Social and NetworkingICSE 2021

ICSE is not only a venue for presenting research but also for meeting other software engineering researchers. Building a strong and inclusive community where everyone can feel welcome and appreciated is an important goal of ICSE. The 2021 edition of ICSE will feature a series of events aiming to strengthen the community.

The technical sessions will be interlaced with social sessions to achieve, despite virtuality, ICSE’s traditional role of building and consolidating our community. We will have more than 30 social/networking events (including hangouts with keynote speakers and awardees, technical and non-technical speed dating-like sessions, yoga, coffee with members of the OC, and several mentoring and minority groups support sessions).

Check additional tabs for further information!

Speed Networking for Everyone

Every year about 50% of ICSE attendees are first-time attendees. To help integrate newcomers into the fold, we are running a number of speed-networking events.

On Tuesday May 25, there will be special speed-networking events that are categorized by research topic, so that attendees can meet other attendees who are working in the same areas of software engineering. Come and Meet Your Peers by joining a Speed-Networking session on the following specialty topics:

• Human Aspects of Software Engineering
• AI for SE. SE for AI
• Testing
• Program Analysis
• Requirements, Design, and Modeling
• Software Evolution and Maintenance,
• Open (any topic)

On Wednesday May 26/Thursday May 27, there will be general speed-networking events that allow students, postdocs, and faculty to meet their peers.

On Thursday May 27/Friday May 28, there will be speed-networking sessions that are aimed at underrepresented groups (women, LGBTIQ, Blacks).

On Friday May 28/Saturday May 29, there will be general speed-networking events that allow attendees to bring their pets to ICSE!

LGBTIQ+ Events

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexual, and Questioning (LGBTIQ) researchers and practitioners primarily come to software engineering conferences to discuss technical aspects of their work with the research community. But we are people, too, whose rights and safety are sometimes affected by the political climate. At this year’s group meeting, LGBTIQ researchers, practitioners, and friends are invited to speak together to build community. We will also discuss how we fit in with our academic, industry, and governmental institutions, the current political climate around the world, and what we can do to help make all software engineering conferences and workshops to be safe and welcoming spaces for LGBTIQ members of the Software Engineering research community.

Look for the LGBTIQ Community Meeting (on Thursday) and LGBTIQ Speed-Networking event (on Thursday) in the ICSE program, under Networking and Culture.

Software Engineering Women in Research (SEWIRE) Events

SEWIRE events and social media venues provide a forum for software-engineering women researchers to connect, share experiences, share advice, celebrate achievements, network, and build community.

Look for the SEWIRE Speed-Networking event (on Thursday/Friday) in the ICSE program, under Networking and Culture. Look also for SEWIRE Coffee Chats among the CLOWDR social rooms (1-2 Chats are scheduled every day). Or create your own SEWIRE Coffee Chat in CLOWDR and see who drops in!

Follow SEWIRE on Twitter (@sewire3) or in the SEWIRE Slack discussion group: email Margaret-Anne Storey mstorey uvic ca to receive an invitation.

Check the SEWIRE map: https://www.margaretstorey.com/sewire/

Blacks in Software Engineering

Black software-engineering researchers and practitioners primarily come to ICSE to discuss their work and network with the general SE community. But we also want to spend some time at ICSE connecting with each other and with the “next generation;” helping to welcome Black students and ICSE newcomers; and discussing how to increase our visibility, participation, and collaborations within the SE community.

Look for the Speed-Networking event for Blacks in Software Engineering (on Thursday/Friday) in the ICSE program. Look also for the Blacks in Software Engineering Coffee Chat among the CLOWDR social rooms on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Spanish-Speaking Networking Events

If we were attending ICSE in person, there would be conversations around coffee tables in both English and Spanish, and members of various Spanish-speaking communities (Spaniards, Latin Americans, others of Hispanic heritage) would draw attendees into Spanish conversations. We want recreate this atmosphere in CLOWDR with networking events for Spanish-speaking attendees to meet and converse with each other.

Look for the Spanish Speed-Networking event (on Tuesday) in the ICSE program. Look also for Spanish Coffee Chats among the CLOWDR social rooms (1-2 Chats per day are scheduled Wednesday through Friday). Or create your own Spanish Coffee Chat in CLOWDR and see who drops in!

Language-Specific Coffee Chats

If we were meeting in person, there would be conversations around coffee tables in many different languages. To imitate this informal interaction we are organizing a series of Coffee Chats in different languages on Tuesday. Each Chat is a room of capacity 12, to enable an informal Coffee Chat of reasonable size. If the Chat in your favourite language is full, create your own Coffee Chat whose name indicates the lingua franca and see who drops in!

Organizers

• Jo Atlee (jmatlee@uwaterloo.ca)
• Alexander Serebrenik (a.serebrenik@tue.nl)

With the goal of providing ICSE attendees with plenty of opportunities for virtually meet other people, we are organizing coffee breaks in which participants get the chance to meet other researchers and informally comment about interesting topics.

As many people, might not even know what the different chairs of a conference have to do or they have questions on how to do this job or even improvement suggestions on this; we have organized three sessions to provide the audience the opportunity to informally chat with the Program Co-Chairs of ICSE 2021 (Thursday, May 27 from 11:00 to 11:45 CEST), the Open Science Initiative chair of ICSE 2021 (Friday, May 27th, from 10:55 to 11:25 CEST), and the Program Co-Chairs of ICSE 2022 (Friday, May 28 from 16:05 to 16:35 CEST) for chatting on their corresponding issues.

These will be excellent opportunities to ask questions, discuss different points of view, and share ideas and knowledge among all the Software Engineering community in a relaxed environment. Do not miss any of these sessions!

Organizer

• Claudia Ayala (cayala@essi.upc.edu)

Our goal is to make ICSE’21 the best virtual conference. We are really excited about all the technical papers that will be presented and the “usual events” that all of us expect from a typical ICSE. However, to spice it up, we also left plenty of room for additional events that can be booked by the community.

These “bookable events” will be treated as first class citizens in the conference schedule and they are available for any kind of community event. Do you have something to say, want to promote an exciting idea that is relevant for the community, or want to create an opportunity for a meeting with like-minded people? Book a slot and organize the event that you have in mind! All slots are 30 minutes long and represent an excellent opportunity to gain visibility.

What we envision are, for example, panel-like events, “Ask me Anything” sessions, community meetings that share a certain interest or that want to make their niche topic available to the wide ICSE audience. We believe that these slots would present an excellent opportunity to attract a new audience or to reconnect with your peers. The sky's the limit!

If you are interested, please contact to Amir Mir (S.A.M.Mir@tudelft.nl).

Please note three things:
To book an event, you should get in contact with the organizer, Amir Mir, and indicate your preferred time slot. Please make sure that you describe the overall subject of your event and name a responsible organizer. Anything else, like the exact format of the event, is up to you. Please note that the whole program is mirrored, so if you want you can offer the same event twice.

Organizers

• Amir Mir (S.A.M.Mir@tudelft.nl)

The yoga sessions are short introductory sessions to pranayama (working with the breath), asana (stretching), and meditation. No prior knowledge required - put on some comfy clothes and find a space to relax in.

Organizers

• Birgit Penzenstadler (birgitp@chalmers.se)

ICSE’21 invites you to participate in its first-ever virtual run event. Join us from 25-27 May 2021 AoE in a virtual run of 5 km.

We only have a limited number of seats in the system that we use, so do not hesitate and register yourself by filling the short form: https://forms.gle/RmFJPy88UkrfoNSs7

Once you register, we will provide instructions on how to upload your run to our live map!

If you want to get inspired (or inspire others) check out the official ICSE run hashtag: #ICSE21isRunning.

Live map

Organizers:

• Luís Cruz
• Ayushi Rastogi

Gather.town offers a virtual space for online interaction among ICSE participants. It combines video-calling with a 2D map, letting you walk around, talk to other attendees, and interact with the environment (we have retro arcade games!).

We have also specific room events, such as Posters, SEAM, and other co-located events.

Visit https://gather.town/app/Pl3V7YhbBW9n0ghr/ICSE21.

More info on how to join will be provided during this session.

Organizers

• Davide Fucci (davide.fucci@bth.se)
• Fabiano Pecorelli (fpecorelli@unisa.it)
• Carolin Brandt (c.e.brandt@tudelft.nl)

ICSE 2021 will run a series of mentoring circles each led by senior software engineering researcher. Every mentoring circle has limited capacity (up to 10 mentees): every mentee can select only one circle and we will assign registrants on circles on the first-come-first-served basis. Unfortunately this also means that we will not be able to accommodate all requests. So, please be flexible but honest about your availability.

The mentoring circles will be delivered via CLOWDR, and participants must be registered for the ICSE week of any circle they are requesting

This form is for registering for Mentoring Circles that will be held the week before the main conference (May 17-24). There are separate forms for registering for

• Circles held during the colocated events, before the main conference (May 17 - 24)

• Circles held during the main conference (May 25 - 28)

• Circles held during the workshops, after the main conference (May 29 - June 4)

Best regards, Jo Atlee and Alexander Serebrenik EDI co-chairs