Every now and then one of those don't-miss workshops pops up. Alas, I  usually don't make it to them because the boss and I have a different definition of what "don't miss" means. But we see eye-to-eye on the upcoming Workshop on Directions in Multicore Programming Education  to be held on March 8, 2009, in Washington DC. When I told him about it, the boss said "Sounds great. What time does your bus leave?" Hmmm, California to DC on a Greyhound bus for an 8-hour workshop? Darn, sounds like another great event I'll miss. But that doesn't mean you have to miss it, particularly if you're in the neighborhood.

In a nutshell, the workshop will attempt to bring together researchers and educators, with the goal of developing, through dialog, a better understanding of the possible directions to take in order to bring multicore programming education to the masses. And here's another cool part of the event -- workshop registration is free and, contrary to what Herb Sutter says, lunch is free ! There are a limited number of slots, so register now!

The workshop will feature as speakers several prominent researchers and educators in the area of multiprocessor programming, including:

• Guy Steele Jr. on The Future Is Parallel: What's a Programmer to Do? Breaking Sequential Habits of Thought
  
• Tim Mattson on Teaching People How to "Think Parallel
  
• Arvind on A Case for Teaching Parallel Programming to Freshmen
  
• Guy Blelloch on Parallel Thinking
  
• Maurice Herlihy on It ain't the Meat it's the Notion: Why Theory is Essential to Teaching Concurrent Programming
  
• Dan Grossman Parallel Programming in Undergraduate Education: A View from the Ground
  
• Michael Scott on Don't Start with Dekker's Algorithm: Top-Down Introduction of Concurrency
  
• Marc Snir on Is Parallel programming Really Hard?
  

I've been lucky enough to sit in on presentations by a couple of these speakers -- Guy Steele Jr. and Tim Mattson, in particular. If the only sessions you can attend are their sessions, well...that makes the trip worthwhile alone. They are great speakers.

Also, if you do get to attend, drop me a note. I'd like to hear a report on the days event. This really is an important -- perhaps the most important -- topic in software development. Like they say on the website:

This emphasis [on parallelization] reflects the advent of the web and Internet in the mid-90s. We expect that multiprocessor architectures will have an equally broad effect on everyday programming, and that similarly, the associated body of knowledge will become a core area of the curriculum within a few years.

Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe I'll check the fare for a Greyhound trip after all. There is that free lunch.