CppCon 2023 program schedule is almost ready!

Posted on 2023-08-252023-08-25 by cppcon

We’re sorry that posting the 2023 program schedule has taken two weeks longer than our original timeline, but it’s for positive reasons…

This year, we received the second-highest number of talk submissions ever, second only to 2019 pre-pandemic. Thank you to all the speakers for your support!

Sadly, we had to reject the most and highest-quality submissions ever because we have fewer physical meeting rooms available than in 2019. Together with the first point, this means that the set of talks we had to reject was the highest-quality “reject list” ever in CppCon’s history. Rejecting great talks we want to have is not a fun thing for anyone, and we appreciate all the speakers who didn’t make it in this year even though they submitted very, very strong talks we really wanted to have. Even if next year’s CppCon 2024 were made up of just the top talks held over from not fitting into our program space this year, next year would be one of our strongest programs ever; the talks that didn’t fit this year were that good, and were edged out only because the ones that did fit were so amazing.

The program committee generated the highest number of talk submission reviews ever. This year, 97 people actively served on the program committee, and generated more reviews than any year in CppCon’s history. We really appreciate their thoughtful evaluations of all the submitted talk proposals. Thank you to all the program committee members for your hard work this summer!

We have the highest number of chaired tracks ever. The chaired topical tracks this year are: Back to Basics; Embedded Systems; Scientific Computing; Robotics; Software Design; and Tooling. Thank you to all the chairs for stepping up to organize these topics on our 2023 program!

So there’s been more work than usual, but we are really excited about the CppCon 2023 program that will be posted in just a few days. We think it’s CppCon’s strongest program ever. And in addition to the program sessions, we’ve also started to announce this year’s highly-topical keynotes including Bjarne Stroustrup on “Delivering Safe C++” and Andrei Alexandrescu on “Exploring Generative AI for C++,” with three more headline talks still to be announced.

We look forward to seeing many of you there in person in early October! If you haven’t registered already, you can register here.

2023 Keynote, Andrei Alexandrescu: Robots Are after Your Job (or at Least the Boring Parts of It): Exploring Generative AI for C++

Posted on 2023-08-242023-09-29 by cppcon

We are pleased to announce that Andrei Alexandrescu, one of the most popular presenters to ever appear at CppCon, will be appearing in person, in Aurora as a CppCon 2023 keynote presenter.

From his talk description:

Robots Are After Your Job (or at Least the Boring Parts of It): Exploring Generative AI for C++

Almost a year since the launch of ChatGPT – considered by many as the first truly compelling code generator that translates free-form human language into code – the C++ community continues to grapple with the implications. Reactions range from indifference or skepticism to genuine concern about the future of human programmers.

Meeting in person

Although some advanced C++ techniques are already accessible to tools like ChatGPT, certain fundamental aspects remain outside the reach of current and possibly next-generation generative AI tools. This disparity raises pivotal questions: Which parts of the intricate C++ ecosystem can we confidently delegate to generative AI? What uniquely human skills must we retain and refine?

We’ll probe the potential and limits of contemporary AI, taking a novel look at the age-old binary search algorithm. Although this algorithm has long been held up as a paragon of efficiency, we challenge that notion. What would ChatGPT have to say about it, and how might it partner with us to refine this cornerstone of algorithmic logic? The conversation opens a window into a future where developers become the “one percenters” of programming—focusing solely on the most cerebral and high-level challenges, while AI takes care of the everyday tasks. Join us to explore this fascinating paradigm shift and reflect on what it means for your own work in and with C++.

Don’t miss this very timely presentation by one of the best.

Registration is now open so don’t miss out on CppCon 2023 this October 2-6. Register today!

CppCon 2023 Diversity & Attendance Support Ticket program

Posted on 2023-08-212023-08-26 by cppcon

Again this year, CppCon is running a Diversity & Attendance Support Ticket program. These free tickets are for people who would not be able to attend otherwise. This program is limited to conference tickets and doesn’t include support for transportation or lodging. This is an open program, but reasons to apply may include financial assistance, that you are part of an underrepresented group in tech, and others.

In order to apply for this program, please fill in the application form here. The application deadline is September 9, 2023. Decisions will be sent by September 12.

We look forward to seeing many of you again this year at CppCon 2023!

Opening 2023 Keynote, Bjarne Stroustrup: Delivering Safe C++

Posted on 2023-08-152023-08-15 by cppcon

Meeting in person CppCon 2023 will kick off on Monday, October 2 with Bjarne Stroustrup delivering the traditional opening keynote live in person in Aurora.

Bjarne’s annual opening keynote for CppCon is one of the most anticipated and most watched talks in C++. His talks are always among the most viewed presentations on the CppCon YouTube Channel.

From his talk description:

Delivering Safe C++

Type safety was one of the key initial C++ design ideals. We have evolved C++ to the point where we can write C++ with no violations of the type system, no resource leaks, no memory corruption, no garbage collector, no limitation of expressiveness or performance degradation compared to well-written modern C++.

We face three major challenges: To define what “safe” means in the context of various C++ uses, to guarantee such safety where guarantees are needed, and to get developers to write such verified safe code.

I outline an approach based on safety profiles to address these challenges, describe an approach to eliminate dangling pointers, and suggest how to eliminate all dangling pointers and all range errors. My aim for key applications is verified type-and-resource-safe C++. An emphasis is on minimizing costly run-time checks through the use of abstractions. I see the current emphasis on safety as an opportunity to complete one aspect of C++’s fundamental aims in real-world code.

Every year, Bjarne Stroustrup gives an important C++ talk in his CppCon opening keynote. Be at CppCon again this year as Bjarne Stroustrup flies us above this complex landscape of issues and shines a spotlight on the most important things to know, and to think about, in C++ in 2023. This year we aim to leave extra extended time for real-time questions and answers with the live audience. Come to the talk, bring your questions, and don’t miss out!

Registration is now open so don’t miss out on CppCon 2023 this October 2-6. Register today!

CppCon 2023 Ombudsperson, and Code of Conduct handling team

Posted on 2023-07-262023-07-26 by cppcon

CppCon has always been committed to be a welcoming conference for the entire C++ community, and having a Code of Conduct (CoC) and the best possible CoC report handling team is an essential part of making the conference feel welcoming and inclusive for everyone. The leadership of CppCon and of the Standard C++ Foundation want to thank all of the community volunteers who have stepped up to be on the CppCon CoC team over the years: Thank you! We appreciate your hard work that has made our conference better.

As times change, we want to make sure we adapt to keep our events welcoming and safe. Tech conferences (including ours) have tended to use community volunteers to handle CoC reports, but in recent years we have seen this increasingly create stress on those valuable community members when new and difficult situations come up. The stress comes in two main ways: First, community volunteers are tech experts, not professional investigators and mediators, so they often end up unfairly stressed from doing work they’re not trained for. Second, community volunteers often know many attendees personally, so they have to work harder to avoid bias, and any decision they participate in is more likely to dissatisfy someone they know which could create personal tensions. For the past year, we have been exploring ways to reduce the stress on our community volunteers and let them retire from CoC duties so they can fully enjoy the conference with all the rest of us technical attendees.

We are pleased to announce two new changes, effective today and for CppCon 2023:

We have hired and appointed a new CoC team composed of qualified outside independent professionals. They bring many years of experience, and are trained and certified in investigation, conflict resolution, and mediation. Because they are from outside the C++ community, they are not distracted by the technical program and are free of bias about people in our community. As always, the CoC team continues to be empowered to apply the CoC policy and the safety policy that help all of us enjoy a safe and productive time at the conference.
To provide support beyond direct CoC issues, CppCon 2023 will have an Ombudsperson with a physical office on-site at the conference. The Ombudsperson, who is also the CoC team chair, will be available to provide additional personal and emotional support for attendees in addition to taking actual CoC issue reports. Having an Ombudsperson in addition to a CoC team will directly support our safety policy’s first priority, that our attendees not only be safe, but also feel safe and have support for their mental and emotional well-being.

The new 2023 CppCon Ombudsperson and CoC team are:

	CppCon role	Other activities
Colleen Passard	Ombudsperson, CoC chair	colleenpassard.com Ombudsperson and Mediator for Linux Foundation events
Jacqueline McCauley	CoC team	boulderchamber.com/about-us/boulder-chamber-staff/ VP Finance & HR at Boulder CO Chamber of Commerce
Gillian Faith	CoC team	nextlevelhrcc.com/about/ Founder, Next Level Coaching & Consulting

We expect to add additional independent professionals to the CoC team in the coming months.

Additionally, looking beyond just this year, we are supporting an industry initiative now in the formative stages toward creating a neutral independent body to help with CoC matters across the tech industry. Its aims would include setting high-quality industry standards for Codes of Conduct, providing formal compliance certification that an organization’s CoC meets the standards, and providing independent professionals like the ones we are now using above as CoC handling resources to many tech conferences and other organizations — not just to C++ or even programming language conferences, but to many events and organizations, from meetups and conferences to online associations and open source projects. We hope these efforts will succeed in creating such a new independent industry body, and we applaud and support the people who are working hard on the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting needed to make it become a reality. As those efforts bear fruit and such a new body becomes operational, at CppCon we intend to: update our CppCon CoC (which is currently a fork of the PyCon CoC) as needed to be certified for compliance with the new body’s CoC standards; continue using independent professionals for CppCon CoC handling along with embracing other best practices the new body may recommend; and encourage other tech conferences to do the same.

Once again, we thank all our past CoC team volunteer members for their service to this point! We appreciate their good work very much. Now we look forward to letting those volunteers focus on enjoying our conference’s technical content along with all of us during October 1-6 at CppCon 2023! We look forward to seeing many of you there again in person this year.

Announcing CppCon Academy 2023 Classes

Posted on 2023-07-07 by cppcon

Registration is open for exciting CppCon Academy classes that will be held in the days before or after CppCon 2023.

Five classes are online and the rest will be offered to onsite attendees at the Gaylord Rockies in Aurora.

Read about all the offered classes on the CppCon Academy 2023 page. This year we are offering classes that range from those that are focused on updating you to the latest versions of C++, to those focusing on better code, testing, or design skills. This year we are offering classes on concurrency, one on embedded programming, and one on performance and efficiency (well, okay, they are all about performance and efficiency ultimately).

class instructor with students Online classes will be held either on the last three business days of the week before the conference or the first three business days of the week after the conference.

Onsite classes are held on the weekend days immediately before and after the conference.

Most of the classes feature two days (onsite) or three days (online) of class instruction. All classes feature hands-on opportunities to improve your programming skills.

CppCon instructors are selected from the best C++ instructors in the world. They feature rare combinations of deep technical knowledge, extensive development experience, and the ability to explain things in an approachable manner.

Register now!

CppCon 2023 Call for Submissions – Robotics Track

Posted on 2023-06-13 by Daisy Hollman

The Robotics Track at CppCon unites passionate professionals from the robotics industry and the broader C++ community to create a space for networking, collaboration, and growth in this dynamic field.

By attending talks in this track, you’ll join a community committed to exploring innovative solutions, empowering meaningful connections, and fostering growth in the exciting world of robotics. Together, we can bring the power of C++ to tackle complex challenges and shape the future of robotics technology.

We invite submissions that showcase the synergy between robotics and C++ concepts. Examples include:

Utilizing design pattern X to enable feature Y in a robotics project.
Comparing the impact of functional programming style vs. object-oriented style on a use case.
How leveraging C++17/20 features can optimize performance or safety in robotics systems.

Topics of interest include:

Simulation
Planning
Machine learning
State estimation
Controls
Foreign function interfaces
API design
Performance
Safety
Tooling
Infrastructure
Dependency management

Remember to indicate your interest in the Robotics Track in the Comments Section of the submission form. The submission process can be found here.

Griswald Brooks

Robotics Track chair

CppCon 2023 Call for Submissions – Software Design Track

Posted on 2023-06-122023-07-01 by Daisy Hollman

Building software is much more than just writing lines of code. Amongst other, it also entails the management of interactions, the reduction of coupling and dependencies between software entities and the creation of good and meaningful abstractions. These are the aspects focused on in the CppCon Software Design Track.

Since software design can play a much more central role for the success of a project than the low-level implementations could ever do, CppCon also desires to cover this aspect of software engineering. Therefore you are strongly encouraged to submit talks for the Software Design Track.

Topics may include:

Design for change, scalability, extension, and testability.
Design techniques for all paradigms.
Both static and dynamic polymorphism.
Design and architectural patterns.
Good and bad experiences from real world projects (that is, war stories).
Advice on how to manage big projects via proper software organization.

Klaus Iglberger and Mike Shah, Ph.D.

Software Design Track co-chairs

CppCon 2023 Call for Submissions – Scientific Computing Track

Posted on 2023-06-102023-06-30 by Daisy Hollman

The call for submission for the Scientific Computing Track at CppCon 2023 is now open! We are looking for talks that cover a wide range of topics related to scientific computing with C++.

This includes, but is not limited to:

New C++ features and libraries for scientific computing
Parallel and distributed computing techniques
Numerical methods and algorithms
Machine learning
Data visualization and analysis
Software engineering for scientific computing

Scientific computing is a critical field that is used in a wide range of applications, from weather forecasting to medical imaging. By submitting a talk to the scientific computing track, you can help to share your knowledge and expertise with the C++ community. We encourage submissions from both experienced and new speakers. If you have a talk that you think would be a good fit for the Scientific Computing Track, please submit it by June 25, 2023. Submissions should be made through the CppCon website.

Damien Lebrun-Grandie

Scientific Computing Track chair

CppCon 2023 Call for Submissions – Embedded Track

Posted on 2023-06-09 by Daisy Hollman

CppCon has put out its call for submissions and the Embedded Track wants you to contribute! Whether your project is a multi-year effort for a large team or a hobby project you built at home for an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, there are thousands of developers out there struggling with the same kinds of issues that you’ve faced. Your experience and insights can provide a powerful learning experience and help them overcome those issues.

The Embedded Track has seen a wide variety of talks over the years, and we’d love to hear your contributions. Here are some examples of possible topics:

What challenges you’ve faced using C++ in an embedded environment.
What you learned from applying a new feature from C++17/20/23 in an embedded environment
for the first time.
Case studies and performance analyses showing how to get the most out of C++.
How you adapted a design or technique to work within the constraints of your project.
What you wish someone had told you before you started developing for embedded systems.
That interesting new component or library that you developed for an embedded system.

A major goal of CppCon’s Embedded Track is to help connect embedded developers to the broader C++ community and vice versa. We think that both groups have a lot to learn from the other.

For talk topic ideas, possible formats, submission instructions, and valuable advice on how to make the best possible submission, see the Submissions page. You can also reach out to the organizers of the Embedded Track to ask questions or discuss ideas for submissions.

Ben Saks

Embedded Track chair