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Last decade of research on the software evolution field has brought successful empirical models for sofiware systems growth. Although the models are able to forecast the growth trend of a number of software systems, there still are some inconsistencies that must be addressed before the models can be incorporated into a final theory of software evolution. This study applies an innovative approach: the application of time series analysis techniques to historical data of software systems growth. Preliminary results have found the presence of anticorrelations in the data, phenomena that would validate some of the laws of software evolution.

Research has been undertaken to answer the following question: Can icon-based programming languages be used to teach first year programming concepts to undergraduate students more effectively than text-based languages? BACCII++ is an iconic environment developed at Texas Tech University for teaching procedural and object-oriented programming concepts and languages. Course materials were developed and used under experimental conditions during the 1995-96 school year at Texas Tech University, with half using BACCIIH to generate C-H-code, and the other half using only C-i+. For each course in each semester the experiment was run, the sections using BACCIItl-did significantly better in overall performance In recent years, additional research has supplied object-oriented extensions to BACCII for use in the data structures/object-oriented programming (CS2) course, resulting in BACCII++ [5]. More recent research concerns the development of a complete set of course materials for the use of BACCII++ in teaching both CSl and CS2 using C++. Lecture notes, text, and lab manuals were developed. A successful experiment using those materials was run at Texas Tech University during the 1995-96 school year'. It is this recent experiment which is the focus of this paper.

This paper presents the empirical testing results on

~ There are currently over 20 Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering degree programs in the United Stares. The first accredited software engineering programs in the U.S. are likely in the 2002-03 cycle. and it is expected that rhe total number of such programs will continue to see steady growthjor several years to come. The authors have provided a comparison ofprograms in order to determine what trends are emerging. which will benefit both current software engineering undergraduate programs, as well os those institutions which are thinking ojcreating new degrees of this type. The curriculum content of these programs are broken down by subject area and compared with curriculum models and accreditation criteria. The results o/a survey of undergraduate sopware engineering programs worldwide that was conducted by the authors is used both lo provide addirional data about the U.S. programs and to compare them as a group to their counterparts in other countries.