Racket: RacketCon 2011

RacketCon: 23 & 24 July 2011

RacketCon is a public meeting for everyone interested in Racket: developers, contributors, programmers, educators, and by-standers. It is an opportunity for all members of the community to come together to share plans, ideas, and enthusiasm. RacketCon will enable the entire Racket community to mingle: to update each other, to exchange ideas, to collaborate, and to help shape the future of Racket.

RacketCon will hosted by the College of Computer and Information Science of Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts. See Getting to RacketCon below.

The location of RacketCon has changed! See Getting to RacketCon for information.

Schedule

Saturday, July 23

9:30–10:00		Breakfast
10:00–10:45	Matthew Flatt	Racket at `(expt 2 4)` [video]
10:45–11:15		Break
11:15–11:45	Ryan Culpepper	Designing macros using `syntax-parse` [video]
11:45–12:00	Vincent Toups	Monadic Parallel Turtle Graphics [video]
12:00–12:15	Danny Yoo	Whalesong [video]
12:15–12:30	Doug Williams	Content Generation from Templates [video]
12:30–2:00		Lunch
2:00–2:45	Matthias Felleisen	What's wrong with How to Design Programs; What's new in How to Design Programs 2e [slides] [video]
2:45–3:00	William Dunklau	Using Picturing Programs in Grades 7 and 8
3:00–3:15		Break
3:15–3:30	Nadeem Abdul Hamid	Web UI Teachpack
3:30–3:45	David Van Horn	An Object-Oriented World [slides]
3:45–4:00		Short Talks and Demos

Sunday, July 24

9:30–10:00		Breakfast
10:00–10:30	Robby Findler	The Future of DrRacket
10:30–10:45	Jay McCarthy	Tutorial: Building Web Apps in Racket
10:45–11:00	Richard Cleis	Test Suites for Telescope Control
11:00–11:15		Break
11:15–11:45	Doug Williams	Knowledge-Based Simulation in Racket
11:45–12:15	Prabhakar Ragde	Fifteen Hundred Students A Year [slides]
12:15–12:45	Ryan Culpepper	Tutorial: Database Access & Low-level Libs
12:45–2:00		Lunch
2:00–2:20	Marco Morazan	The Time of Space Invaders Will Come to Pass [slides]
2:20–2:40	John Clements	Teaching first-year students with RSound
2:40–3:00	Guillaume Marceau	Designing Error Messages for Novices
3:00–3:15		Break
3:15–3:30	Ann Moskol	Rewards and Challenges using Racket in a College Computer Science Course
3:30–3:45	Paul Ojanen	Student Revelations after Using Racket, Scratch, and Alice
3:45–4:00	Shriram Krishnamurthi	Demos

Getting to RacketCon

RacketCon will be held in Shillman Hall, Room 135, at Northeastern University. Shillman Hall is located at 115 Forsyth Street, Boston Massachusetts, and is building #30 on the campus map. See also the building on Google Maps.

Getting there...

by Car:: There is very little on-street parking near Northeastern. Visitor parking is available at the Renaissance Garage, a few minutes walk from the conference. Driving directions from many points are available here.
by Subway:: Northeastern is conveniently located near both the Green and Orange subway lines. The MBTA has more information. On the Green ‘E’ line, the Northeastern stop is the closest, and appears on the campus map below as the ‘T’ symbol on Huntington Avenue. On the Orange line, the Ruggles stop is closest and appears on the campus map below as the ‘T’ symbol in the middle-left of the illustration.
by Bicycle, Commuter Rail, Amtrak:: Northeastern is located near the major Amtrak lines, and is also accessible by commuter rail and bicycle. Please contact the organizers for more information.

Where to eat

While there are no conference dinner plans, there are numerous restaurants near Northeastern:

Symphony Sushi: A sushi restaurant, 5 minutes walk
Pho and I: Thai and Vietnamese food, 5 minutes walk.
Pizzeria Uno: Deep dish pizza, 5 minutes walk.
Betty's Wok and Noodle: Asian-Latin fusion. 6 minutes walk.
Punter's Pub: A bar, adjacent to Northeastern.
The Squealing Pig: A bar with food, 15 minutes walk.
Woody's Grill and Tap: Brick oven pizza, 15 minutes walk.

This is just a small selection; Google and Yelp have many more.

Where to stay

Numerous hotels are located close to Northeastern. The three closest are:

The Colonnade Hotel: A ten minute walk from RacketCon. Ask for the Northeastern discounted rate. Even with the discount, this is likely to be expensive.
The Midtown Hotel: A ten minute walk from RacketCon. A less expensive and less fancy option.
The Best Western Inn at Longwood: A fifteen minute walk from RacketCon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to be a Racket programmer to attend?: No. We welcome anyone interested in or curious about Racket to come to RacketCon and learn about why we're all so excited about Racket.
Will there be a registration fee?: No. RacketCon is free to everyone who wants to attend. We ask that you register ahead of time, so that we can plan appropriately.
How do I register?: By sending an email to the organizers with your name and affiliation. Please let us know if you have an dietary restrictions, and if you'll be bringing others.
Will the conference provide breakfast and lunch?: Yes! We will provide complimentary breakfast snacks and lunch on both days to registered attendees.
Will the talks be recorded?: Thanks to the generous support of Jeff Dlouhy and the Northeastern University ACM Student Chapter, we will be video-taping all talks at RacketCon, and putting them on the web.
Who is in charge of RacketCon?: RacketCon is organized by Sam Tobin-Hochstadt and the rest of the Racket development team.