ITICSE

We are pleased to welcome the 18th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education back to Canterbury after a twelve year absence.

This is a particularly interesting time for CS Education, with the renewed focus on Computing in Schools in the media in the USA and the political engagement in the UK around Eric Schmidt's intervention in his 2011 MacTaggart lecture and the Royal Society's 2012 "Shut down or restart?" report on the state of Computing education in UK schools. This interest is reflected in a focus among our keynote speakers, and in the presentations on Day 1 of the conference, when we particularly welcome our colleagues from secondary schools.

The conference this year spans the range of ACM SIGCSE activities from practical advice for teachers in the Tips & Techniques session through to papers, panels and posters presenting both practical and research results.

This year's keynote speakers are:

• Professor Simon Peyton-Jones, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research Cambridge and Chair of the UK Computing at Schools Working Group who will talk about the work of the Group in promoting Real Computing in UK schools

• Wing Commander Andy Green OBE MA RAF. His day job is as a UK Royal Air Force fighter pilot, but his hobby is being the fastest man on earth. He will talk about the educational programme constructed around his bid to become faster still.

• Chris Wildsmith, Managing Director of Kinetic Solutions will talk about the continuation of formal learning beyond graduation and into the workplace.

We also have five Working Groups, a popular and unique aspect of the ITiCSE conference, who have been preparing their ground for some months now for a burst of activity starting on the Saturday before the conference proper, and who will report their progress during the conference.

The paper sessions this year will consist of 51 papers out of a total of 161 submitted, an acceptance rate of 32%, as well as 3 panels, 9 short presentations on Tips and Techniques and 41 posters from faculty and students.

As well as the formal presentations, ITiCSE provides an excellent opportunity to meet and learn from colleagues from across the world as well as to explore the ancient city of Canterbury and the surrounding countryside, not least with the traditional Tuesday afternoon excursions. The conference will finish with a dinner at the historic Dover Town Hall, dating back to 1203, when it was built as a hostel for pilgrims heading for the shrine of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury cathedral.