Poster Session

Expand the reach of your research and gather diverse feedback with the support of Informatics Europe.

As we mark 20 years of Informatics Europe, this year’s ECSS poster session welcomed poster submissions from all levels of Informatics researchers, expanding beyond PhD students in previous years, and offering enriched knowledge exchange and networking opportunities for everyone.

Submissions were reviewed and accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, with the guidelines below.

Early Career Researchers

All submissions made for the DS will be automatically considered for an in-person presentation in the poster session. If you wish to be considered for the poster session only, please

submit via "PDWECR2024" EasyChair,
choose the option "Poster Session" in the part "Other Information and Files" at the bottom of the EasyChair form,
provide the title and abstract,
and if already available, upload the poster in PDF format.

Submissions made to PDWECR2024 are reviewed by Early Career Researchers Workshop Chairs.

All accepted submissions for PDWECR2024 are required to participate in the Early Career Researchers Workshop, and may be requested to submit additional information in order to be considered for the publication of post-proceedings.

Submissions not conforming to our guidelines will be rejected without consideration.

Submission Deadline: Sep 15
Submissions received after that will be accepted based on space availability.

Research Showcase for All

Submit via "RSPS2024" EasyChair including the title, abstract and, if available, the poster in PDF format. These submissions are reviewed by ECSS 2024 Conference Chairs.

All levels of informatics researchers are welcome.
Any research areas of Informatics and related disciplines are welcome.

Submission Deadline: Sep 15
Submissions received after that will be accepted based on space availability.

Notification of acceptance to Poster Session: around 2 weeks following the date of submission, and no later than 30 Sep.

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.

General Terms and Conditions

These General Terms and Conditions are valid for each attendee registered for ECSS 2024 held by Informatics Europe (hereafter referred to as “IE”) as an in-person Summit in Malta between 28-30 October 2024. Any registered person is considered an attendee.

Registration

The registration deadlines, fees and registration link for ECSS 2024 are as presented on the Summit website. The registration will only be confirmed upon receipt of payment in full.

Data Protection and Sharing of Contact Details

The collection and processing of personal data will comply with the current EU regulation “GDPR”. When entering your data into the online registration form, we collect this data from you to process your registration to ECSS 2024. The data is secured from unauthorized access. Since the GDPR is based on an agreement, you can request to delete your data at any time.
When you register for ECSS 2024, you agree that we handle your registered data in the informatics-europe.org server. IE will use this data for the preparation and execution of ECSS 2024, including communicating with attendees and obtaining feedback in regards to ECSS 2024. In doing so, we may share contact details of attendees with employees of IE, ECSS 2024 service provider(s), the ECSS 2024 Committees and, when consent has been provided during registration, with other participants. IE will not sell or disclose your personal information to other third parties without your consent.

In case of data protection inquiries, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by email.

Registration Fees and Payment

ECSS 2024 registration fees are as advertised on the website and can be paid by credit card or bank transfer in Euro (EUR).
IE will issue an invoice detailing the amount due
- following the full registration payment made by credit card, or
- to the attendee with a payment deadline of 14 days from the invoice date.
Registration fees must be paid within the period communicated in the registration system/invoice. Any bank charges incurred during the payment process are the responsibility of the attendee. Payment must be made in full for the registration to be confirmed. Otherwise, IE reserves the right to cancel the registration.
A payment confirmation will be emailed to the attendee’s registered email address in due course.

Letter of Invitation

Attendees requiring an official Letter of Invitation can request one from ECSS 2024 General Organising Committee. The request can be made via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. using the email address provided for your ECSS 2024 registration. The Letter of Invitation does not financially obligate IE in any way. All expenses incurred in relation to the ECSS 2024 attendance are the sole responsibility of the attendee.

Visa Requirements

It is the sole responsibility of the attendee to take care of their visa requirements. Attendees who require an entry visa must allow sufficient time for the application procedure. Attendees should contact the nearest embassy or consulate to determine the appropriate timing of their visa applications.
The ECSS General Organizing Committee can provide a letter of invitation to registered attendees for visa application purposes (see the above procedure). The ECSS General Organizing Committee will not directly contact embassies and consulates on behalf of visa applicants.

Certificate of Attendance

A Certificate of Participation will be issued by IE to all attendees participated in ECSS 2024.
Each attendee will receive a soft copy of the Certificate via email around 10 working days after ECSS 2024. Only soft copies will be issued.

Cancellation by the Participant

The paid ECSS registration fee minus an administration fee of EUR 30 will be refunded if cancellations are notified to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before the end of the early bird registration period. The refund will be issued by the original method of payment.
No refund request will be considered after the end of the early bird registration period. However, a request can be made to transfer a registration to another participant, who will take over the booked arrangements in full. Please send your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. using the email address provided for your ECSS 2024 registration, including the full name and email address of the nominated substitute. A EUR 30 administration fee will be charged for any name change request.
Refunds will not be given for unattended events or early termination of attendance. In cases of cancellations due to personal matters after the cancellation deadline, please consult your personal insurance.

Modification of ECSS 2024 Programme

IE reserves the right to modify the programme, which is published as an indication only. No refunds will be granted in case the programme changes (including change of speakers).

Cancellation by Informatics Europe

IE reserves the right to cancel or postpone ECSS 2024 due to events beyond the control of ECSS 2024 Committees. The cancellation will be communicated to participants on the website and by email without delay.
In that case, IE reserves the right to reimburse the attendees after deducting costs already incurred for the organisation of ECSS 2024 which could not be recovered from third parties. The refund will be made to the attendees by the original method of payment.

Insurance and Other Costs

Attendees of ECSS 2024 are responsible for purchasing the appropriate insurances (including but not limited to civil liability, accident and health insurance) for the entire ECSS 2024 period.
Attendees shall assume all the costs associated with their participation in ECSS 2024 (including but not limited to accommodation, travel, and living expenses).
ECSS 2024 strongly recommends all attendees get full travel insurance coverage.
IE cannot be held liable by attendees for any damages, costs or financial losses incurred, such as transportation costs, accommodation costs and so on. Attendees are recommended to book refundable or changeable options to mitigate potential issues.

Intellectual Property Rights

IE, the ECSS 2024 speakers and/or presenters retain the copyright and intellectual property rights on their information, documents, files, presentations, and other content shared during ECSS 2024 and on the ECSS 2024 website.

Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, IE, its Board of Directors, Executive Committee Members and employees shall not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential damages of any kind, loss of profits and/or loss of data arising from and in connection with the participation in ECSS 2024. The liability of commissioned service provider(s) shall remain unaffected by this. Participation in ECSS 2024 is voluntary and at attendees’ own risk.
Oral agreements shall not be binding if these have not been confirmed in writing by IE.
IE does not warrant the adequacy, accuracy and/or completeness of the information presented during ECSS 2024 and published thereafter on the ECSS 2024 website.
Attendees are responsible for their own safety and belongings during ECSS 2024. By registering for ECSS 2024, you waive any claims against the organisers arising from participation.

Acceptance of the General Terms and Conditions

These General Terms and Conditions shall manage your attendance to ECSS 2024 and will be applied fully and affect your ECSS 2024 attendance.
IE reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions at any time. Registered attendees will be notified of such amendments. Attendees which do not accept these General Terms and Conditions shall inform the ECSS 2024 General Organizing Committee This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. within 14 days after the notification of the amended General Terms and Conditions. IE may exclude attendees, who do not accept the amended General Terms and Conditions of ECSS 2024.
These regulations have been entered into force on 17 June 2024.

Green ICT and ICT for Green Workshop

Chaired by the Green ICT Working Group Chair Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart, the workshop was held on Tuesday afternoon, 29 October.

Open to all participants, the workshop consisted of invited talks and a panel to address topics of ICT energy accountability, management, and optimization, on the one hand, and topics of using ICT for reducing energy usage, on the other hand.

Workshop Rundown, Slides & Highlights

Speaker bios and abstracts are available on the ECSS speakers page by clicking their photos.

Read the workshop highlights here.

13:00 - 14:00 Panellists' sharing

"On Sustainability Metrics and Indicators" [Slides]
by Rafael Capilla, Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain)
"The Green Challenge: Sustainable High-Performance and Quantum Computing" [Slides]
by Brian Keegan, TU Dublin (Ireland)
"Towards Sustainable Software Engineering" [Slides]
by Mikkel Baun Kjaergaard, University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
"SADP: Sustainable Application Design for Greener Applications in the Cloud" [Slides]
by Monica Vitali, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
"Evaluating the Energy Efficiency of Cloud-Native Applications and Platforms" [Slides]
by Sebastian Werner, TU Berlin (Germany)

14:00 - 15:00 Open discussion with panellists, moderated by Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart (Germany)

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.

IE Community Highlights '24 Submission Requirements

As an exclusive benefit to our members, we offer the possibility to distribute printouts about your institution free-of-charge at the ECSS reception desk. We also offer members the possibility to publish these materials virtually on a special section of our ECSS 2024 website, called IE Community Highlights.

Examples of materials include:

flyers describing academic programs
announcements of conferences, seminar series, summer schools...
calls for papers
announcements of new books or other publications
calls for joint proposals
generally anything that fits within the mission and goals of Informatics Europe and can be of interest to ECSS participants.

In order to take advantage of this benefit, we accept submission via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. according to the following instructions:

(for virtual materials, by Oct 15th)

a PDF document, for publishing and be downloaded on our IE Community Highlights webpage, AND
a JPG/PNG image of the cover, as the front image of your document on the gallery; it must have the following dimensions: 500 (horizontal) x 625 (vertical) pixels.

Important note: these two files must have a concise self-referring name consisting of maximum 7 words (e.g.UZH-Informatics-Department-Flyer; UCLouvain-CS-Master-Program-Flyer, etc.)

(for physical materials to be distributed at the ECSS 2024 venue in Malta)

By Oct 2nd: an electronic copy (PDF/JPG) of the material you’d like to include. The materials should be a single sheet, A4 or smaller unless otherwise agreed.
By mid October: no more than 100 printed copies of the document delivered to Malta by post, with exact amount required and delivery address confirmed by email.

Seize the opportunity to promote your activities to the ECSS 2024 participants now!

IE Community Highlights

The IE Community Highlights offers an overview of activities, programs, and news from both our Informatics Europe members and the association itself to the broader Informatics Community. Want to be featured? Follow the instructions provided here.

Become an ECSS Host

Become a Sponsor of ECSS

Informatics Europe Flyer

Informatics Europe Ambassador - We Want YOU!

Your Engagement Overview with Informatics Europe

Academic Leadership Online Course (Spring 2025)

Bespoke Academic Leadership Course

Call for IE Board Nominations

Department Evaluation Service

Join IE Working Groups

EUGAIN - Policy Recommendations for Gender Balance in Informatics

EUGAIN - Best Practices from School to University

EUGAIN - Reasons to Become an Informatics Student

EUGAIN - Best Practices from Bachelor/Master Studies to Ph.D.

EUGAIN - Best Practices from PhD to Professor

EUGAIN - Career Planning and Mentoring

Informatics Europe - Open Access: Status and Recommendations

Informatics Europe - Recommendations on the Use of AI in Informatics Education

Informatics for All Coalition - Informatics Reference Framework for School

Become an ECSS Host

Download
Become a Sponsor of ECSS

Download
Informatics Europe Flyer

Download
Informatics Europe Ambassador - We Want YOU!

Download
Your Engagement Overview with Informatics Europe

Download
Academic Leadership Online Course (Spring 2025)

Download
Bespoke Academic Leadership Course

Download
Call for IE Board Nominations

Download
Department Evaluation Service

Download
Join IE Working Groups

Download
EUGAIN - Policy Recommendations for Gender Balance in Informatics

Download
EUGAIN - Best Practices from School to University

Download
EUGAIN - Reasons to Become an Informatics Student

Download
EUGAIN - Best Practices from Bachelor/Master Studies to Ph.D.

Download
EUGAIN - Best Practices from PhD to Professor

Download
EUGAIN - Career Planning and Mentoring

Download
Informatics Europe - Open Access: Status and Recommendations

Download
Informatics Europe - Recommendations on the Use of AI in Informatics Education

Download
Informatics for All Coalition - Informatics Reference Framework for School

Download

Keynotes Session

In honor of Informatics Europe's 20th anniversary, we were pleased to welcome distinguished speakers to deliver keynote speeches at ECSS 2024 during a special session dedicated to 'Reflecting on the Past and the Future of Informatics in Europe'. Our keynote speakers were accompanied by Informatics Europe's former Presidents for a panel discussion following the keynote, where they shared their perspectives on the technical advancements in Informatics over the past 20 years and its ongoing societal impact.

This session was held on Tuesday, 29 October and was chaired by current IE President Jean-Marc Jézéquel from IRISA / University of Rennes and former President Enrico Nardelli from the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata'. The audience was presented with an inspiring session exploring how we, as the Informatics Europe community, can collaborate to advance Informatics research and education, and advocate for policies that foster positive and sustainable changes through Informatics across Europe.

Workshop Rundown, Slides & Highlights

Read the workshop highlights here.

08:30 - 08:45 Opening

Anne-Marie Sassen, Head of Unit "Programme Managers Office" at European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency [Slides]

08:45 - 10:00 Keynote Speakers Session

Mark Harman, Meta Platforms Inc. and UCL (UK), on "Assured LLM-Based Software Engineering" [Slides]
Dorothea Wagner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (Germany), on "Teaching Politics" [Slides]

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 - 12:00 Panellists Session

Lynda Hardman, CWI (the Netherlands) & Utrecht University (the Netherlands)
Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
Enrico Nardelli, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' (Italy)

Speaker bios and abstracts are available on the ECSS speakers page by clicking their photos.

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.

Early Career Researchers Workshop

Informatics Europe aims to nurture talent and cultivate a diverse pool of future leaders with a broad understanding of the discipline. As part of this effort, we organised again at ECSS 2024 the "Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers" on Monday, 28 October. The workshop was chaired by Dimka Karastoyanova, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and Irene Vanderfeesten, KU Leuven (Belgium).

ECRWS 2024

This year’s workshop focused on mentoring and support for PhD Students and PostDocs on their paths to academic careers. The workshop program covered subjects like what opportunities there are for a career in academia and what steps are necessary to establish a sustainable career path through several presentations on these topics. We also gave the floor to PhDs who recently completed successful PhD projects to share insights and experiences about their paths. Furthermore, a selected ongoing PhD student project was presented during the Doctoral Symposium (DS), where a panel of senior researchers provided feedback and guidance, as well as in individual mentoring sessions to presenters. Last but not least, participants got a chance to exchange insights with their peers and further develop their support network.

The accepted paper, selected by a peer-review process based on the DS paper submission, was presented in form of poster at the poster session, to be held during the closing day cocktail event with all ECSS participants. The accepted paper was also invited for in-person presentation during the DS session of this workshop at ECSS 2024. All accepted papers for the DS and poster session will also be considered for publication in the post-proceedings. Read all submission guidelines here.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: 28 Jul (for DS), 15 Sep (for poster session, after that date subject to space availability)
Notification of acceptance to Poster Session: 2-3 weeks following the date of submission, and no later than 30 Sep
Notification of acceptance to DS: mid Sep
Camera-ready paper: 10 Nov

Download WS Poster

Workshop Rundown, Slides & Highlights

Speaker bios and abstracts are available on the ECSS speakers page by clicking their photos.

Read the workshop highlights here.

11:00 - 11:05 Welcome and Introduction

11:05 - 12:30 Session 1: Navigating a Research Career in Academia

Presentations dedicated to insights that would support PhD Students and Postdocs in identifying the best practices in obtaining the skills, networks and tools to navigate the different stages of their career development – from a PhD position, through post-doctoral research to an assistant professor position.

Featured talks:

"A PhD is not Enough: How to Prepare for a Career in Academia" by Dimka Karastoyanova, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) [Slides]
"Eight Reading Suggestions for Young Scientists: A Personal Recommendation" by Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart (Germany) [Slides]
"On the Importance of Interdisciplinary Research for Informatics Careers" by Gregor Engels, Paderborn University (Germany) [Slides]

12:30 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 16:00 Session 2: What makes a PhD Project a Success?

Several presentations were given by recent PhD graduates, who shared their insights and experience about their PhD projects, what kind of support they had received from their supervisors, organization, support activities, and peer network, and what had helped them navigate through the ups and downs of a PhD trajectory. At the end of the session, a plenary discussion with the presenters took place.

Featured Talks by 2024 Best Dissertation Award Finalists:

Tim Quatmann, PhD graduate from RWTH Aachen University (Germany) [Slides]
Currently: Tenured Lecturer, RWTH Aachen University (Germany)
Tobias Röddiger, PhD graduate from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
Currently: Research Group Leader, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
Michael Sammler, PhD graduate from Saarland University and Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (Germany) [Slides]
Currently: Post-Doc, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 -18:00 Session 3: ECSS Doctoral Symposium

The Doctoral Symposium (DS) was a forum of exchange organized to encourage Informatics PhD students to present their early work and exchange ideas with other researchers in an interdisciplinary discussion. Senior researchers provided feedback on the work and advice on organizing and managing research projects. The DS was also a place to establish a social network with the peers from different fields of Informatics research. In addition, there was an opportunity to engage with industry participants interested in this domain.

We encouraged submissions from PhD students at an early stage of their research project, i.e., typically in their first or second year. The choice of research methodology depends on the Informatics field that is at the focus of the PhD project and using a variety of research methodologies from other fields, including design and behavioural science methodologies, was encouraged.

A submission to the DS should clearly describe the motivation, goals, expected results and the research approach taken. Participants were expected to actively discuss their work by reading each other's work prior to the Symposium, giving a presentation at the Symposium, debating together, and listening to senior researchers' feedback.

19:00 - 22:00 Welcome Cocktail including the Poster Session

Featured Posters:

"A Framework for Integrating Patient Generated Health Data (PGHD) with Electronic Health Records (EHR) in a Fast Health Care Interoperability Resource (FHIR) supported EHR System", presented by Abdullahi Abubakar Kawu, TU Dublin (Ireland) [Poster]
"Context aware analysis and optimization of software energy efficiency at application level", presented by Romain Lefeuvre, Inria (France)
"Environmental Sustainability in Business Process Management – Approach and Realisation", presented by Michel Medema, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) [Poster]
"Fake Papers in Science: Paper Mills, Characteristics and Detection Strategies", presented by Andreas Nürnberger, Otto von Guericke Univerisity Magdeburg (Germany) [Poster]
"Design Strategies for explainable AI: 12 guiding design principles for human-centered XAI", presented by Helen Sheridan, TU Dublin (Ireland) [Poster]
"Enhancing Industry 5.0 Processes: Prioritizing Wellbeing with Smart Task-Worker Assignment", presented by Irene Vanderfeesten, KU Leuven (Belgium) [Poster]

Submission Guidelines for Doctoral Symposium

To participate at the DS, students should submit a paper of 6 pages (including references) that should cover the following aspects:

The context and goal of the research;
The scientific problem addressed in the research project. This problem must be justified or substantiated by means of observations from practice, case studies, observations from the business practice, and can be further refined in terms of research questions and hypotheses;
Earlier works that have addressed the same or similar problems. In particular, explanations why the problem is not yet solved (i.e. limitations, open issues and controversies) should be underlined;
The proposed approach and the research methodology followed to address the problem at hand;
The expected results, and any result that has already been obtained so far;
A plan for the evaluation/validation of results;
Scientific and/or Societal impact expected.

Formatting Instructions

Papers should be written in English, following Springer LNBIP style - including all text, references, appendices, and figures.
For formatting instructions and templates, see the Springer webpage. All submissions must be made in PDF format.

Only submissions from PhD students will be considered for the DS. All submissions made for the DS will be automatically considered for an in-person presentation in the poster session.

Submit via "PDWECR2024" EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pdwecr2024

Submissions not conforming to our guidelines will be rejected without consideration.

Submission Guidelines for Poster Session

All submissions made for the DS will be automatically considered for an in-person presentation in the poster session. If you wish to be considered for the poster session only:

submit via "PDWECR2024" EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pdwecr2024
choose the option "Poster Session" in the part "Other Information and Files" at the bottom of the EasyChair form,
provide the title and abstract,
and if already available, upload the poster in PDF format.

Those with accepted ECRWS poster submissions are required to participate in the ECRWS, and may be requested to submit additional information to be considered for the publication of post-proceedings.

Submissions not conforming to our guidelines will be rejected without consideration.

*A limited number of slots are reserved for the Poster Session's Research Showcase, which is open to non-PhD students. Check here for separate submission guidelines.

Selection Process

Papers will be evaluated by at least three members of the DS Committee using the following criteria:

technical quality, clarity, soundness, precision, novelty and adequacy of the problem statement, related work, self-contained and feasible method description, realistic expected results and sensible evaluation plan.
overall quality.

Please note that all accepted DS papers will be invited to publish their work in post-proceedings (more details to be announced soon) and will be accepted for in-person presentation in the ECSS 2024 poster session. The best papers will be invited for in-person presentation during the DS session of the ECR Workshop at ECSS 2024.

All DS and poster session applicants will be notified of their submission results individually.

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.

Early Career Researchers Workshop

National Informatics Associations WS

Informatics Europe annually organises a workshop in collaboration with the National Informatics Associations (NIAs) in Europe. This year it was held on Wednesday, 30 October, with the title "AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice" and chaired by Pekka Orponen, Aalto University (Finland), Manuel Carro, Technical University of Madrid/IMDEA Software Institute (Spain) and Heri Ramampiaro, NTNU (Norway).

The two morning sessions at this year’s workshop continued the discussion initiated at last year’s meeting on the impact the dramatic GenAI developments are having on Informatics education, extending this now also to the changing competence needs in the industry. The discussion was primed by a number of short viewpoint presentations from the National Informatics Associations and industry representatives.

A third session presented for community discussion the updated IE/NIA report on Recommendations for Informatics Research Evaluation, as prepared by a joint IE/NIA task force established in response to the deliberations at last year’s workshop. (The earlier 2018 report is available to IE members on the Informatics Europe website.)

The workshop was open to all ECSS participants.

Workshop Rundown, Slides & Highlights

Speaker bios and abstracts are available on the ECSS speakers page by clicking their photos.

Read the workshop highlights here.

09:00 - 10:30 Session 1: AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice

Josep Fernandez, CODDII - Conferencia de Directores y Decanos de Ingeniería Informática / Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain), on "Shaping the Revolution: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Education in Spanish Universities"
Rosa Meo, GRIN - GRuppo di INformatica / University of Torino (Italy), on "Some experiences of the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education" [Slides]

10:15 - 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 - 12:30 Session 2: AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice (cont’d)

Alexiei Dingli, University of Malta (Malta), on "THE SILENT TAKEOVER - AI’s Dramatic Role in Redefining Academic Norms" [Slides]
Stefano Paraboschi, GII - Gruppo di Ingegneria Informatica / Università degli Studi di Bergamo (Italy), on "AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice - Status in Italy" [Slides]
Heri Ramampiaro, NTNU (Norway), on "AI in research and education in the LLM era: The Norwegian perspectives" [Slides]

12:30 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:30 Session 3: Recommendations for Informatics Research Evaluation

Discussion on Informatics Research Evaluation, Revised Report (Draft) [Slides]

15:30 - 16:00 Summary and next steps

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.

NIAs Workshop

Informatics Europe Sessions

Every year special sessions are dedicated to Informatics Europe (IE) members to strengthen their networks and actively engage in key decisions regarding IE's strategic direction. These special sessions provide insights into our latest activities and achievements. This year, we offered:

Community Corner at the Leaders Workshop: This session focused on discussing multidisciplinarity and long-term sustainability within Informatics Europe. We fostered an open dialogue about the role IE can play in these areas to better serve the community in the coming decades. [Slides]
Informatics Europe General Assembly: IE members participated in Board elections and voted on the approval of financial reports and the budget.

ECSS 2024 - Highlights

The 20th European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS 2024) took place from October 28-30 in Malta, marking a major milestone in its 20th anniversary. The Summit brought together leaders in informatics, research, policy, and industry.

Ahead of the official opening, a special Informatics Europe introductory session was led by its President Jean-Marc Jézéquel and Executive Director Nuria Anguera, welcoming new members and greeting those interested in revisiting IE's initiatives and membership benefits.

Following this, Conference Co-Chairs Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA/University of Rennes, France) and Enrico Nardelli (University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy), officially inaugurated ECSS 2024, launching the full three-day program:

Leaders Workshop

This year, ECSS once again began with the Leaders Workshop, a dedicated session introduced in 2019 for leaders across the Informatics community, including deans, department heads, lab directors, and team-leading researchers.

This year's workshop addressed the growing imperative for Informatics to drive interdisciplinary collaboration across research fields. Three renowned speakers Sasu Tarkoma (University of Helsinki, Finland), Gert Jervan (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia) and Alessandro Bozzon (TU Delft, the Netherlands) offered insights into this theme from the perspectives of research, education, and sustainability, sparking lively and engaged discussions among participants from over 20 countries. Together, we explored relevant issues, best practices, pitfalls, and the distinctions between mono-, multi-, cross-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approaches — each demanding a unique level of integration and cooperation among fields. The resulting dialogue underscored Informatics’ potential as a key enabler for innovation at the intersections of diverse disciplines, but also some of the challenges emerging when researchers in Informatics are involved in interdisciplinary research, but their work is still evaluated based on the parameters of their monodisciplinary research areas.

To build on these discussions, the workshop chairs will soon release a comprehensive report that will encapsulate the core presentations, key debates, and insights generated. This document will first be circulated among participants for feedback, to be subsequently refined and published as a foundational resource. In the spirit of continuous progress, this initiative aims to evolve into a focused set of guidelines and best practices for conducting interdisciplinary research in Informatics, spanning education, research, and essential societal challenges like sustainability.

By sharing such knowledge and fostering collaboration, IE is committed to shaping the future of interdisciplinary Informatics research and education.

Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers

This year’s ECR workshop featured four dynamic sessions, including talks, discussions, and a poster showcase. Three senior researchers offered practical advice for progressing in academia, covering topics from building a strong CV to embracing interdisciplinary work. Dimka Karastoyanova (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) provided strategies for post-PhD career planning and preparation, while Marco Aiello (University of Stuttgart, Germany) recommended thought-provoking books on topics like the philosophy of science, the science of science, AI’s impact on the job market, and sustainability, all aimed at fostering reflection and broadening research perspectives. Gregor Engels (Paderborn University, Germany) wrapped up by engaging the audience in a discussion on the innovative potential of interdisciplinary approaches, encouraging participants to expand their networks and consider the application context of their research.

After a networking lunch with ECSS attendees, IE Best Dissertation award finalists Tim Quatmann (RWTH Aachen University, Germany), Tobias Röddiger (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), and Michael Sammler (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) shared personal insights on successfully completing their PhDs. They highlighted curiosity, mentorship, support networks, resilience in the face of rejection, and strategic career planning as essential success factors. Later, during the Doctoral Symposium, Romain Lefeuvre (Inria, France) presented his research on optimizing software energy efficiency at the application level, sparking a lively discussion on the remaining methodological challenges in his project.

The day concluded with a poster session at the welcome cocktail, where seven participants presented their research and gathered feedback from ECSS attendees. Overall, the day was marked by engaging discussions, practical career advice, and substantial and welcome interest from senior attendees in exploring how institutions can better support early career researchers.

Keynotes Session – “Reflecting on the past and the future of Informatics in Europe”

The keynote session was introduced by a short address from Anne-Marie Sassen, Head of Unit "Programme Managers Office" at European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency. She outlined her experience in Informatics in Europe involving project officer roles related to software engineering and digitalisation of industry, and currently focusing on deep tech and breakthrough innovation through the EIC. Building on Mario Draghi’s report highlighting the need for Europe to close the innovation gap with the US and China, particularly in advanced technologies, Anne-Marie Sassen presented the EIC Work Programme 2025 focusing on deep tech and breakthrough innovation, particularly in strategic technologies like advanced semiconductors and AI that are most relevant for Informatics Europe’s community.

Mark Harman (Meta Platforms Inc. and UCL, UK), presented his views on "Assured LLM-Based Software Engineering", with a focus on using LLM for unit test generation and improvement. It brilliantly illustrated how academic works can nicely blend into industry and have a major impact on the state of the practice in a large company such as Meta.

Dorothea Wagner (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany) then presented a different kind of impactful activity with her talk on "Teaching Politics". Reaching out to policymakers takes a lot of time and effort, and involves a number of pitfalls: different goals and priorities, different understanding of terms, different knowledge. Dorothea Wagner highlighted that our task as scientists is to deal with it, so much that teaching is a main part of our job anyway. She showed remarkable achievements with several recommendations with respect to data-intensive research, sovereignty and security of science in the digital space and training teachers.

Following the keynote presentations, IE President Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA / University of Rennes, France) moderated a panel with past IE presidents Carlo Ghezzi (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), Lynda Hardman (CWI & Utrecht University, the Netherlands) and Enrico Nardelli (University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy), who shared insights on Informatics Europe’s journey, growth, and mission. They highlighted Informatics Europe's distinctive role in uniting and amplifying the voice of Informatics research and academia across Europe, emphasizing the need for sustained collaboration in building and strengthening this voice. The panelists advocated for a European approach to Informatics that integrates technological, cultural, and human values, urging the community to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, resilient leadership, and pan-European initiatives that reflect Informatics’ social responsibility. They concluded by inviting the community to actively promote and embody Informatics Europe's values, sharing its impact within their institutions and broader networks.

Cultivating Diversity: Integrating Inclusive Design into Informatics Education Workshop

Diversity and Inclusion is one of IE main interests. The workshop organized by Dympna O'Sullivan (TU Dublin, Ireland) and Simona Motogna (Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania) was received with great interest with participants from all across Europe.

The first part of the workshop was dedicated to presentations of European projects targeting inclusion and diversity: the Inclusion4EU project was presented by Dympna O’Sullivan and focused of the latest results of the project, discussing the results of the survey related to the awareness and importance of inclusive design as part of Software Engineering curricula. Simona Motogna presented the EUGAIN project, centering the presentation on how the entire Informatics community can use the results and deliverables of the project to address the gender gap in thir communities. Antinisca di Marco from University of L'Aquila (Italy) presented the initiatives targeting gender balance in SoBigData project.

The second part of the session was an interactive session facilitated by Claudia Rivera, Svetlana Hensman and Helen Sheridan from TU Dublin. Participants were divided into small teams and asked, under supervision, to assess the strength and weaknesses of some assistive technology devices, and conducted through co-design to propose solutions for their inclusive usability and functionality.

While the EUGAIN COST Action, initiated by Informatics Europe, concluded successfully in October 2024, workshop participants were invited to join the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, where active work and community building on informatics D&I continues. Final outcomes of the Inclusion4EU project will be shared through the project webpage and IE’s communication channels in 2025.

Green ICT and ICT for Green Workshop

This year’s workshop on Green ICT at ECSS featured a series of concise talks from leading European experts, culminating in a panel discussion with interactive public engagement. Key insights and takeaways offer a roadmap for those eager to drive sustainability in Informatics.

Rafael Capilla (Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain) underscored the importance of selecting the right metrics and KPIs to effectively evaluate and manage energy use within complex software systems. Brian Keegan (TU Dublin, Ireland) addressed data center management challenges, highlighting the lifecycle concerns of outdated infrastructure and the future energy demands. As an example, he illustrated how Ireland’s data centers could soon consume up to a third of the national energy supply, shifting even more its identity from Europe’s “green country” to the “data center of Europe.” Turning to system design, Mikkel Kjærgaard (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark) shared insights and examples on energy-efficient engineering, cautioning that intuition often misguides where energy drains occur, thus requiring precise design thinking of strategic power load placement. Monica Vitali (Politecnico di Milano, Italy) focused on sustainable software practices, noting that service quality improvements can sometimes compromise sustainability goals. Sebastian Werner (TU Berlin, Germany) further expanded on this by examining system variability’s impact on energy unpredictability. His research compared architectural models, showing that monolithic structures, while challenging to scale, can be more energy-efficient than modern microservices architectures, prompting a reflection on system architecture in sustainability efforts.

In the discussions following these presentations, several critical themes emerged. It’s clear that energy efficiency and sustainability are becoming core priorities also in Informatics. However, unresolved tensions persist—between sustainability and profitability, sustainability and quality of service, and sustainability and its measurement. While these tensions may not have immediate solutions, they mark essential areas for further research and collective action.

The community is invited to engage in these ongoing discussions and join IE's Green ICT working group to collaborate on sustainable computing solutions, balancing environmental responsibility with technical advancement.

Awards Ceremony

During each ECSS, we celebrate institutions, teams and individuals who have outstanding contributions and performances in the field of Informatics.

This year, we were delighted to announce at our award ceremony that Tobias Röddiger, a PhD graduate from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) won the 2024 IE Best Dissertation Award (BDA), with two runners-up Tim Quatmann, PhD graduate from RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and Michael Sammler, PhD graduate from Saarland University and Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (Germany).

In collaboration with COST Action EUGAIN, the IE 2024 Minerva Informatics Equality Award (MIEA), sponsored by Google, acknowledged efforts and dedication from initiatives that support women in Informatics education and research. This year we celebrated the winner "the International Women´s Degree Programme in Computer Science" at Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and two runners-up:

the Steering Committee of “Alice & Eve: a celebration of women in computing” initiative;
the Women in Information and Computing Sciences (WICS) network and the ICS diversity committee at Utrecht University.

For further details on the work of this year’s winners or previous years’, please explore our BDA & MIEA webpages.

Informatics Education Workshop

This year's Workshop constituted an important milestone in an ongoing IE project to produce a report on Academia/Industry Collaboration in Higher Education. The report will summarise the status quo of collaboration practices across Europe, highlight best practices, and present recommendations for industry and university departments.

The workshop aimed to scope the report, collect and discuss topics for inclusion, start up a work process, and present an opportunity for conference participants to join the project.

Six topics were highlighted in short presentations:

"Recommendations of the GI for Conducting Student Thesis Papers in Industry" by Jan Vahrenhold for Jörg Desel, German Informatics Society (Germany)
"What is an Industrial PhD in Spain? - Rules and Regulations for Doctoral Studies in Spain" by Ana Belen Gil, University of Salamanca (Spain)
"Industrial Guest Lectures - Reflections on Experiences" by Kim Mens, Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
"Capstone Projects" by Jan Vahrenhold, University of Münster (Germany)
"Advisory Boards - Case Study: King's College London Informatics Department" by Michael Kölling, King's College London (UK)
"Case Study: Software Innovation Campus Paderborn" by Gregor Engels, Paderborn University (Germany)

The presentations were followed by lively discussions of individual topics and a collection of suggestions from workshop participants. Perspectives were expressed from a number of different kinds of institutions and stakeholders.

Eleven workshop participants expressed interest to join the continued work of the project, and to be involved in the research work necessary to produce the report. The next meeting of the A/I Collaboration subgroup will be at the Online Education Research Working Group Meeting on 11 Nov 2024.

National Informatics Associations “AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice” Workshop

AI in Informatics Education and Professional Practice: The first two sessions of the annual workshop organized by IE's National Informatics Associations (NIA) addressed the impact the dramatic GenAI developments are having on Informatics education and the changing competence needs in the industry. Short viewpoint presentations were given by Alexiei Dingli (University of Malta, Malta), Josep Fernandez (CODDII and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain), Rosa Meo (GRIN - Gruppo di Informatica and University of Torino, Italy), Stefano Paraboschi (GII -Gruppo di Ingegneria Informatica and Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy), and Heri Ramampiaro (NTNU, Norway).
Following up on the presentations and the inspired discussions at the workshop, a short proposal for a framework to be used in assessing the use of AI in Informatics education will be prepared, and a small task force will be set up to collect best practices and formulate recommendations in this area. The task force will report on their work at ECSS 2025.

Recommendations for Informatics Research Evaluation: The third session of the workshop presented for community discussion a newly revised report on Recommendations for Informatics Research Evaluation. This document, prepared by a panel of IE Board and NIA representatives, builds on and updates the 2008 and 2018 IE reports on Research Evaluation for Informatics while aligning its recommendations with other recent documents on research evaluation, most notably the CoARA Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (2022). The report also contains updated analyses and recommendations in four topical areas of concern in Informatics: the responsible use of bibliometrics and credit assignment in contributions, assessing artefacts, Open Science, and interdisciplinary research, together with a discussion on the role of AI in research evaluation.

The valuable suggestions for improvements raised at the workshop discussion will be integrated into the final version of the document, which will be sent out for approval by IE's NIA members at the beginning of December, and will be published as an IE Report in early 2025.

The ECSS presentations, slides, and posters are now accessible for download on both our conference schedule and individual session pages.

ECSS 2025 in Rennes, France

The next Summit, ECSS 2025, will take place in Rennes (France), co-hosted with IE member institute IRISA. 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.

We warmly welcome you to become our ambassador and contribute to the growth of our community for enhanced collaborations in informatics and related fields. We would therefore reward you with complimentary registration to attend the next ECSS for any successful referral of new IE members within six months of your introduction.

Save the dates on your calendar: ECSS 2025, 27-29 October 2025 – we look forward to welcoming you and your colleagues again in our annual flagship summit next year!

*Please note that the photos below are better viewed when applying zoom out.