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1994 Software Conference Update (1Sep94) (from CCS, NOAO Newsletter No. 39, 1 September 1994) The Fourth Annual Conference on Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, 25-28 September 1994, at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel. The Conference is being hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute. Additional sponsors include the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the National Research Council of Canada, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation. Several corporations, including Research Systems Inc. (RSI), Silicon Graphics, Hughes-STX, Sun Microsystems, and Sybase have also contributed funding or are loaning equipment to the conference. The ADASS Conference provides a forum for scientists and programmers concerned with algorithms, software, and software systems employed in the reduction and analysis of astronomical data. This year's Conference will highlight the following special topics: astronomical data modeling and analysis, design and development of graphical user interfaces, network information systems, and parallel and distributed processing. The Conference program will include invited and contributed talks. Contributed posters and demos will be on display throughout the Conference. As of this date 109 abstracts have been submitted (the deadline for submissions was 15 July). One evening and the afternoon of the last day are reserved for special interest discussions called BOFs, or Birds of a Feather sessions. Currently scheduled BOFs include IRAF and IDL user's group meetings, an IRAF Site Manager's discussion, and discussions on Graphical User Interfaces, FITS, and Data Acquisition. The invited speakers for this year's Conference include Bob Brown (Space Telescope Science Institute), Joan Centrella (Drexel University), Kerry Champion (Sybase, tentative), Milo Medin (NASA Science Internet), Graham Hill (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), Doug Tody (NOAO), Juri Toomre (University of Colorado), Jean-Luc Starck (Service d'Astrophysique, Centre d'Etudes Saclay), and David van Buren (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center). In addition, two special talks will be presented: a status report on NRAO's AIPS++ Project by Richard Simon, and an overview of NASA MO&DA funding and the implications for support of software development by Guenter Riegler. Two tag-along workshops are planned for Thursday, 29 September, the day after the conference. A tag-along workshop on electronic preprints will investigate existing electronic preprint services, to better understand the problems associated with electronic preprints, to better understand what the community wants in the way of these services, and to draw some conclusions about ideal electronic preprint services and how the community should proceed. People interested in participating should register using the ADASS registration form. A nominal fee of $25 (with ADASS registration) or $50 (electronic preprints workshop only) is being charged. For more information about this day-long meeting please contact Bob Hanisch (hanisch@stsci.edu). The second tag-along is an IRAF Developers' Workshop, which will be held at STScI. This one-day workshop will feature several short presentations and in-depth discussions of issues related to software development in the IRAF environment. The workshop will focus on active development projects and recent work, with the goal of getting IRAF developers everywhere to share their successes/failure/plans with each other. This workshop is intended mainly for individuals who are actively developing software within IRAF. Meeting room space constraints will limit attendance to no more than 35 people. Anyone interested in attending this workshop should contact Dick Shaw (shaw@stsci.edu). Preliminary Conference materials have been mailed to everyone on the conference mailing list. Information is also available by anonymous FTP to the node ra.stsci.edu in the directory pub/adass. The abstract and early registration deadlines were 15 July. Registrations are still being accepted but at a higher registration fee ($135). As we get ready for ADASS IV, which is coming up quickly, plans for ADASS V are already underway. The ADASS V Conference will be held in Tucson, 22-25 October 1995. So mark your calendars! Further information about ADASS IV can be obtained by sending e-mail to softconf@stsci.edu or by browsing the World-Wide Web home page http://ra.stsci.edu/ADASS.html. Betty Stobie, the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee, can be reached by phone at (410) 516-8671 or by FAX at (410) 516-6864. Doug Tody, George Jacoby, Jeannette Barnes
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