Grand Challenges for Computing Research Conference Preview Conference on Grand Challenges for Computing Research

This page gives useful information for everyone who is considering attending the Conference on Grand Challenges for Computing Research (GCCR) in Newcastle, 29-31 March. It has brief sections on Registration, Submissions and expressions of interest, the draft Conference schedule and How the Panels will work.

To be sure of a place, please register soon on the conference website http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/events/GCC04/. Early in March we plan to ask all registrants (who have not already told us) to indicate which Panel discussion(s) they may wish to attend. This is by no means a binding commitment, but will help us with room planning.

The submissions so far received are now available. We hope that they will excite your interest in attending the conference, and will help you to choose the Panel session that interests you most.

If you are thinking of attending please let us know now; it will help us greatly in planning the Panels and the Conference. The way to do this is to send a short resume, a paragraph or two, explaining the reasons why you are interested in a particular topic, and perhaps suggesting a question or two that could be put to the Panel. It will not be taken as a commitment to attend. Please email them, in pdf format and labelled with the Grand Challenge Discussion (GC0-GC7) to which they refer, to pwalmisley@hq.bcs.org.uk to arrive by March 3.

If you would like instead to make your own full contribution to the Panel, similar to those already submitted, there is still time to do so. Please send it by March 3; submission details are in the conference announcement.

These details and timings may change. Plenary sessions are shared with the sister Conference on Grand Challenges for Computing Education (GCCE). Both GC Conferences begin, following the CPHC Conference, with predinner drinks on the Monday evening.

The aim of the Panels is to discuss all GC proposals in the light of submissions and expressions of interest received. We hope that the final outcome of the Conference, within three months of its conclusion, will be a stable record of the Grand Challenges exercise so far, containing refined and strengthened proposals for Grand Challenges.

The presentations of existing GC proposals on Tuesday morning will set the scene for the Panel discussions. The number of Panels will depend on expressions of interest and any further submissions. Each Panel will be chaired by a Programme Committee member, who will organise the sessions appropriately. For example, certain Panel members may be invited to present and summarise groups of the submissions and expressions of interest, in order to focus the ensuing discussion.

By the end of the first Panel session on Wednesday we hope that each Panel will have identified actions needed (after the Conference) to refine and progress the Challenge proposals. The Panel Rapporteurs will then be able to summarise their Panels' discussions and proposed actions to the Conference.