The ECSS 2022 Committee follows all the German regulations related to the organization of public conferences. Neither the organizers (Informatics Europe together with the University of Hamburg, SICP, and GI) accept any responsibility derived from participants getting sick or injured in any manner during any of the activities organized around ECSS 2022.
Covid-19 Safety and Health Measures in Germany
Most covid related restrictions have been lifted in Germany. However, the use of FFP2 mask is mandatory in all public transports.
Please note that it is the responsibility of each participant to check regularly the entry and re-entry regulations for their countries of origin as well as for Germany (e.g. Federal Foreign Office webpage). In addition, we recommend obtaining valid health insurance and if applicable a travel cancellation insurance.
Travel Grants for Early Career Researchers
Informatics Europe proposed a limited number of travel grants, with a value of up to 150 EUR each, for Early Career Researchers willing to participate at the ECSS 2022, in its totality (24-26 October) or just at the Early Career Researchers Workshop (24 October), in Hamburg. Persons who submitted their statements for the poster session had priority in receiving funding support.
Interested researchers could send their application to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., mentioning if they intend to attend only the Early Career Researchers Workshop or the complete ECSS.
Grants were assigned by order of arrival, prioritizing those having submitted a short research statement for the poster session. Grant payment is subject to receiving proof of registration, travel and accommodation for the ECSS (e.g. transport ticket and registration confirmation email) and will be paid by bank transfer no later than 30 days after the event.
Accommodation
For the convenience of ECSS22 participants, a limited number of rooms were pre-booked at several hotels close to the conference venue from 23th to 27th October. To obtain the below negotiated rates, please book as soon as possible via phone or email mentioning “ECSS 2022”.
Address: Steindamm 102, 20099 Hamburg (3km from Hamburg Dammtor Station, 30 min by public transport from ECSS venue)
Tel: +49 40 41 92 497-0, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Members Spotlight
The Members Spotlight is offering an overview of the activities, programs and news from our Informatics Europe members to the broader Informatics Community. Would you like to get in the spotlight? Follow the instructions here.
Babeș-Bolyai University - Cyber Security Master's Programme
Eötvös Loránd University - Introducing the DigitalTech EDIH Hungary
Microsoft Research - Cambridge Residency Program
EUGAIN - Best Practices from PhD to Professor
Informatics Europe - Early Career Researchers Workshop 2021 Proceedings
Babeș-Bolyai University - Cyber Security Master's Programme
Digital transformation and informatics: how do they influence each other, and how can they be utilized to bring greater benefits to science, education, and society?
With this year’s main theme “Workforce for the Digital Transformation”, the 18th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS) 2022 addressed the key topic from different perspectives.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Anna Cox, University College London, UK, Digital Transformation for Work-Life Boundary Management [Slides]
Walter Quattrociocchi, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy, Information spreading in a disintermediated environment [Slides]
Judith Simon, University of Hamburg, Germany, IT for Good? Ethics in Computer Science Education & Practice [Slides]
Hannes Federrath, University of Hamburg / Former President of German Informatics Society, Germany Challenges and topics in Digital Transformation — from the viewpoint of a Computer Society [Slides]
Michael Müller Wünsch, CIO Otto (GmbH & Co KG), Germany, How to: Digital Literacy and Competence in our society [Slides]
Workshop Highlights
The ECSS panel on „Workforce for the Digital Transformation“ explored the relevance of computer science skills for understanding and shaping society and was facilitated by Tilo Böhmann (University of Hamburg, DE).
Judith Simon (Universität Hamburg) started the session by arguing that technology is never neutral from a values-based perspective. Geraldine Fitzpatrick (Technische Universität Wien) presented work of Anna Cox (University College London) on managing work-life boundaries in increasingly hybrid work environments. Walter Quattrociocchi (Sapienza Università di Roma) shared findings on spreading of (dis)information in social networks. Michael Müller-Wünsch (OTTO) highlighted the massive need for digital skills in our society. Finally, Hannes Federrath (Universität Hamburg and former President of the Gesellschaft für Informatik) explained how the German Association for Computer Science systematically engages policy, society, and professionals in on-going social debates on our digital future.
The lively discussion that followed highlighted the need for computer scientists to engage in societal discourse and policy shaping, bringing tech competence to bear on understanding current developments and crafting solutions for the future. If computer scientist refrain from these fields, other voices with less knowledge on the technical aspects of digital systems might dominate the debate, risking unsound design choices and misplaced expectations. The discussion thus called for a more systematic inclusion of ethical and policy-related aspects into computer science education, the sharing of best practices for teaching this area, and motivating computer scientist to engage in public discourse. All this was seen as an essential skill set for individuals in the context of digital transformation.
Judith Simon, University of Hamburg, Germany
Walter Quattrociocchi, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TU Wien, Austria
Michael Müller Wünsch, CIO Otto (GmbH & Co KG), Germany
Hannes Federrath, University of Hamburg/Former President of German Informatics Society
ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
Tilo Böhmann (University of Hamburg), Chair of the ECSS Main Theme Session
Panel Discussion with All Main Theme Keynote Speakers
Chair and Keynote Speakers of ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
*Please note that the photos above are better viewed when applying zoom out.
Presentation slides are available to download in the session rundown here.
Early Career Researchers Workshop
After a successful workshop last year, Informatics Europe organised once again the"Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers" which was held on Monday, 24 October, from 11:15 to 18:00 The goal of the workshop, organised by Dick Bultermann, CWI / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Sanaz Mostaghim, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, was to support early career researchers (PhD students and Postdocs) in the development of their soft skills related to presentation abilities, networking, developing a research plan, and connections to industry.
The workshop consisted of the following components:
A series of invited talks from industry and academic research leaders, who discussed career alternatives for early career researchers. Speakers included
Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Ante Vilenica, Justice department of Hamburg, Germany
The talks helped participants better understand some typical career paths for informatics researchers in various academic/public research/commercial sectors. It also included a panel-based Q&A session. After the talks, we interactively defined a number of break-out group topics for discussion in smaller groups.
A breakout session on the future of informatics researchers’ development and employment, wherein topics from the morning were discussed. Potential topics could be:
Career development opportunities across Europe;
Match between researchers’ career ambitions and those opportunities;
A SWOT analysis of opportunities in academia and industry (large and small).
Each group shared its findings at the end of the session. This provided a unique chance to help define the expectations of how talents can be attracted and deployed along the career path.
An employer feedback panel, wherein the morning’s academic and industry leaders got a chance to comment and reacted to the results of the breakout groups.
A poster session, as part of the ECSS welcome reception, wherein early career researchers were able to talk about their work with other attendees of ECSS.
Travel Grants
A limited number of travel grants, with a value of up to 150 EUR each, were available for Early Career Researchers willing to participate at the ECSS 2022, in its totality (24-26 October) or just at the Early Career Researchers Workshop (24 October). Persons who submitted their statements for the poster session had priority in receiving funding support. Learn more about the travel grants here.
Workshop Highlights
Here are the highlights of the five keynote speakers from academia and industry, who shared with us some typical career paths for informatics researchers in various sectors:
Patricia Lago (VU Amsterdam, NL) gave a comprehensive overview talk on the stages of professional development within the traditional academic career path. She spoke on the various global areas that needed attention (teaching, research, management), and shared her insights on where the focus of a person’s attention should be as they progress through the academic system. The bottom line was: yes, papers count heavily, but they are only part of the picture. [Slides]
Sebastian Gerling (University of Hamburg, DE) discussed the challenges of working in infrastructure-related academic positions, The focus here was less on short-term research projects and more on enabling the long-term research objective of the organization. There were a wide range of career opportunities available – either full- or part-time – that could help make systems-related research more aware of the needs of the marketplace. By combining theory with practice, junior researchers could grow in their understanding of where technology fails, where it needs to be enhanced, and how organizations can stay ahead of the infrastructure curve for their researchers. [Slides]
Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA-Rennes, FR) gave a more personal overview of the career choices he had made as a researcher in the telecom sector. With a career in commercial, military and academic organizations, he discussed the feelings that a young researcher had in larger organizations. Being an expert in a sub-discipline does not always provide the stimulation desired in a career if you have no peers around you. He also discussed the career paths within research institutes and the relative advantages/disadvantages over work at a university. Institutes often provide broad research freedom and the ability to focus completely on scientific problems, but this comes at the cost of being fully responsible for project funding and attracting colleagues. Here the bottom line was that the freedom of work in a research institute is exceptionally attractive, but sometimes having students who can work along on projects (at all levels) is pretty useful as well.
Ante Vilenica (Justice Department Hamburg, DE) provided the audience with an insight into career opportunities in the public sector, where societal problems (and societal constraints) provide a wealth of opportunities for personal and professional development. His focus was on supporting the Justice system, where the pace of integration of technical change can be slow, although the impact can be equally high. He discussed the challenges of rolling out projects at scale, with high impact and little room for error. He also discussed the needs that society has for attracting highly talented researchers to help in the transition to a more digital society. [Slides]
Gabriel Orsini (Otto, DE) outlined the challenges and opportunities of applied research within the commercial sector. He outlined how large organizations work and how scientists can help complex organizations navigate through an even more complex commercial world. He explained the pros and cons of working in hybrid teams, where interesting research challenges needed to be weighed against concrete commercial goals. [Slides]
Facilitated by Dick Bultermann (CWI/VU Amsterdam, NL), the workshop continued with a presentation of several participants answering the question “what are today’s researchers expecting to find when they enter the employment world?”. Room for personal development, access to people and a diverse working environment, the opportunity to visit peers elsewhere, and the ability to combine personal and professional growth are all important topics highlighted by participants. The workshop concluded with the keynote speakers’ reactions to these expectations.
Later that evening, several workshop participants were able to present posters on their research work at the ECSS opening reception.
Sebastian Gerling (University of Hamburg, DE) giving a talk at the Workshop
Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Outside the ECSS 2022 Venue
Ante Vilenica, Justice department of Hamburg, Germany
Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA, France
Panel Discussion with Keynote Speakers at Early Career Researchers Workshop
ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail Venue
ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail
Early Career Researchers Poster Session at ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail
Early Career Researchers Workshop Poster Session
Early Career Researchers Workshop Poster Session
Early Career Researchers Workshop Poster Session
Early Career Researchers Workshop Poster Session
Early Career Researchers Workshop Poster Session
*Please note that the photos above are better viewed when applying zoom out.
Presentation slides are available to download under the workshop schedule here.
National Informatics Associations Workshop - Open Science
This annual workshop, organised by Informatics Europe in collaboration with the National Informatics Associations (NIAs) in Europe, was open to all participants of ECSS 2022. The workshop was held on Wednesday, 26 October and co-chaired by Pekka Orponen, Aalto University, and Michael Goedicke, University of Duisburg-Essen.
The theme of this year’s Workshop was Open Science and the Future of Research Dissemination in Informatics. The Open Science movement is currently leading to deep changes in scientific practices across all fields of science. This transformation is fundamentally driven by the new modes of collaboration made possible by advances in Informatics, but what are the opportunities and expectations for Open Science within Informatics itself? In particular, how could we use this opportunity to improve the Informatics publication and data sharing practices?
The Workshop addressed this theme along three concrete topics, each with its own 90 min session chaired by the respective Task Force Chair of the Informatics Europe Working Group on Open Science. Here is some background information for the sessions:
Session 1 - Rethinking the Role of Informatics Conferences
The session discussed the prominent role played in informatics by conferences as means of research dissemination and how this may change in the future.
Conferences have always played a prominent role in research dissemination in informatics. Publishing in conferences is considered as a legitimate form of dissemination, as is publication in scientific journals. Publishing in premier conferences is a prestigious achievement, as is publication in a premier journal. In most other scientific areas, conferences have instead a lesser role in research dissemination. This has caused serious problems when research in different areas is evaluated and high quality work has to be recognized. The situation is further complicated by the proliferation of dissemination venues. While some consensus on the criteria to be used to objectively assess the quality of a journal are emerging, conferences are still mostly neglected. This is causing disconcert, especially in the young researchers.
While these problems have been traditionally recognized by the informatics research community, new problems entered the research diffusion landscape in the recent years. First, new publication models, which tend to blend conferences and journals, have been experimented by certain communities. Second, the recognition that dissemination not only concerns papers, which describe the findings of a given research, but, increasingly, also artifacts (such as tools, prototypes, datasets, etc.). Third, the awareness of the need for sustainable research dissemination models, which point to negative impact of conferences on the carbon footprint.
Session 2 - Open access publication models for Informatics
The aim of the Open Access (OA) publishing model is to allow readers to openly access research results. As such, it is expected to have a strong impact and make profound changes in scientific publishing. The main objectives of OA are, among others, to improve dissemination on a global scale, to make research outputs accessible to people who do not have access to paywall-based distribution systems, to enhance knowledge transfer, to make the research process more transparent to the taxpayer, and to make research results perpetual.
Despite their recognised advantages, the successful implementation and adoption of the various OA models is not free from problems. For example, shifting publication costs from readers to authors introduces a financial bias. In the platinum model, where no one seems to pay, the costs are effectively swept under the carpet because the efforts, infrastructure and organisational costs are borne pro-bono by volunteers or by the community behind the journal. The golden model can also introduce some unethical practices, such as inflating publication figures, squeezing review processes, or putting pressure on editors, therefore artificially increasing the entropy of the overall system. Transformation agreements, which aim to provide fair compensation to publishers, do not solve these problems either. Furthermore, despite the increasing adoption of the DORA declaration, many institutions and research review panels may still not give proper credit to publications in diamond or platinum open access venues that do not have a well-known publisher. Finally, there remains a significant lack of awareness among academics of the OA approach and its publishing models.
All these issues need to be addressed by the community, and workable solutions need to be discussed. Additionally, we need to identify further risks and challenges both in the adoption of any of the existing open access models or in any change we propose to them.
We are particularly interested in solutions to alleviate the problems that the implementation of OA publication models currently have, the risks that the introduction of these solutions may have, and, in general, how to improve the transition from the subscription-based system to a full OA model.
Alfonso Pierantonio, Mark van den Brand, Benoit Combemale. “Open Access: all you wanted to know and never dared to ask,” Journal of Object Technology, Volume 19, no. 1 ( 2020), pp. 1-4, doi:10.5381/jot.2020.19.1.e1.
Van Noorden, R. (2013). "Open access: The true cost of science publishing," Nature 495 (27 March 2013), 426-429. https://doi.org/10.1038/495426a
Session 3 - Open Data and Research Data Management in Informatics
Open data has become a general requirement for various areas of our daily life - not only as scientists but also for the general public. We would like to focus on the influence of open data for the daily scientific routines and the way scientific findings are documented and published in a transparent way. The field of research data management (RDM) is one important element to achieve such transparency and is a specific disciplinary and transdisciplinary collection of methods, routines, practices, tools and infrastructures supporting the so-called FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) [1]. In order to gain worldwide adoption in a structured and systematic way, RDM for computer science needs coordination also at an international level. This means agreed metadata standards, processes and interoperation protocols need to be defined and implemented to support those FAIR principles. Informatics Europe plans to support related activities by reaching out to members and associations for exchange and integrating national activities at the international level. The aim is to define common interests, necessary processes and agreement on standards of metadata, interoperation protocols, etc.
The work initiated at the workshop will be pursued further in three Task Forces under WG Open Science, with the following goals: a white paper on the future of Informatics conferences and quality indicators for the conference publishing process (TF Conference Maturity Model); an analysis and position paper on Open Access publishing approaches, in particular the rapidly growing pay-to-publish model (TF Open Access); and a proposal for a common metadata scheme to support research data interoperability in Informatics (TF Research Data Management).
In general, the tensions between indicator-based and qualitative research assessment were raised several times at the workshop, and the workshop commissioned from IE a descriptive report on best practices in research assessment across Europe, to be compiled in collaboration with the NIAs. All participants and the community-at-large were also encouraged to sign the COARA Agreement for reforming research assessment.
Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Roberto Di Cosmo, Inria / Software Heritage, France
Laurent Romary, IRISA, France
Welmoed Spahr, Apress/Spring Nature Books Group, presenting at the Open Science Workshop
Michael Goedicke, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Workshop Chairs and Keynote Speakers of "Open Science and the Future of Research Dissemination in Informatics" Workshop, co-organized with National Informatics Associations
*Please note that the photos above are better viewed when applying zoom out.
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
"Workforce for the Digital Transformation - Attracting and Retaining Female Students from Bachelor and Master to PhD"
The EUGAIN COST Action organised the WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop (a full-day workshop) on 26 October 2021, as part of the ECSS 2022. This workshop was a follow-up of the previous WIRE Workshops (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) and WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop (2021) and open to all ECSS 2022 participants as well as invited EUGAIN members. The workshop was chaired by Karima Boudaoud, Université Côte d’Azur, Barbora Buhnova, Masaryk University, and Letizia Jaccheri, NTNU.
The workshop focused on digital transformation and informatics from a gender point of view. With digital transformation, it will be crucial to increase the number of women in informatics and even attract and encourage women from other disciplines to informatics.
After focussing last year on how to attract and retain female students from School to University, this year the workshop, looked at how to encourage female students from Bachelor and Master programmes to pursue a PhD. Therefore, the main goals of the workshop this year were to:
Understand the impact of digital transformation on gender in informatics;
Highlight the activities and outcomes of EUGAIN’s working groups;
Give the words to young researchers, particularly PhD students, to understand what has attracted them in informatics and pushed them to continue studies until Master degree and then start a PhD;
Present some outputs from the 1st EUGAIN Training School;
Invite the European Champions in gender equality in informatics to share their best strategies and experiences to attract and retain female girls and women in academia;
See from a perspective of science how to progress in more scientific approach when dealing with gender balance in informatics
Involve in the debate all the other actors concerned: policy makers, industry, academia, organisations and associations dealing with gender balance.
Workshop Highlights
This year's workshop attracted around 80 participants and 20 speakers around the world, with the theme “Workforce for the Digital Transformation - Attracting and Retaining Female Students from Bachelor and Master to PhD” consisting of six sessions.
In the first session, chaired by Özge Misirli (Eskisehir Osmangazi University, TR), the current achievements and plans of the individual Working Groups of the EUGAIN COST Action CA19122 on “European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics” were presented and discussed. [Slides] As part of this session, a group of young researchers introduced their proposal for one of the deliverables of the Action. Karolina Bolesta (Warsaw School of Economics, PL), Serena Versino (Università di Pisa, IT), Irene Zanardi (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH), and Young Researcher and Innovator Coordinator Anna Szlavi (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO) have designed a video featuring short interviews to promote IT, as well as EUGAIN, to young people in Generation Z.
The workshop continued with the second session “European Champions in Gender Equality in Informatics”, chaired by Simona Motogna (Babeş-Bolyai University, RO), where we could learn from the best practices towards gender balance in informatics departments across Europe, with presentations by Daniela Nicklas (University of Bamberg, DE) [Slides], Svetlana Hensman (TU Dublin, IE) [Slides], Laura Kovács and Gerti Kappel (TU Wien, AT) [Slides], and Anne Siegel and Nicolas Markey (IRISA, FR) [Slides].
In the third session, we enjoyed a nice networking activity under the coordination by Maria Roussou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR) and Barbora Buhnova (Masaryk University, CZ). Then, we continued in the fourth session a panel discussion with the speakers from the second session, with numerous insightful points guiding the audience towards improving gender balance in informatics institutions.
In the fifth session, we heard inspirational stories of path towards PhD from EUGAIN young researchers and investigators, Karolina Bolesta (Warsaw School of Economics, PL) [Slides], Serena Versino (Università di Pisa, IT) [Slides], Sonay Caner-Yildirim (Erzincan Binali Yildirm University, TR) [Slides], Irene Zanardi (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH) [Slides], and Sunny Miranda (University of Coimbra, PT) [Slides].
The workshop concluded with the sixth session, where Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic (Chalmers University of Technology, SE) presented her inspirational journey to the current research topics in the intersection of technology and ethics. [Slides]
Networking at ECSS 2022
Networking at ECSS 2022
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop Chairs
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
Zeynep Şahin Timar, Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
Panel discussion with the European Champions
Sharing at EUGAIN Workshop
Sharing at EUGAIN Workshop
Karolina Bolesta (Warsaw School of Economics, PL) & Monica Landoni (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH) at EUGAIN Workshop Session 5
Serena Versino (Università di Pisa, IT) & Monica Landoni (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH) at EUGAIN Workshop Session 5
Sonay Caner-Yıldırım, Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Turkey
Irene Zanardi (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH) presenting at EUGAIN Workshop Session 5
*Please note that the photos above are better viewed when applying zoom out.
Presentation slides of the workshop can be download here.
European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN) - COST Action 19122
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.
Every year special sessions are dedicated to Informatics Europe (IE) members to strengthen their networks and participate actively in the main decisions regarding the strategy for IE's future development. In these special sessions, you can learn about our latest activities and outcomes. This year the IE special sessions were held on Tuesday, 25 October and included:
Dialogue with Members - Informatics Europe Activities and Outcomes where the progress and important outcomes of Informatics Europe Working Groups and High-Level activities were presented. [Slides]
Informatics Europe General Assembly, where members voted for Board elections and approval of financial reports and budget.
ECSS 2022 - Highlights
The much-awaited 18th edition of the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2022) returned as a full in-person event on 24-26 October in Hamburg, Germany. Hosted by the University of Hamburg and co-organised by GI - German Informatics Society and SICP - Software Innovation Campus Paderborn, Informatics Europe (IE) welcomed informatics research and education leaders from public and private institutions, as well as policymakers, at ECSS 2022 with this year’s main theme “Workforce for the digital transformation”.
A special session for new IE members in 2022 was held before the official opening of ECSS 2022. Participants were welcomed by Enrico Nardelli, IE President, and Nuria Anguera, IE Executive Director, followed by an overview of IE activities and member benefits, as well as an icebreaking session where new members got to know each other and exchange ideas of contributions and collaborations with IE.
Following the special session, ECSS 2022 was officially opened by Norbert Ritter, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences at the University of Hamburg (DE), Enrico Nardelli, IE President, and a special video welcome addressed by Bettina Stark-Watzinger, German Federal Minister for Education and Research.
After the ceremony, ECSS 2022 kickstarted with the following sessions:
Leaders Workshop
Organised by Harald Gall (University of Zurich, CH) and with a focus on “Workplace Culture and Digital Dexterity”, the workshop covered several interactive sessions.
In the morning, Laura Giurge (London School of Economics and Political Science, GB) shared some of her latest research on the future of work, with an interactive and engaging talk with the audience. Topics were around the downsides of flexible work hours, the well-being implications of how we engage with technology at work, and last but not least, how leaders who acknowledge well-being along with productivity can lead more financially resilient organizations. These talks formed the basis for the afternoon sessions to be followed in a hands-on style.
In the first afternoon session, Laura Giurge together with Jennifer Sparr (University of Zurich, CH) invited the audience to reflect on how they allocate one of our most precious resources – time – and to analyze one of the most salient tensions in leadership, namely the tension between needing to be flexible with one’s schedule while also needing to plan one’s time to accomplish core leadership tasks. Through a mini time-audit exercise and a polarity map exercise, participants learned that leaders need and can be both flexible and strict with their time.
Concluding the workshop, Schahram Dustdar (TU Vienna, AT) addressed digital leadership from an ecosystem perspective in the second afternoon session. He described leadership as an ecosystem, in which everything relates in some form to everything with varying levels of sensitivity. He discussed challenges of the research landscape and how disruption is needed to adapt to the rising expectations of leadership in the digital age.
Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers
For the second year in a row, this Workshop was held during ECSS with the intention to help early career researchers navigate the options of the post-study employment world.
This year, five keynote speakers from academia and industry shared with us some typical career paths for informatics researchers in various sectors:
Patricia Lago (VU Amsterdam, NL) gave a comprehensive overview talk on the stages of professional development within the traditional academic career path and shared her insights on where the focus of a person’s attention should be as they progress through the academic system.
Sebastian Gerling (University of Hamburg, DE) discussed the challenges of working in infrastructure-related academic positions, where a wide range of career opportunities are available. They help make systems-related research more aware of the needs of the marketplace.
Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA-Rennes, FR) gave a more personal overview of the career choices he had made as a researcher in the telecom sector. With a career in commercial, military, and academic organizations, he discussed the feelings that a young researcher had in larger organizations, as well as the possible career paths within research institutes, and the relative advantages/disadvantages over work at a university.
Ante Vilenica (Justice Department Hamburg, DE) provided the audience with an insight into career opportunities in the public sector, where societal problems (and societal constraints) provide a wealth of opportunities for personal and professional development.
Gabriel Orsini (Otto, DE) outlined the challenges and opportunities of applied research within the commercial sector. He explained the pros and cons of working in hybrid teams, where interesting research challenges needed to be weighed against concrete commercial goals.
Facilitated by Dick Bultermann (CWI/VU Amsterdam, NL), the workshop continued with a presentation of several participants answering the question “what are today’s researchers expecting to find when they enter the employment world?”. Room for personal development, access to people and a diverse working environment, the opportunity to visit peers elsewhere, and the ability to combine personal and professional growth are all important topics highlighted by participants. The workshop concluded with the keynote speakers’ reactions to these expectations.
Later that evening, several workshop participants were able to present posters on their research work at the ECSS opening reception.
Main Theme – “Workforce for the Digital Transformation”
Facilitated by Tilo Böhmann (University of Hamburg, DE), the second day of ECSS 2022 started with the Main Theme session exploring the relevance of computer science skills for understanding and shaping society.
Judith Simon (University of Hamburg, DE) started the session by arguing that technology is never neutral from a values-based perspective. Geraldine Fitzpatrick (TU Wien, AT) presented work of Anna Cox (University College London, GB) on managing work-life boundaries in increasingly hybrid work environments. Walter Quattrociocchi (Sapienza University of Rome, IT) shared findings on the spreading of (dis)information in social networks. Michael Müller-Wünsch (OTTO, DE) highlighted the massive need for digital skills in our society. Finally, Hannes Federrath (University of Hamburg and former President of the German Informatics Society, DE) explained how the German Association for Computer Science systematically engages with national policy, society, and professionals in ongoing social debates on the digital future.
The session continued with a lively discussion highlighting the need for computer scientists to engage in societal discourse and policy shaping, bringing tech competence to bear on understanding current developments and crafting solutions for the future. The discussion called for a more systematic inclusion of ethical and policy-related aspects into computer science education, the sharing of best practices for teaching this area, and motivating computer scientists to engage in public discourse. All this was seen as an essential skill set for individuals in the context of digital transformation.
Education Workshop
The Workshop started with a presentation of activities of the Informatics for All coalition, including a presentation of the Informatics Reference Framework for School published earlier this year. The reference framework is a proposal for a coherent vision and shared terminology related to providing informatics to all pupils in Europe, as requested by the European Commission.
A key part of the workshop was a presentation by Sonia Piedrafita Tremosa of the Eurydice report Informatics education at school in Europe. The report marks a milestone for the Informatics for All coalition's endeavours to promote informatics as a fundamental discipline for the 21st century: (1) it is the first time 'informatics' is used in the title of an official document from the European Commission, and (2) the reference framework is systematically used to analyse learning outcomes in 39 education systems in the 27 EU member states and 10 other Erasmus+ countries.
The workshop finished with an activity identifying challenges related to implementing the two-tier strategy of Informatics for All, and people volunteering to work on some of these challenges through IE’s Education Research Working Group.
Societal Impact of Digital Transformation Workshop
The Workshop was held with the goal to discuss the societal impact of digital transformation by focusing in particular on ethical aspects in software development, as well as on how to include ethical aspects in educational programs.
In the first part of the workshop, Alexander Pretschner (TU Munich, DE), spoke about methods to include ethical aspects in methodical approaches for the development and operation (DevOps) of software solutions. In particular, he introduced the approach “Ethics in Agile Software Development” as a workable alternative to existing ethical guidelines or frameworks.
In the second part of the workshop, Dympna O'Sullivan (TU Dublin, IE), presented the results of the Ethics4EU project. Funded by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership, this project developed new curricula, best practices, and learning resources for teaching digital ethics to computer science students.
Finally, a panel with the two speakers, and additionally Andrea Curley (TU Dublin, IE) and Suzanna Alpsancar (Paderborn University, DE), discussed the presentations and derived questions in an extensive exchange with the audience. They discussed topics such as how to integrate computer ethics modules into computing curricula in the higher education context, whether teaching ethics contributes to people acting in an ethical manner, and whether teaching ethics to computer science students is sufficient.
Several activities for the IE working group on Ethics were discussed at the workshop, such as adding new teaching building blocks and case studies to the Ethics4EU outcomes, organizing an IE webinar series, a summer school, or even a joint Marie-Curie network project. People interested in contributing and discussing these topics were invited to join this working group chaired by Dympna O’Sullivan.
Awards Session
At each ECSS we celebrate institutions and teams who have outstanding contributions to informatics in the aspects of education and gender balance.
This year we were pleased to announce at our special award ceremony that Technocamps, from Wales (UK), won the IE 2022 Best Practices in Education Award sponsored by Microsoft, for its contribution to improve the quality of Informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline.
The IE 2022 Minerva Informatics Equality Award sponsored by Google was devoted to gender equality initiatives and policies to develop the careers of female faculty, including retention and promotion, and had two winners, the Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien (Austria), and the Gender-equality and Anti-harassment Committees at IRISA and Inria Center of University of Rennes (France). A special runner-up recognition was also given to Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London (UK) for their submission to this year’s Minerva Informatics Equality Award with their WE-CARE (Women Empowerment – Careers and Recognition) programme.
Joining us at the ceremony this year was Jens Redmer, representative of Google. Being IE’s industry member and sustaining sponsor, Google has been the loyal sponsor of Minerva Award since its establishment in 2016. To celebrate the exceptional award entries, Google has generously doubled this year’s prize to a total of EUR 10,000, where each winner received a prize of EUR 5,000 to carry on their excellent initiatives.
Dialogue with Members - Informatics Europe Activities and Outcomes
Every year a special session is held during ECSS, where we present updates of IE’s main activities and outcomes, and offer feedback opportunities for IE members to propose and contribute in IE strategy. This year the special session was held on Tuesday, 25 October, afternoon.
We began the session by welcoming the 14 new members who joined the organization in the past 12 months, as well as Karin Triviere, who joined our IE Office in June as Executive Assistant. Presentations of our main working groups followed: Research in Education, Ethics, Diversity & Inclusion, Policy Recommendations, Sustainability, Open Science. Chairs of each working group presented the groups’ progress and outcomes since their launch in Spring. We reminded the audience that IE Working Groups are exclusively open to IE members, who are encouraged to actively contribute in proposing and jointly developing activities to strengthen the European Informatic community.
We also gave reviews and updates of our IE services in particular the online and residential academic leadership courses, presented by Geraldine Fitzpatrick, one of the course facilitators, and the department evaluation service, which we have relaunched in 2022 with the Evaluation of our member institute: Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University (FI MU) in Czech Republic. More good news about our European projects were reported: Grant Holder Management of the EUGAIN COST Action enters the 3rd year, the Erasmus+ Ethics4EU reached its end in the summer and its successor, Inclusion4EU, has been granted and will start shortly. Additionally, a new service was announced: the CV repository service will be launched in early 2023, aiming at bringing together the students from our member institutions with top employers. Our members were reminded on the importance to support IE by disseminating our activities in their networks, making use of our services, and bringing more peer institutions and colleagues on board.
To conclude the day, the IE Annual General Assembly was held, where members voted for three new Board Directors: Marco Aiello (University of Stuttgart, DE), Lenuta Alboaie („Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, RO), and Dimka Karastoyanova (University of Groningen, NL), effective for a three-year term from January 2023 to December 2025. Through members’ voting, the financial report 2021, the provisional budget 2023, and changes to IE’s bylaws were also approved.
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop was held as one of the parallel workshops on the final day of ECSS 2022. It attracted around 80 participants and 20 speakers from around the world. This year’s workshop theme was “Workforce for the Digital Transformation - Attracting and Retaining Female Students from Bachelor and Master to PhD” and it consisted of six sessions.
In the first session, chaired by Özge Misirli (Eskisehir Osmangazi University, TR), the current achievements and plans of the individual Working Groups of the EUGAIN COST Action CA19122 on “European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics” were presented and discussed. As part of this session, a group of young researchers introduced their proposal for one of the deliverables of the Action. Karolina Bolesta (Warsaw School of Economics, PL), Serena Versino (Università di Pisa, IT), Irene Zanardi (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH), and Young Researcher and Innovator Coordinator Anna Szlavi (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO) have designed a video featuring short interviews to promote IT, as well as EUGAIN, to young people in Generation Z.
The workshop continued with the second session “European Champions in Gender Equality in Informatics”, chaired by Simona Motogna (Babeş-Bolyai University, RO), where we could learn from the best practices towards gender balance in informatics departments across Europe, with presentations by Daniela Nicklas (University of Bamberg, DE), Svetlana Hensman (TU Dublin, IE), Laura Kovács and Gerti Kappel (TU Wien, AT), and Anne Siegel and Nicolas Markey (IRISA, FR).
In the third session, we enjoyed a nice networking activity under the coordination of Maria Roussou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR) and Barbora Buhnova (Masaryk University, CZ). Then, we continued in the fourth session a panel discussion with the speakers from the second session, with numerous insightful points guiding the audience toward improving gender balance in informatics institutions.
In the fifth session, we heard inspirational stories of the path toward PhD from EUGAIN young researchers and investigators, Karolina Bolesta (Warsaw School of Economics, PL), Serena Versino (Università di Pisa, IT), Sonay Caner-Yildirim (Erzincan Binali Yildirm University, TR), Irene Zanardi (Università della Svizzera italiana, CH), and Sunny Miranda (University of Coimbra, PT).
The workshop concluded with the sixth session, where Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic (Chalmers University of Technology, SE) presented her inspirational journey to the current research topics in the intersection of technology and ethics.
National Informatics Associations “Open Science” Workshop
The Role of Informatics Conferences, featuring talks by Carlo Ghezzi (Politecnico di Milano, IT) and Stefano Paraboschi (Gruppo di Ingegneria Informatica/University of Bergamo, IT);
Open Access Publication Models for Informatics, featuring talks by Roberto Di Cosmo (Inria/Software Heritage, FR), Laurent Romary (IRISA, FR), and Welmoed Spahr (Apress/Spring Nature Books Group);
Open Data and Research Data Management in Informatics, featuring a talk by Michael Goedicke (University of Duisburg-Essen, DE).
The work initiated at the workshop will be pursued further in three Task Forces under WG Open Science, with the following goals: a white paper on the future of Informatics conferences and quality indicators for the conference publishing process (TF Conference Maturity Model); an analysis and position paper on Open Access publishing approaches, in particular the rapidly growing pay-to-publish model (TF Open Access); and a proposal for a common metadata scheme to support research data interoperability in Informatics (TF Research Data Management).
In general, the tensions between indicator-based and qualitative research assessment were raised several times at the workshop, and the workshop commissioned from IE a descriptive report on best practices in research assessment across Europe, to be compiled in collaboration with the NIAs. All participants and the community at large were also encouraged to sign the COARA Agreement for reforming research assessment.
ECSS 2023 in Edinburgh, UK
The next Summit, ECSS 2023, will be hosted by the School of Informatics, University of Edinburg, UK. It will be again a unique opportunity to join your international peers to debate the future of Informatics and contribute to a stronger European informatics community.
Save the dates on your calendar: ECSS 2023, 23-25 October 2023 – we look forward to welcoming you again in the annual European Computer Science Summit next year!
To revisit the ECSS presentations, please check out the slides now available to download on our conference schedule webpage. Individual highlights and workshop photos* are also available under respective workshop/session pages.
*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.
Special session for New (2022) Informatics Europe Members
ECSS 2022 Reception Desk
ECSS 2022 Tote Bag
ECSS 2022 Video Welcome Address by Bettina Stark-Watzinger, German Federal Minister for Education and Research
Norbert Ritter, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg
Leaders Workshop
Sebastian Gerling, CDO University of Hamburg, Germany
Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Outside the ECSS 2022 Venue
Ante Vilenica, Justice department of Hamburg, Germany
Leaders Workshop's Afternoon Session
Interactive Session at Leaders Workshop
Coffee Break
Enjoying ECSS 2022
Networking at ECSS 2022
Schahram Dustdar , TU Wien, Austria
Panel Discussion with Keynote Speakers at Early Career Researchers Workshop
IE Board Directors and Leaders Workshop's Keynote Speakers
ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail Venue
Arriving at ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail
ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail
Early Career Researchers Poster Session at ECSS 2022 Welcome Cocktail
ECSS participants learning about IE's Academic Leadership Development Courses from Geraldine Fitzpatrick, the Course Facilitator
Judith Simon, University of Hamburg, Germany
Walter Quattrociocchi, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
Chairs and Keynote Speakers of Societal Impact of Digital Transformation Workshop
Michael Müller Wünsch, CIO Otto (GmbH & Co KG), Germany
ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
Networking at ECSS 2022
Networking at ECSS 2022
Chair and Keynote Speakers of ECSS 2022 Main Theme Session
Sonia Piedrafita Tremosa, European Education and Culture Executive Agency
Education Workshop
Education Workshop
IE President, Keynote Speaker and Chairs of Education Workshop
Enrico Nardelli, Informatics Europe President
Dympna O’Sullivan, TU Dublin, Ireland
IE Board Directors at ECSS 2022 Informatics Europe Special Session
Nuria Anguera, Informatics Europe Executive Director Presenting at IE's Special Session
Award Ceremony of Best Practices in Education Award 2022
Jens Redmer, Google Representative at Award Ceremony of Minerva Informatics Equality Award 2022
Award Ceremony of Minerva Informatics Equality Award 2022
ECSS 2022 Official Dinner
ECSS 2022 Official Dinner
ECSS 2022 Official Dinner
Enrico Nardelli, IE President at ECSS 2022 Official Dinner
ECSS 2022 Official Dinner
Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop Chairs
Roberto Di Cosmo, Inria / Software Heritage, France
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
Laurent Romary, IRISA, France
"Open Science and the Future of Research Dissemination in Informatics" Workshop co-organized with National Informatics Associations
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
WIRE-EUGAIN Workshop
Workshop Chairs and Keynote Speakers of "Open Science and the Future of Research Dissemination in Informatics" Workshop, co-organized with National Informatics Associations
