Informatics Europe Bulletin - December 2022

Dear Colleague,

As the holiday season approaches, we are delighted to conclude the year with new individual and project achievements. From all of us at Informatics Europe, we wish you a wonderful time of the year!

In this issue:

Designing and Implementing a Concrete Informatics Curriculum for School

Following the English publication of the Informatics Reference Framework for School in February, a new report “Designing and Implementing a Concrete Informatics Curriculum for School” has been published by the Informatics for All coalition. The report focuses on pedagogical issues and related concerns that should be considered when using the Framework for the development of concrete curricula. It emphasizes the importance of taking into account particular situations and needs in each country, as well as accommodating age and appropriate stages of development of pupils, in order to implement the Framework successfully to benefit pupils from different countries with equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Informatics for All coalition, with very active contributions from IE members, is currently translating the Framework report to nine different languages, including Turkish which is ready to be published online soon. If you are interested to contribute with the translation, please contact the coalition.

EUGAIN: A Successful Wrap-up for the Second Grant Period

The second grant period of our EU-funded project, the COST Action European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN), has formally closed in November. Here are some highlights during this grant period:

• EUGAIN Chair and Vice Chair were invited to join the COST Focus Group on gender equality that works on the Gender Equality Plan of COST. Prof. Buhnova (Vice Chair) attended the working group meeting in July.
• The first of the four best practices booklets planned has been published: Best Practices from PhD to Professor. The second booklet, From School to University, will be ready in January 2023.
• The first international EUGAIN Summer School (EUGAIN– STS 2022) took place from June 6 to 8 in Lugano, Switzerland. 29 doctoral and early career researchers from 18 countries joined the school. Participants acquired knowledge, skills, and competencies needed to design gender and gender-sensitive studies in Informatics and worked on the design of a user study in their research area that accounts for gender issues.
• The IE-EUGAIN “Gender Equality in Informatics” webinar series launched in June, featuring presentations by EUGAIN action chairs and members across Europe. The webinar recordings are now available on our YouTube channel, with over 300 views and rising!
• The young researchers of EUGAIN teamed up in the elaboration of the “Why chose IT as a field” video. The video includes testimonials from several EUGAIN members, young as well as senior researchers, and is an important step to increase EUGAIN ideas visibility within GenZ.
• WIRE EUGAIN Workshop was held as part of ECSS 2022, with the theme “Attracting and Retaining Female Students from Bachelor and Master to PhD”. Workshop slides and photos are now available on the workshop page.
• Prof. Bara Buhnova delivered a training on gender equality for the COST Academy in Brussels, Belgium on 28 October. Gender coordinators of 36 COST Actions attended the training.

The third grant period has already been kicked off, and we would like to ask for your help in filling out and disseminating a EUGAIN questionnaire in your country: https://isdl.limesurvey.rz.uni-bamberg.de/index.php/119143?lang=en. The questionnaire aims at uncovering and analysing the perceptions and intentions of students related to continuing their education and career towards starting PhD studies. There is no deadline for the questionnaire, but your participation within the next weeks would be most helpful.

Once again, we thank everyone for the continuous support and contributions to EUGAIN.

Join Recently Knighted Prof. Letizia Jaccheri to Discuss Enabling a Diverse Tech Workforce

On behalf of the IE Community, let us congratulate Prof. Letizia Jaccheri for receiving her recent title: “Cavaliere” (Knight) of the Order of the Star of Italy, conferred by the Italian President of the Republic. Her work for diversity and equality in academia, especially in computer technology and informatics, has earned her this recognition. Prof. Jaccheri is Professor from the Department of Computer Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She served as IE Board Directors for two terms, between 2018 and 2021, when she joined the Informatics Europe promoters of the above mentioned EUGAIN COST Action, which she now chairs.

We look forward to seeing more of such examples, which greatly benefit the European informatics community, individual growth and achievements through contributing to IE activities!

Would you like to meet Prof. Jaccheri and other European leaders to discuss women in tech issues? She will be one of the guests joining the upcoming hybrid event “Women in Tech” Breakfast Roundtable on 26 January 2023. The event is supported by COST and is organised under the umbrella of the Microsoft “Conversations Unscripted” initiative, a multistakeholder platform that brings together European leaders to explore avenues to reduce the gender gap in the fields of politics and technology. The in-person participation is limited to 30 people only - register to join the event now!

Association News

Board Meetings

• 27 January (Fri), 09:30-16:30, Zurich
• 24 February (Fri), 16:00-17:00, Zoom

Executive Committee Meetings

• 31 January (Tue), 09:00-16:30, Zurich
• 24 March (Fri), 09:00-16:00, Rome

Don’t Miss These IE Activities

• The next cohorts of Academic Leadership Development Courses are currently open for registration to academic leaders at all levels of experience in Informatics and related disciplines. The online course is recommended for new & emerging leaders, whereas the emphasis of the residential one is on senior/established leaders. New FAQs have been added on our webpage to help you understand more about our courses. Read more here and register now to enjoy the limited early bird offers!
• Due to illness, the “Gender Equality in Informatics” webinar by Marieke Huisman from University of Twente (NL), originally scheduled on 12 Dec, has been postponed to 23 Jan 2023 at 5pm (CET). Registration remains open. For those who have registered for the webinar previously, your registration will still be valid. To re-watch our previous webinars, visit our YouTube playlist here.

New Informatics Europe Members 

We are very pleased to welcome the following new members:

• Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática, Spain
• University of Sheffield, Department of Computer Science, UK
• University of St. Gallen, School of Computer Science, Switzerland

They joined a growing IE membership of 160 institutions from 33 countries. Check out our current members list.

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In Memoriam: Valerie Issarny

It is with deep sadness that we bid farewell to Valerie Issarny, an esteemed scientist and colleague. Valerie was a devoted Chair for the ACM Europe Council from October 2021 and was in close liaison with IE until her death. Valerie fought her disease with extraordinary courage until her last moment. She is sorely missed for her strength and many contributions over the years.

New Jobs @ Informatics Europe Job Platform

There are 7 new job openings on the Informatics Europe Job Platform.

As members, you can advertise and extend your search to attract the best candidates for your open positions on the IE job platform free of charge!