Boosting its role as one of the nation’s top universities for technology, DePaul University will host a software engineering lecture series this month featuring some of the country’s leading experts on the subject.

The lectures, co-sponsored by the Institute of Software Engineering’s Frontier in Software Engineering Lecture Series and DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) Colloquium Series, are free and open to the public. They will be held at DePaul’s Egan Urban Center, 243 S. Wabash Ave., 9th Floor.

§ April 4, 6 p.m.: "Towards an Architect’s Handbook"

Ralph Johnson is a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an expert on how object-oriented programming changes the way software is developed and was one of the originators of the software patterns movement. He is the author of the book "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Design," which won the 1994 Software Productivity Award.

In his lecture, Johnson will discuss what elements define good software architecture and how computer scientists are working towards guiding specifications for this industry. He will also discuss the future of writing patterns and how the field can establish a handbook for software architects.

§ April 17, 3 p.m.: "Winning Software Teams"

Watts S. Humphrey is the founder of the Software Process Program of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of nine books on software and numerous technical papers. A holder of five U.S. patents, Humphrey was awarded the 1993 Aerospace Software Engineering Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts. He received an honorary Ph.D. from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998.

In his presentation, Humphrey will explore how to improve performance by software development teams and explain the principles of the Team Software Process. These principles help software teams develop plans, own their intellectual property and deliver products on time and within budget.

Refreshments will be served at each lecture. These lectures will serve as a prelude to the 2003 Midwest Software Engineering Conference, to be held at DePaul in June. For more information, call DePaul CTI at 312/362-8381.