Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication CMSC 2024

We are delighted to announce the Call for Contributions for the upcoming Conference on Computer Science and Mathematics (CMSC). The 7th edition will be held in Trier, Germany, October 7.-10., 2024, i.e., MON-THU.

CMSC 2024 is organized by Henning Fernau and Jacqueline Staub, Trier University, as well as by Inge Schwank, University of Cologne, Germany.

It emanated from the "Computer Science Unplugged" initiative of Tim Bells, Mike Fellows und Frances Rosamond. Fran and Mike also hosted the 6th edition in Bergen, Norway. This esteemed conference is dedicated to exploring new and creative ways of communicating computational thinking ideas to learners of any age without the use of a computer. CMSC brings together scholars, researchers, and practitioners from around the globe to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and innovative research in the fields of computer science and mathematics. In an exciting collaboration, CMSC will be collocated with the third "Trierer Tag des Informatikunterrichts" (teachers’ day TTI), featuring a series of hands-on workshops conducted in German, French, and English.

We will see two keynotes by

  • Mike Fellows and by
  • Valentina Dagienė.

In addition, on Thursday during TTI, there will be a panel discussion on visions of computer science and, more generally speaking, (natural) sciences and mathematics education in schools, including Dorothee Brömmling-Lewe (from the ministry of education in Rhineland-Palatinate) and Daniela Hau (from the ministry of education in Luxembourg).

For the first time, CMSC 2024 will have refereed proceedings, to appear within Springer's LNCS series. The submission server can be reached under this EquinOCS link. Also, poster proposals can be submitted through this link.

Call for Contributions

Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts on topics related to the scope of the conference (see below). All papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed by Programme Committee members.

There are three submission categories for the conference:

  • Full Papers, divided into two subcategories (up to 12 pages):
    • Best practice papers/country reports/experience reports
    • Research papers (e.g., empirical, qualitative, quantitative, theory building, research methods, comparative studies, transferability of methods and results from other disciplines)
  • Short Papers, divided into two subcategories (up to 6 pages):
    • Position/discussion papers
    • Work in progress
  • Poster proposals (2-4 pages)

The page limitations include references. Full and short papers may have an appendix, whose length must not exceed 3 pages.

Accepted papers will be published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

Posters will not be published.

Conference Scope

The main topics of the conference include (but are not limited to):

  • Teaching Computer Science in early-childhood, primary, secondary, and higher education
  • CS Unplugged, 
  • Computational Thinking / Algorithmic Thinking, 
  • Broadening engagement and diversity for the exact sciences,
  • Teacher education in Mathematics and Computer Science, 
  • Teaching CS in relation with other subjects, 
  • Contests and competitions, 
  • Education for students with special needs, 
  • Linking mathematical and computational content for fundamental competency development, 
  • Education within resource-limited environments, 
  • Remote learning amidst the effects of conflict - Teaching for Ukrainian refugees inside and outside the nation.

Work submitted to CMSC should be novel and material that has been previously published should not be republished unless the work has been significantly revised. Note, however, that while novel work is highly valued, constructive replication of previous studies can also be a significant contribution, and a new interpretation or evaluation of previously published work can make a good contribution.

Important Dates

  • Abstract submission: May 13th, 2024
  • Full/short paper submission: May 20th, 2024
  • Notification of acceptance for papers: June 30th, 2024
  • Camera-ready versions of accepted papers: July 15th, 2024
  • Registration start: July 15th, 2024
  • Poster submission: July 22th, 2024
  • Notification of acceptance for posters: August 12th, 2024
  • Registration end: September 23rd, 2024
  • Main conference: October 7-10, 2024
  • Teachers’ day: October 10, 2024

All dates are midnight “anywhere on earth“.

Submission Guidelines

All contributions (papers and posters) will be submitted through EquinOCS: https://equinocs.springernature.com/

Submissions must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS style guidelines using LaTeX. The maximum length of the paper (including references, but excluding the optional appendix) is 12 pages. The length of the abstract should be 200-300 words.

To prepare a poster (2-4 pages), authors are also asked to use the same Springer templates. Posters are not published.

As the short and full papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed, the authors should leave their names and affiliations blank in the initial submission, and take care to avoid details in the article that could be used to identify the authors. These include institution information, specific funding information and clear self-citations.

Poster Requirements

The purpose of the poster is to stimulate discussion with conference participants during the conference about your presented activity. During the poster session, the poster presenters should be present at their booth to give short presentations to interested participants.

Size and orientation: A1 portrait (594 × 841 mm)

Contains at least: title, author(s), institution(s), contact information, problem statement, description of work, gained results, future work, main references.

Please bring a printed poster of the correct size to the conference.

Program Committee (confirmed members)

We are still inviting people on the PC, but we already have compiled a list of researchers that agreed to serve on the PC.

  • Sebastian Berndt, Technische Hochschule Lübeck, Germany
  • Sarah Carruthers, Vancouver Island University, Canada
  • Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania
  • Christian Datzko, Gymnasium Liestal, Switzerland
  • Jens Gallenbacher, JGU Mainz, Germany
  • Juraj Hromkovic, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Tobias Kohn, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Dennis Komm, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Regula Lacher, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Barnaby Martin, Durham University, UK
  • Valia Mitsou, IRIF, Université Paris Cité, France
  • Matthias Mnich, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany
  • Xavier Munoz, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
  • Jean-Philippe Pellet, University of Teacher Education, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Paweł Perekietka, Museum of Mathematics, Poland
  • R Ramanujam, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India
  • Rüdiger Reischuk, ITCS, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany
  • Michał Ren, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
  • Adish Singla, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Saarbrücken, Germany
  • Matt Skoss, Northern Territory Dept of Education, Australia
  • Bernadette Spieler, Zurich University of Teacher Education, Switzerland
  • Ulrike Stege, University of Victoria, Canada
  • Torstein Strømme, University of Bergen, Norway
  • Robinson Thamburaj, Madras Christian College, Chennai, India

Program Chairs and Local Committee

  • Henning Fernau, University of Trier
  • Inge Schwank, University of Cologne
  • Jacqueline Staub, University of Trier

About CMSC

Kids of all ages, modern citizens, need to appreciate algorithms and computational thinking. Join scientists, researchers, teachers and artists in developing new ways of communicating computational thinking, including computing activities across the curriculum, at every level. CMSC welcomes contributions in forms such as story, dance, art, theatre,  … many ways to communicate science to the public.

CMSC aims to create activities to teach kids without computers, following the Computer Science Unplugged philosophy (www.csunplugged.org). The design and analysis of algorithms, modeling, clever information representation, all have the potential to unlock a great amount of creativity. Bring your ideas, your experimental attempts. The atmosphere is casual with a focus on brainstorming.

CMSC aims to encourage researchers to provide open problems from their area that are accessible to authentic engagement by kids, and to explore ways of mentoring their work. Let’s attract children to open problems, to dare reach for gold. We also seek new ways to show the open, unsolved problems that researchers are pursuing.

We celebrate when outreach results in greater progress in science. Outreach can be a two-way street. Let us know  the benefits to your scientific research or teaching.

Steering Committee

  • Frances Rosamond, University of Bergen, Norway (Chair)
  • Małgorzata Bednarska-Bzdęga, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poland
  • Tim Bell, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Sarah Carruthers, Vancouver Island University, Canada
  • Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania
  • Michael Fellows, University of Bergen, Norway
  • Valia Mitsou, IRIF, Paris Diderot University, France
  • Jam Ramanujam, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India
  • Rüdiger Reischuk, University of Lübeck, Germany
  • Matt Skoss, The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, Australia
  • Verena Specht-Ronique, HLTM Marburg, Germany
  • Brett Stephenson, University of Tasmania, Australia