Engineering
Introduction
The CHI 2006 Engineering Community will focus on the following two themes:

Theme 1: Addressing persistent, demanding, real-world problems. The world abounds with problems that persistently demand solutions and challenge technologists to find ways forward. Examples include:

• Easing the burden on family members of caring for the aged and infirm;
• Speeding the rescue of victims of natural and man-made disasters;
• Reducing electronic communication's disruptive effects on workplace and home;

Submissions are welcomed that document and explicate such problems, thus helping others to work on solutions. Such submissions may present, for example:

• Ethnographic or other suitable studies and analyses of the problem domain, its requirements, and appropriate metrics for measuring progress;
• Case studies of existing solutions, their strengths, and their shortcomings;
• Broad-ranging surveys of problems whose solutions may lie with a specific technology, such as ubiquitous computing or computer vision.

Persistent problems require an awareness of what constitutes an advance, not only on the part of those working to deliver the solution but also of those wishing to receive it. Therefore, submissions are welcome in:

• Metrics: how to measure progress in terms that are accepted as valid by the designer and by the customer or beneficiary.
• Targets: how to set realistic goals for improvement: what advances, along which metrics, can reasonably be achieved with available technology?
• Experience reports: how were advances achieved, along which metrics, and what contributed to or hindered success?

Theme 2: Improving the processes for developing interactive systems. As interactive artifacts and systems, and their supporting infrastructures, become more complex, increasing stress is placed on their development processes. This is a concern shared by the HCI and Software Engineering communities, and is one that merits their closer collaboration. Areas in which such collaboration could pay off include:

• Applying HCI study methods, including ethnography, to understanding and modeling development activities and processes.
• Reviewing and rethinking the metrics by which processes and their outcomes are evaluated, such as usability defects, feature counts, customer satisfaction, etc.
• Identifying areas where established engineering methods can be usefully be applied to HCI concerns. For example, performing sensitivity analyses on assumptions about target users' knowledge or skills
• Gaining benefits by applying best practices in usability and design to the tools and methods used in developing interactive artifacts.
• New methods and tools that show demonstrable improvement over existing methods and tools in dimensions important to real-world development artifact development. Of particular interest are methods and tools that
  • allow a priori prediction of outcomes in the real-world based on analyses of design ideas or early prototypes.
  • allow interdisciplinary teams to work together more effectively.
  • offer benefits through reuse of solutions to recurring problems in the intersection of HCI and SE. For example, using patterns, templates, aspect-oriented programming, or a product-line approach to solve HCI issues.

We expect that there will be many links with themes and activities offered by the other CHI communities participating in this conference. We strongly encourage you to submit multi-community proposals that look at engineering in the context of design, education, management, research, or usability,.

Types of Submissions
The engineering community invites submissions for panels, special interest groups (SIGs), HCI overviews, the interactivity, and experience reports. We also encourage you to submit, to the appropriate venue, research papers, CHI notes, works-in-progress, proposals for courses, and workshops that are relevant to engineering. The descriptions below outline the key characteristics of each type of community submission. In addition, the chairs welcome proposals for other events that serve the goals of the engineering community; we will work with submitters to shape these novel proposals into activities that will advance exchanges and understanding within the community.

Practitioners and researchers working on these and related themes are encouraged to submit proposals for events including, but not limited to:

Panel sessions
Panel sessions present collaborations on solving real-world persistent problems, or offer contrasting approaches or opinions.

Experience Reports
Experience Reports present progress in addressing persistent problems and explain the processes that led to that progress.

Interactivity
The Interactivity is for new methods or tools that have been shown to address persistent problems in the design and development of interactive artifacts.

HCI Overviews
HCI Overviews are from institutions or project teams achieving demonstrable success in tackling persistent design problems, in integrating HCI with Software and Systems Engineering, or undertaking other work on one or more of the above themes.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
SIGs bring together people with a view to making progress in an area of common concern.

Novel formats
Remember, we are open to other ideas as well. If you feel your work would be of interest to the CHI education community, but does not fit any of the mentioned formats, please contact us at chi2006-eng@acm.org to discuss the best way to submit and present your work.

Mentoring
CHI 2006 will try to provide mentors for individuals planning to submit an Experience Report or an Interactivity. Please see Mentoring for more information. The deadline to request a mentor is 14 July 2005.

Review Criteria
All submissions will be reviewed based on the clarity of the information and the potential contribution to the field of Engineering. The individual submission categories have additional review criteria (which you can find in the description of each category).

Preparing Your Submission
Please see the pages on Panels, SIGs, Experience Reports, HCI Overviews, and the Interactivity for detailed information on what information is needed for each type of submission. All community submissions will use the Conference Extended Abstracts Publication Format. Submissions for Panels, HCI Overviews, and novel formats are to be sent to chi2006-eng@acm.org no later than 14 October 2005, 5:00 PM (1700) PDT. Submissions to the Interactivity and Experience Reports are to be uploaded to the CHI 2006 submission website by the same deadline. SIG proposals should be sent to chi2006-eng@acm.org by 13 January 2006, 5:00 PM (1700) PST. Submissions arriving after the deadline will not be considered.

Upon Acceptance
You will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of your submission the week of 16 December 2005. Accepted submissions will be published in the conference Extended Abstracts. The contact person will receive instructions for preparing the final version of the extended abstract and other information about presentation logistics.

Engineering Community Submission Checklist

• Read all the above material and the Submissions Requirements section for the particular category you are submitting to (Panel, SIG, Experience Report, HCI Overview, Interactivity).
• If you are submitting something in a novel presentation format, contact the Engineering Chairs (chi2006-eng@acm.org) well before the 14 October 2005 deadline.
• Prepare a submission in the format required by your submission category, using the Conference Extended Abstracts Publication Format.
• Create a PDF file of your submission and test that your PDF file prints correctly.
• Email your Panel, HCI Overview, or novel format submission to chi2006-eng@acm.org no later than 14 October 2005, 5:00 PM (1700) PDT.
• updated Submit your Interactivity or Experience Report to the CHI 2006 submission web site under the appropriately named venue no later than 14 October 2005, 5:00 PM (1700) PDT.
• Email your SIG proposal to chi2006-eng@acm.org no later than 13 January 2006, 5:00 PM (1700) PST