Informatics Europe celebrates 100 member milestone at ECSS 2016 in Budapest

Around ninety deans, department heads, research directors and senior academics from over twenty countries met in Budapest, October 24-26 for the 12th edition of the European Computer Science Summit. This year’s Summit was dedicated to the theme: Informatics Driving the Digital World. Indeed, our discipline is at the centre of the digital revolution. Yet, what challenges, requirements and promises does that hold for Informatics and for Informatics departments?

As always, the Summit was preceded by the popular one-day workshop for deans and department heads to exchange practical strategies on common challenges they face in managing their department and institutes. With 56 participants from institutions both large and small, the workshop provided an excellent networking and sharing platform. This year`s edition zoomed in on the opportunities and pitfalls of working in a multidisciplinary environment. The attendees raised several topics that led to interesting discussions. One was about academia-industry collaboration and how they develop in different countries. Another was about how to introduce and maintain multi-disciplinary teaching in the curriculum. Finally, there was some discussion about how to improve the evaluation processes for teaching quality.

The main Summit on October 25 and 26 explored the challenges and promises for the Informatics discipline, both as a science and as an application field, in driving the digital world. Prominent academics and industry leaders provided their perspectives and fuelled panel discussions on lively debated topics. One such topic was the role of universities and Informatics departments in the “digital revolution”. Should they adapt or fundamentally change the way research, teaching and the interaction with industry is done? A second panel tackled the dilemma of research evaluation and publication culture in Informatics, offering perspectives from the Informatics Europe Working Group on Research Evaluation as a discussion starter.

Sharing their expert views and insights at ECSS 2016 were Erika Ábrahám, Jan Bosch, Manfred Broy, Anthony Finkelstein, Roland Jakab, Willem Jonker, Laura Kovács, Domenico Laforenza, Patricia Lago, Alexander Wolf. Slides of most talks are available on the ECSS 2016 program page.

Beyond discussion, presentations, and networking, there was also time for celebration! At a special Award Ceremony, Informatics Europe announced the Italian ALaDDIn project as the winner of the 2016 Best Practices in Education Award. The Computer Science Department of University College London won the 1st Minerva Informatics Equality Award for their comprehensive efforts in supporting the careers of female faculty. ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, presented the Cor Baayen young researcher award to Michał Pilipczuk from the University of Warsaw.

Informatics Europe itself had a reason to celebrate too, surpassing the 100 member mark in the weeks leading up to the Summit. “We are very pleased about this milestone”, commented Lynda Hardman, President Informatics Europe. “Growing our community is important to make the Informatics research and academic community in Europe stronger and more influential. It is critical that we connect, collaborate and speak up on topics that shape the future of our discipline in Europe.”

The next Summit, ECSS 2017, will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, October 23-25, hosted by the NOVA University of Lisbon. We look forward to another inspiring event and stimulating debates. Save the dates!

Below a few photos of the event (Click to enlarge):

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• Budapest

• ELTE Building

• Workshop for Deans and Department Heads

• Mehdi Jazayeri, University of Lugano

• Alexander Wolf, University of California at Santa Cruz

• Gabriele Anderst-Kotsis, Johannes Kepler University Linz

• Welcome Reception

• Lynda Hardman, Informatics Europe President

• Welcome Reception

• Gregor Engels, ECSS 2016 Program Chair, University of Paderborn

• Welcome Reception

• Lynda Hardman, ECSS 2016 Chair

• Zoltán Horváth, ECSS 2016 Chair, ELTE

• ECSS 2016

• Enrico Nardelli, Università di Roma "Tor Vergata"

• Alexander Wolf, Past ACM President

• ECSS 2016

• Domenico Laforenza, ERCIM

• Hans-Ulrich Heiß, TU Berlin

• Anthony Finkelstein, The Alan Turing Institute

• Erika Ábrahám, RWTH Aachen

• ECSS 2016

• Leszek Pacholski, TU Wroclaw

• Manfred Broy, TU Munich

• Jan Bosch, Chalmers University of Technology

• 100 Member Milestone cake

• 100 Member Milestone cake

• ECSS 2016

• ECSS 2016

• ECSS 2016

• Jan Vahrenhold, Informatics Europe CECE

• Lynda Hardman

• Panel discussion led by Markus Püschel, ETH Zurich

• Panel discussion “Informatics Driving the Digital World – Really?”

• Conference Dinner

• ECSS 2016 conference dinner

• Hélène Kirchner, Inria

• Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Laura Kovács, Vienna University of Technology

• Roland Jakab, Ericsson

• Willem Jonker, EIT Digital

• Informatics Europe and ERCIM Award winners 2016

• ECSS 2016

• Manuel Hermenegildo, IMDEA Software Institute and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, leading panel on research evaluation

• Gianni Mecca, Università della Basilicata, Potenza, research evaluation panel member

• Ivica Crnkovic, Chalmers University

• Attila Ferik, GE Health

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