Certainly, one highlight of the conference will be a series of sessions commemorating the Garmisch event. We are very lucky that some of the Garmisch pioneers accepted our invitation to talk not only about their memories from the past but also share their view on the current state of software engineering with the audience and the currently active researchers.

The theme of the conference -- "Driving World Business" -- underlines the fact that during these 40 years software has become a major driver of many if not all technological and business systems and applications. In contrast to previous ICSEs this year's conference has a special dedicated set of experience sessions focusing on special application areas, namely automotive, healthcare and telecommunications where software and sophisticated software engineering practices definitely play a major role in business development. This is complemented by a group of distinguished keynote speakers from different parts of the world who give an account of the state-of-the-practice and state-of-research in the different fields. Lori Clarke from the University of Massachusetts talks about formal verification approaches to improve safety in medical systems and applications. Sam Adams from IBM discusses aspects of end user programming to improve the effective use of these systems which are usually operated by non computer experts. Finally, Herbert Hanselmann from dSPACE, a major German automotive supplier in the car industry, building control units and test and simulation environments, focuses on the role and benefits of model based design.

As usual ICSE, as the ACM/IEEE flagship conference in the field, offers a diverse program of research, education, and practice-oriented content that will engage Software Engineers from around the world. The three day core of the meeting is anchored by the research paper track. The research paper track received 370 submissions, and after a very rigorous and thorough review process, the program committee selected 56 for inclusion in the program. The other tracks at ICSE cover Software Engineering education, provide an opportunity to see formal demonstrations of Software Engineering tools, and hear about experiences in applying Software Engineering methods in an industrial context. Each of these tracks had an independent organizing and program committee. Similarly the theme specific experience paper tracks were organized by distinguished experts from both academia and industry tomake sure that experience and research are equally well reflected in the program. Surrounding the core program, ICSE 2008 offers a diverse collection of 25 workshops, 16 tutorials, and 4 co-located meetings.

In addition to a rich technical program at ICSE, we hope you take the time to enjoy Leipzig and the conference social program. ICSE attendees will enjoy a reception in the world-renowned Gewandhaus and a performance of the legendary Gewandhaus Orchestra. 收起