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Dear Colleague,
Thanks to the tireless efforts of our ECSS committees, registration is now open for ECSS 2023! We invite you to join our flagship annual summit, a platform for engaging in strategic and forward-thinking discussions on multifaceted aspects of informatics research and education. Register now to bring in your perspective into the debates while broadening your network and knowledge! More about ECSS 2023, highlights of new publications, accomplishments and activities of IE and our members are featured in this edition of IE Bulletin. We wish you a pleasant summer!
In this issue:
Oct 23-25: ECSS 2023 in Edinburgh – Registration Opens!
Calling all informatics leaders and research enthusiasts! Come join us with your colleagues at our annual European Computer Science Summit (ECSS), this year happening between 23 and 25 October in Edinburgh. The Summit is co-organised with our UK’s member institute the School of Informatics of the University of Edinburgh, who celebrates 60 years of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Science research.
Being one of the most significant meetings of the European informatics research and education community, ECSS is where decisions-makers at all levels gather to expand their international network while discussing, exchanging solutions and defining joint initiatives in informatics and related disciplines for the collective benefit of our society. Curious about the feedback from our previous participants? Watch here now!
Check out our conference schedule with all exciting details about our sessions and prestigious speakers from across Europe! Register now to benefit from our early bird offer (up to September 15th) and don’t worry about unforeseen events. It is important that your organisation is present in ECSS, so we will transfer your registration to another name where necessary. Find out more about rates and conditions here, including grants aimed at empowering early career researchers to develop into future leaders of the discipline.
As an exclusive benefit to IE members, we offer your institution the possibility to enhance the visibility and partnership potential with a wide range of collaborators in informatics and related fields through Members Spotlight. Physical leaflets can also be distributed at the ECSS venue in Edinburgh. Follow the instructions here to get in the spotlight! We are also calling for research statement and CV submission for the Early Career Researchers Posters Session – submit your application by 30 August to extend your network, gain a broader perspective of the discipline and devise your research career plan at ECSS 2023!
Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for our session & speaker updates. We look forward to meeting you at ECSS 2023 in Edinburgh!
New IE Publications on Open Access and AI in Informatics Education
We are delighted to announce our latest publication “Open Access: Status and Recommendations”, prepared by members of IE’s Open Science Working Group. The publication summarizes the evolution of scientific publication models towards providing open access to research results and makes recommendations from an academic standpoint on future action paths.
The authors review some of the alternatives that have been proposed by the academic community to refocus on the original goals of Open Access and speed up their achievement. The publication concludes with a set of recommendations, namely: evaluate agreements, avoid exclusive copyright transfer, favor publishing by scientific societies, encourage the use of platforms that ensure transparent procedures, perform quality-based research evaluation, and be active in forums focused on Open Science and Open Access. This publication is endorsed by our national informatics association members.
Initiated by IE’s Policy Recommendations Working Group, IE has also published a new recommendations document on AI in Informatics Education. There is a pressing need for guidelines and best practices for how to manage the impending transition and benefit from disruptive generative AI systems, such as the OpenAI tools ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot. With endorsement by our national informatics association members, our publication offers analysis and recommendations to the informatics academic community in the area of informatics education.
Visit our National Informatics Associations webpage to find out how we join efforts from different countries to advocate informatics research and education both at a country and European level.
CV Repository in Full Operation: Join Where Informatics Talent Search Takes Place
While most of our students have an easy access to the informatics job market, landing the dream job might be more challenging. We encourage students and recent graduates of informatics and related disciplines to increase your chances of securing rewarding opportunities by completing and updating your profile at our CV Repository. It is a free service dedicated to students and recent graduates from our member institutes.
Recruiters interested in accessing the platform are welcome to contact our office. The service is free for IE’s academic and industry members. Sponsors can gain customized access to our CV Repository by subscribing to one of our sponsorship plans.
We thank all our member institutions for continuing to disseminate this service among their students, and congratulate two more lucky applicants from Politecnico di Milano and Sorbonne Université, who each won a EUR 100 cash prize for being among the first applicants to upload their profiles to our CV Repository by 31 May 2023.
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The CV Repository, with platform development sponsored by our industrial member Bending Spoons, is IE’s most recent career service committed to connecting early career professionals from our member institutions and employers in informatics and related fields across Europe.
EUGAIN and The ACM WomENcourage Hackathon 2023
In our March Bulletin, we mentioned our COST Action EUGAIN will join with a co-located event at the WomENcourage 2023, the 10th ACM Celebration of Women in Computing: a three-day conference hosted by our member institute the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, between 20 and 22 September. Check out WomENcourage 2023’s latest program on their official webpage, including a EUGAIN “International Forum: A Global Perspective of Women in Computer Science” on the second day of the conference and the conference closing chaired by Letizia Jaccheri, IE’s former Board member.
A one-day hackathon will also be held on the first day of WomENcourage 2023, with a focus on societal problems and issues that are causes of inequality and discrepancies between different communities. The hackathon team is looking for mentors and jurors available on 20 September. If you are interested in joining the hackathon team, please contact NTNU’s Claudia Maria Cutrupi and Wang Yu, the hackathon chairs.
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Informatics Europe partnership contributes to the success of European funded projects such as EUGAIN. Looking for a pan-European networking partner to strengthen and support your research or education projects? Reach out to us: administration@informatics-europe.org.
“Informatics for All” Meeting with European Commission
As part of Informatics Europe’s continuing effort in informatics policy activities, IE members of the Informatics for All Coalition steering committee joined a fruitful meeting with Georgi Dimitrov, Head of Unit "Digital Education" at the European Commission (EC). During the meeting, further in-depth discussions have been made on the proposals for a Council Recommendation recently issued by the European Commission, containing the important message addressed to Member States to support high-quality education in informatics at school and future developments.
We had the pleasure to count on Georgi as a keynote speaker at our previous ECSS in 2018 and 2020. More presentations by EC guest speakers and international scholars in informatics can be found on our ECSS Past Summits webpage.
European Statistics Awards: Energy Statistics Nowcasting Challenge
On behalf of Eurostat: the statistical office of the European Union, we are pleased to announce the second round of European Statistics Awards on Nowcasting starting in June 2023. The competition aims at stimulating innovation in the area of Nowcasting for European statistics. In the Energy Statistics Nowcasting Challenge, teams will focus on using advanced modelling techniques and (nearly) real-time auxiliary data, to come up with nowcasts for key energy time series way ahead of the official figures. The nowcasts that are closest to the official European statistics will be rewarded for Accuracy, and the team that best documents their nowcasting models will win the Reproducibility Award.
The competition has already begun and will run for ten months until 31 March 2024. Register by 28 September 2023 and try your chances on your own or with a team of peers. You can win up to €8 000 per nowcasted time series. If your team secures the top spot for all three-time series, you could earn up to €24 000 in this round.
For more information on the European Statistical Awards Programme, please refer to the European Statistics Awards website.
Association News
Board Meetings
- 28 July (Fri), 16:00-17:00, Zoom
- 25 Aug (Fri), 16:00-17:00, Zoom
Don’t forget: As a member representative, you can submit agenda topics and participate as an observer in board meetings. Let us know if you’d like to join us!
Executive Committee Meetings
- 12 July (Wed), 09:00-16:30, Paris
- 8 Sep (Fri), 09:00-16:30, Milan
Don’t Miss These IE Activities
- Join us for the final webinar from “Gender Equality in Informatics” webinar series - registration procedure simplified!
Jul 10th: Challenges and Opportunities of Gender Inclusion Worldwide in Open-Source Software
Speaker: Ayushi Rastogi, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)
Our webinar is free and open to all. Check out our previous webinar materials and recordings on our webinar webpage.
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Submit your nomination to Minerva Informatics Equality Award: celebrate successful initiatives that have had a measurable impact on the careers of women at all stages.
The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000 sponsored by Google. Deadline extended until 15 July 2023.
- Share your knowledge by completing our IE's Ethics Working Group survey on teaching ethics in computer science and informatics at higher-level education institutes across Europe: https://www.informatics-europe.org/survey/index.php/561146.
The survey deadline has been extended until 31 July and will only take around 15-20 minutes to complete. Regardless of whether your institution teaches ethics in computer science programmes or not, it is important for us to get your feedback on this highly important topic for the community. Thank you for your contribution!
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Visit our Open Activities webpage to get an overview of how you can contribute and benefit from our activities!
Events by Members
Members News
TU Wien
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Unlocking the Future: First Elementary School Informatics Program Launched
TU Wien Informatics organizes computer science workshops for elementary school classes at TU Wien to get children interested in STEM topics at a very early age. With the first workshop held on 16 May 16 at TU Campus Favoritenstraße, more than 20 workshops are planned annually, aiming at third graders in Vienna’s elementary schools, thus offering 18.000 children a chance to participate.
Contrary to what one might assume, no computers are involved in the workshops. They are about understanding basic informatics concepts at a young age. Tasks are age-appropriate, realistic, and playful to inspire fun and interest in computer science. The children learn to solve 2-3 tasks using logical thinking and problem-solving, delving into concepts that might seem complex even to adults: algorithms and data structures, parallel computing, artificial intelligence, and computer security. Read here for the full story.
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Florian Zuleger Wins Amazon Research Award
Florian Zuleger was awarded the Amazon Science Award 2022 for his project “ACUTE - Automated cost analysis of data structures”.
How data is organized and stored can have a significant impact on an application’s performance. This is where cost analysis comes into play: it is used to learn more about the efficiency of data structures, especially those on a large scale. Read more about the Award and Florian Zuleger’s work here.
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Would you like to share the latest updates about your institute to fellow IE members and professionals in informatics and related fields? Simply email the relevant news in brief to our Communication Specialist Kit Wan Chui to get featured in our Bulletin, LinkedIn and Twitter.
New Jobs @ Informatics Europe Job Platform
There are 23 new job ads 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!
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