On October 4, 2013 Carl Chang delivered a plenary talk onGrowing Out of ABC, the heart and soul of software engineering at the 2013 International Conference on Automatics and Informatics - 110 Years of the Birth of Dr. John V. Atanasoff, jointly organized by the Federation of Scientific Engineering Unions and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) held in Sofia, Bulgaria from October 3-7, 2013. Dr. Chang also participated in a panel that recounted the landmark invention of Dr. Atanasoff and examined the recent progress of computing industry of Bulgaria. Dr. Chang suggested to the room-full audience that by propagating the inventive spirit of Dr. Atanasoff, who is a descendent of Bulgarians, and through hard work, a Bulgarian Miracle (in reference to the Taiwan Miracle) is within reach. Photo from the panel session: (panelists in the front: Carl Chang, 3rd from left; John Atanasoff II, 2nd from right; H.E. Mr. Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria, standing at the podium for His Excellency's opening remarks).
On October 29, 2013 Dr. Chang delivered a keynote speech on Situational Software Engineering at the 2013 International Conference on Active Media Technology, held in Maebashi, Japan from October 29-31, 2013. In the talk, Dr. Chang reviewed and discussed past and present software engineering (SE) research and practices based on a "situational" perspective. He also enumerated steep research challenges in "situational software engineering" and considered it to be a major departure from the current viewpoints of SE research.