SIGCSE

Welcome to St. Louis for the 36th year of the SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. We are excited about SIGCSE 2005 and we hope you have as much fun as we have had in planning this event. There is much to see and do with a record number of paper presentations, panels, special sessions, and workshops. We also suggest you take the time to relax and stroll along the Mississippi to visit the famous Gateway to the West arch. Or enjoy a reunion with old friends, find an experienced colleague and discuss topics of common interest over dinner, make plans for collaboration, or meet new friends in the inviting renaissance environment of the conference setting.We are pleased to announce the winners of the two annual SIGCSE awards: Kim Bruce for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education and Andrew McGettrick for Lifetime Service. Kim will give the opening keynote talk on Thursday morning. Other invited speakers for the Symposium are Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari and Maria Klawe. You may recall that Moti was the SIGCSE 2004 outstanding contributions award winner but was unable to make his presentation at the symposium in 2004. We are delighted that Moti will be joining us to present his keynote talk on Friday morning. We are also honored that Maria Klawe will present the final keynote address at the luncheon on Saturday.This year we experienced a 4% increase in submitted papers (following on the heels of a 37% increase last year). In all, 330 papers were submitted! Approximately 1650 blind reviews were completed, with each paper receiving at least 4 reviews and most receiving 5 or 6 reviews. An all time high of 104 papers will be presented. All submissions of Panels, Special Sessions, Workshops, Birds of a Feather, and Posters were reviewed carefully and selections were made based on considerations of quality, diversity of topics, and available space. In addition to the technical sessions, and invited talks, we again provide a Thursday first-timer's lunch and the Thursday evening reception. This year, the luncheon will be held Saturday as a culminating event, where the final keynote address will be given. A large exhibit hall is the location of vendor presentations where you can view and experiment with the latest in instructional software, hardware, and publications. Events co-located with the symposium include the SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium, the ACM SIGCSE Student Research Competition, and a CRA-W workshop for women CS educators.