the great pond with the monument to Alfonso XII, the Casa de Velázquez and the Crystal Palace, the Rosaleda rose garden and the Parterre, boasting one of the oldest trees in Madrid, a Taxodium mucronatum. In 1935, it was declared a Garden of Historic-Artistic value.