Proceedings of the 2007 ACM workshop on Parallel and distributed systems: testing and debugging

Abstract

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 5th PADTAD Parallel and Distributed Systems: Testing and Debugging -- PADTAD07. When we started PADTAD, only four years ago, it was the only workshop dedicated to the testing of concurrent and distributed software. This field is taking center stage as can be seen by the growing number of workshops that are dedicated to it or give it high visibility. The fact that PADTAD topics are of interest to the industry is indicated by our distinguished list of sponsors that includes IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and TotalView Technologies. In addition, companies like IBM, Intel and Microsoft now have dedicated groups to threading testing tools. The mission of PADTAD is to share the advances in the field of testing/debugging concurrency between the industry and the academic world. This sharing is achieved both through the almost even mix of papers from industry and universities, as well as the many attendees from both backgrounds. Our field is such that the impact of research can go both ways. The academic works go very quickly from theory to practice, and the industrial work is cutting edge and publishable. Our distinguished keynote speaker, Prof. Bill Scherlis, Director, Institute for Software Research (SCS/ISR), Carnegie Mellon University, career shows that one can get to the highest levels both in the industry and academic (as well as government agency) working on problems that addresses.