Informatics Europe Bulletin - Dec 2024

Check out the highlights below and help us share them with the wider Informatics community!

In this issue:

ECSS 2024 wrap-up and vision ahead

As we conclude ECSS 2024, marking the 20th European Informatics Leaders Summit, we reflect on two decades of collective achievements in strengthening the community, fostering collaboration and shaping policies for Informatics research and education advancement in Europe. This milestone is a testament to the shared vision we uphold.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all ECSS 2024 participants for their engagement and insightful feedback. Building on the fruitful discussions at the Summit, several impactful publications are anticipated in 2025, addressing topics such as research evaluation, interdisciplinary collaboration, academia-industry partnerships or Green ICT metrics. Read our full ECSS 2024 closing statement and highlights of the different summit sessions here.

Let us keep working on common goals, fostering meaningful policies and raising the voice of European Informatics education and research across Europe and beyond. Mark your calendar for ECSS 2025: October 27–29 in Rennes, France – see you there!

Best Dissertation Award & Minerva Informatics Equality Awards 2024 results

As a tradition, the annual IE awards were presented to the winners at the ECSS 2024 Award Ceremony, followed by their engaging presentations.

Best Dissertation Award 2024, sponsored by Springer Nature:
This year’s top honour goes to Tobias Röddiger, PhD graduate from the Department of Informatics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), for his ground-breaking dissertation, “Earables: Wearable Computing on the Ears”.

From left to right: Dimka Karastoyanova (Award Committee Co-Chair, University of Groningen), Tobias Röddiger (Winner, PhD graduate from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IE President).

The Award Committee also recognized two exceptional dissertations as runners-up:

• Tim Quatmann, RWTH Aachen University (Germany) with “Verification of Multi-Objective Markov Models”;
• Michael Sammler, Saarland University & Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (Germany) with “Automated and Foundational Verification of Low-Level Programs”.

Minerva Informatics Equality Award 2024, sponsored by Google:
This year’s award celebrates the International Women’s Degree Programme in Computer Science at Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences (Germany).

From left to right: Antinisca Di Marco (Award Committee Chair, University of L'Aquila), Gerlinde Schreiber (Winner Representative, Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences), Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IE President).

Two remarkable initiatives were also recognized as runners-up:

• The Women in Information and Computing Sciences (WICS) network and ICS Diversity Committee, Utrecht University (Netherlands);
• The Steering Committee of “Alice & Eve: A Celebration of Women in Computing”, a joint effort among several Dutch universities since 2020.

Explore the winning dissertations and initiatives from their presentations here. The collection of past winners and best practices are also available on the Best Dissertation Award website and the Best Practices in Supporting Women website.

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Help us advance Informatics education by becoming a sponsor for our Best Practices in Education Award for 2025 and beyond! Contact us or introduce us to potential sponsors at administration@informatics-europe.org.

Honoring Bara Buhnova: IE dedicates EUGAIN’s success to her legacy

Informatics Europe marks the successful conclusion of the EUGAIN project (European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics), a COST Action that received an excellent evaluation from European Commission experts for its contributions to advancing gender balance in Informatics across Europe.

EUGAIN’s impactful research, policy recommendations and practical guidelines have advanced the integration of gender and diversity studies into Informatics programs. It created a vital platform for underrepresented groups in Informatics to amplify their voices in international academic forums.

This milestone, however, comes with deep sadness as we honor the memory of Professor Bara Buhnova (Masaryk University, Czechia), who recently passed away after a long illness. As the vice chair of EUGAIN and one of the driving forces behind its achievements, Bara’s visionary leadership, unwavering dedication, and inspiring commitment to diversity and inclusion shaped the project’s success and touched the lives of many.

2021 EUGAIN workshop in Madrid, Spain.

In remembering Bara, we would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all EUGAIN contributors, including EUGAIN Chair Professor Letizia Jaccheri (NTNU, Norway) and our former WIRE Working Group (now the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group), whose dedication continues to inspire. EUGAIN’s achievements reflect the collective dedication of all contributors and stand as a tribute to Bara’s passion for Informatics research and education. We remain committed to advancing the shared mission of greater gender diversity in Informatics.

We invite you to explore EUGAIN’s outcomes and join us in carrying forward the mission that Bara so passionately championed.

Inclusion4EU: 2024 research reports and resources online

Inclusion4EU, an impactful Erasmus+ project, made notable progress in 2024. As one of the project partners, Informatics Europe is proud of its achievements in transforming software development by promoting inclusive design practices.

This year, Inclusion4EU published two research reports highlighting how software systems and organizations can foster inclusivity or perpetuate exclusion. Findings from a survey of 35 universities across 22 European countries on teaching inclusive design in Informatics programs were presented at ECSS 2024’s “Cultivating Diversity: Integrating Inclusiveness into Informatics Education” Workshop. The team also led an interactive session where participants assessed assistive technologies and co-designed solutions to enhance their inclusive usability and functionality.

Inclusion4EU’s interactive session at ECSS 2024.

Currently, Inclusion4EU is developing an Inclusion Charter to help organizations adopt co-design principles, developed through collaborative sessions with academics, industry professionals, and citizens. The project’s final phase will introduce a training program for academics and Informatics professionals on facilitating co-design sessions.

All resources developed by Inclusion4EU are freely accessible at www.inclusion4eu.eu.

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Informatics Europe plays a key role in the success of European-funded projects like Inclusion4EU, EUGAIN and Ethics4EU. Seeking a pan-European networking partner to enhance and support your research or education initiatives? Contact us at administration@informatics-europe.org.

IE at CEPIS’s 1st International Conference on Digital Skills and IT Professionalism

Informatics Europe proudly supported the first International Conference on Digital Skills and IT Professionalism (ICODSIP 2024), co-organised by our sister organisation CEPIS, the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies. 

The conference, held in Spain on 14-15 November, welcomed Ernestina Menasalvas (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain) as the opening speaker. She is the newly elected IE Board Director for the 2025-2027 term. The conference also featured Covadonga Rodrigo (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain), the newly appointed chair of IE’s Ethics Working Group since November, who participated as a panellist in the conference’s “Female Talent in IT” session.

Covadonga Rodrigo represents IE at ICODSIP 2024. (Photo by CEPIS)

Covadonga highlighted the results achieved in EUGAIN, IE's recently concluded COST Action, showcasing the provision of open resources to foster women's participation, continuing education and careers in IT. She also encouraged ongoing efforts to promote gender diversity in IT, including awareness raising and the inclusion of certification policies.

Panel at ICODSIP’s “Female Talent in IT” session. (Photo by CEPIS)

The panel emphasized the critical need for campaigns and initiatives that offer activities and grants to spark interest in Informatics from an early age, starting in pre-teen years or schools. This is particularly important as the involvement of Informatics faculties in Europe in promoting women’s inclusion remains limited.

The conference shows that progress in Informatics education and research relies on embracing diverse perspectives. Become IE’s Working Group members to join forces with experts and drive meaningful impact in Informatics at the European level.

DIGHUM Workshop 2024 Highlights

On November 28 and 29, IE member institute TU Wien Informatics and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) hosted a multidisciplinary workshop to explore the future of Informatics. The two-day event focused on a potential Paradigm Shift in the field, transitioning from logic and algorithmic certainty to probability and large language models (LLMs). Prof. Enrico Nardelli (Università di Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy), current IE Board Director and former President, along with former IE President Prof. Lynda Hardman (CWI / Utrecht University, the Netherlands), contributed as panellist for Nov 28th’s “History of AI” session.

The workshop’s central theme, as highlighted in its title “A Paradigm Shift in Computer Science?”, was to explore whether current advancements in Informatics signify a paradigm shift or a gradual evolution. Key points of discussion included a shift from deterministic approaches to probabilistic forecasting, the unanticipated dominance of data-driven (sub-symbolic) AI, the shift from systems delivering guaranteed results to humans verifying the factual accuracy of large language models (LLMs) outputs, and the opacity of LLMs.

The workshop concluded with a discussion on institutional challenges. While the ongoing trends and transformations in Informatics may not constitute a Paradigm Shift in the Kuhnian sense, their impact is unquestionably profound. From a philosophical perspective, the discussions highlighted the fundamental distinction between humans and machines, underscoring the vital role of the humanities and social sciences in guiding AI development and mitigating its negative impacts. The interdisciplinary approach of Digital Humanism was recognized as valuable for addressing complex challenges associated with AI.

Read here for the full event coverage, videos and slides.

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Informatics Europe partners with TU Wien’s Digital Humanism (DIGHUM) initiative, since its establishment, an international effort uniting scholars, policymakers, and industry to keep technology centered on human interests. Key activities include interactive workshops, such as the one highlighted above, the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism, signed by over 1,000 global leaders, and the book Perspectives on Digital Humanism, featuring expert articles on the interplay between humans and machines, including contributions from former IE Board Directors Enrico Nardelli, Michael E. Caspersen, and Lynda Hardman. Learn more about our collaboration with DIGHUM.

New 2025 cohort: Academic Leadership Development Online Course

Effective leadership is essential for creating environments where researchers can excel, yet many academics lack access to tailored training opportunities.

Join the 7th Academic Leadership Development Online Course in May 2025 — a transformative course designed specifically for academics in Informatics and related fields. Led by leadership experts Prof. Geraldine Fitzpatrick and Prof. Austen Rainer, this program offers practical strategies and evidence-based tools to strengthen your leadership, self-awareness, and team performance.

Registration is now open, with early bird offers available until 2 March 2025. Join and share with colleagues who are currently or soon becoming professors, stepping into leadership roles at the school, faculty, or institutional level. Download the flyer here and register here.

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Visit our Open Activities webpage to discover how you can participate in and benefit from initiatives like the Informatics Research & Education Directory, Informatics Job Platform, Department Evaluation Service and more.

New IE members

We are pleased to welcome the following new members:

• Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
• Computer Science Department, University of Turin, Italy
• Data Science Laboratory, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

They joined a growing IE membership of nearly 200 informatics academic institutions, national associations, companies and research centers from over 30 countries. Check out our current members list.

Events by IE members

• The International Workshop on Flexible Software Architecture for Embedded Computing Systems (SARECS)
  held at University of Southern Denmark on 31 Mar–4 Apr 2025
  Paper submission deadline: 20 Dec 2024
• IACAP/AISB Philosophy of Computing and AI Conference
  hosted by University of Twente on 1-3 Jul 2025
  Symposia proposals & abstract submission deadline: 15 Jan 2025
• Winter School on Teaching Programming across Disciplines
  hosted at the University of Edinburgh on 8 Jan 2025
  Attendee application deadline: 5 Jan 2025
• DisCoTec 2025 – 20th International Federated Conference on Distributed Computing Techniques
  hosted by the University of Lille on 16-20 Jun 2025
  Abstract submission deadline: 31 Jan 2025

IE member news

AI-SPRINT presented by HaDEA as a success case at Web Summit 2024 - Politecnico Milano, Italy

The AI-SPRINT research project, coordinated by Prof. Danilo Ardagna from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, was showcased as a successful case by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) at Web Summit 2024. This Summit, one of the largest technology conferences globally, gathered over 70,000 participants to promote networking and idea exchange. AI-SPRINT's key outcome is an innovative framework for AI applications that ensures data privacy and security by leveraging a continuum of computing resources from the cloud to the edge. This framework can provide tools to optimise the runtime of AI applications, improving their flexibility, scalability and energy efficiency. The project also supported European software houses and cloud providers, fostering new opportunities in AI and edge computing ecosystems. Full news here.

ZHAW involved in EU project DataGEMS: A data discovery platform to benefit business and society – Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Researchers from the ZHAW Institute of Computer Science (InIT) are contributing to the EU DataGEMS project, which seeks to create a cutting-edge platform for data discovery, management, and analysis. Centered on FAIR principles and data reusability, this project aims to deliver an intuitive solution for use in science, business, and society. Read more here.

Inside Sheffield’s Indoor Urban Farm – University of Sheffield, UK

Meet Future Greens – a team of University of Sheffield alumni, including a co-founder from the University’s School of Computer Science, on a mission to transform farming with their urban vertical farm. Watch the YouTube video here showcasing this innovative multidisciplinary project where Informatics plays a key role in developing resilient urban solutions.

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Want to share your institute’s latest updates with fellow IE members and professionals in Informatics and related fields? Simply email the news to our Communication Specialist Kit Wan Chui to get featured in our Bulletin, LinkedIn and X.