Technocamps, pan-Wales STEM outreach programme founded and based at Swansea University and with a hub in every single university in Wales, UK, is the winner of the Informatics Europe 2022 Best Practices in Education Award. The 2022 Award was devoted to educating the workforce for the digital transformation and was presented during the 18th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2022), an in-person event in Hamburg, Germany. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission. 

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  EUR 5,000.

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Education Working Group and of the Award Committee are not eligible. The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Ismael García-Varea, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Spain (Chair)
• Letizia Jaccheri, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
• Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA / University of Rennes, France
• Kim Mens, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
• Lili Nemec Zlatolas, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Violetta Lonati, University of Milan, Italy

Click here for the 2022 Call for submissions.

The project "Master of IT" submitted by a Coordination Committee on behalf of Aalborg University, Aarhus University and University of Southern Denmark is the winner of the Informatics Europe 2020 Best Practices in Education Award. The 2020 Award was devoted to outstanding European Informatics educational initiatives that promote lifelong education in Informatics as a mean to reduce the talent gap and was presented during the 16th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2020) held online in October 2020. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  EUR 5,000.

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Education Working Group and of the Award Committee are not eligible. The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy (Chair)
• Ismael García-Varea, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
• Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA / University of Rennes, France
• Michael Kölling, King's College London, UK
• Monica Landoni, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
• Gabriela Marcu, University of Michigan, US

Click here for the 2020 Call for submissions.

The program is CyberChallenge.IT, which was submitted by CINI Cybersecurity National Laboratory from Italy is the winner of the Informatics Europe 2021 Best Practices in Education Award. The 2021 Award was devoted to outstanding European Informatics educational initiatives in the domain of Cybersecurity, understood in a broad sense, including related questions such as user empowerment and control of personal data, and digital legal education (right to be forgotten, freedom of speech, anonymity versus trust and security, crowdsourcing versus legacy manufacturing, etc.). The 2021 Award was presented during the 17th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2021), a hybrid event in Madrid and online. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  EUR 5,000.

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Education Working Group and of the Award Committee are not eligible. The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA / University of Rennes, France (Chair)
• Ismael García-Varea, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
• Gabriela Marcu, University of Michigan, US
• Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Alexander Pretschner, TU Munich, Germany
• Lili Nemec Zlatolas, University of Maribor, Slovenia.

Click here for the 2021 Call for submissions.

The project 'Tinkering in Informatics as a Teaching Method' submitted by Dr. Angelika Mader, Dr. Ansgar Fehnker and Dr. Alma Schaafstal from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Twente, Netherlands is the winner of the Informatics Europe 2018 Best Practices in Education Award. The 2018 Award was devoted to outstanding European educational innovation that transforms Informatics teaching in the classroom or beyond, at school or university level, or outside of institutions and was presented during the 14th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2018) in Gothenburg, Sweden, October 2018. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

(From left to right: Michael Kölling, Angelika Mader, Enrico Nardelli)

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  EUR 5,000

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

The Award Committee reviews and evaluates each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Michael Kölling, King's College London, UK (Chair)
• Michal Armoni, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
• Tim Bell, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Peter Hubwieser, Technische Universität München, Germany
• Peter McOwen, Queen Mary University of London, UK
• Arnold Pears, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
• Jan Vahrenhold, Universität Münster, Germany

Click here for the 2018 Call for submissions.

There are two winners of the Informatics Europe 2019 Best Practices in Education Award dedicated this year to outstanding European Informatics educational initiatives that promote the inclusion and development of different student groups such as the elderly, immigrants or people with functional diversity. One of the two ex-aequo honoured projects is Welcome.TU.code, which was submitted by Doctor Nysret Musliu and Professor Reinhard Pichler on behalf of the Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien, Austria. The other ex-aequo honoured project is the Erasmus+ InventEUrs project - Inventors4Change (I4C), as a joint venture of Eduard Muntaner-Perich, Mireia Frigola-Fortià and Jordi Freixenet from University of Girona as well as Safia Barikzai from London South Bank University and Valentina Poggioni and Alfredo Milani from University of Perugia. The Award was presented during the 15th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2019) in Rome, Italy, October 2019. Learn more about the winners here and read the winning Award submissions (Welcome.TU.code and InventEUrs project).

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  EUR 5,000

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible. The Award Committee reviews and evaluates each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Letizia Jaccheri, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway (Chair)
• Michal Armoni, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
• Tone Bratteteig, University of Oslo, Norway
• Sharon Lynn Chu, University of Florida, US
• Michael Kölling, King's College London, UK
• Monica Landoni, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
• Gabriela Marcu, University of Michigan, US
• Jan Vahrenhold, University of Münster, Germany

Click here for the 2019 Call for submissions.

Class’Code, an open participative training solution for members of the educational and informatics communities in France is the winner of Informatics Europe 2017 Best Practices in Education Award. It helps introducing young people to the concept of algorithms, computational thinking and thus allow them to have control over the digital world from an early age. On the picture, Colin de la Higuera, chairman of Class’Code Steering Committee, and Unesco Chair for open educational resources at Nantes University, and Benjamin Ninassi, Chief engineer at INRIA, received the award from Evelyn Viegas (Microsoft) at the special ceremony held on 24 October 2017, as part of the European Computer Science Summit. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

About the Informatics Europe 2017 Best Practices in Education Award 

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of 5,000.

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible. The 2017 edition of the award was devoted to curriculum and professional development initiatives for making Informatics education available to all.

Award Committee:

• Jan Vahrenhold, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Chair)
• Mordechai Ben-Ari, Weizmann Institute of Science
• Michael E. Caspersen, Aarhus University
• Kathi Fisler, Brown University
• Lisa Kaczmarczyk, Lisa Kaczmarczyk PhD Consulting LLC
• Aiko Pras, University of Twente

 Click here for the 2017 Call for submissions.

The ALaDDIn project, proposed by Carlo Bellettini, Violetta Lonati, Dario Malchiodi, Mattia Monga, Anna Morpurgo and Massimo Santini, from the ALaDDIn working group at the Computer Science Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, is the winner of the 2016 Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award. The Award was presented during the 12th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2016) in Budapest, Hungary, October 2016. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

(From left to right: Michael E. Caspersen,  Anna Morpurgo, Mattia Monga, Lynda Hardman)

 The 2016 Award is devoted to curriculum and professional development initiatives that promote Informatics in schools as a mandatory subject for all students. Initiatives at the (upper) secondary level are particularly encouraged. The Award honors original contributions that focus on teaching Informatics fundamentals in schools. Experiences on using software or hardware tools to improve learning in other disciplines than Informatics are not considered.

About the Informatics Europe 2016 Best Practices in Education Award 

The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of  5,000

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Award Committee:

• Michael E. Caspersen, Aarhus University (Chair)
• Gerard Berry, Collège de France
• Muffy Calder, University of Glasgow
• Judith Gal-Ezer, The Open University of Israel
• Mark Guzdial, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Lauri Malmi, Aalto University
• Carsten Schulte, Paderborn University
• Letizia Tanca, Politecnico di Milano

Click here to reach the 2016 Call for submissions.

Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools

October 2015 - Award Winner and Ceremony at the ECSS 2015 in Vienna

The winner of the Informatics Europe 2015 Best Practices in Education Award is the Bebras "International Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking", proposed by Prof. dr. Valentina Dagiene (Vilnius University, Lithuania) and dr. Wolfgang Pohl (BWINF, Germany) on behalf of the Bebras community. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

The Award, organised annually by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft Research, was presented at a special ceremony held in Vienna, Austria, during the 2015 European Computer Science Summit, where the award winner presented the impact of their project. “Microsoft is proud to sponsor this award." says Judith Bishop, Director of Computer Science, Microsoft Research. "Involving children in all aspects of computing early on is the best way to ensure that they will continue in the discipline as a career.”

Bebras is an international initiative organising an easily accessible and highly motivating on-line contest to promote computational thinking with teachers, pupils and the general public. Founded in Lithuania in 2004, it has grown rapidly to attract over 900,000 participants in 24 European and nine other countries around the world. “The Bebras community was selected for the tremendous success the project has seen in increasing awareness and encouraging positive attitudes towards Informatics at school across many countries,” comments Steve Furber, Professor at the University of Manchester and Chair of this year`s Award Committee.

The Award winner was selected from ten outstanding award nominations. “We have been particularly impressed by the quality of the nominations and the vibrant and diverse initiatives they describe aimed at promoting Informatics in schools”, mentions Steve Furber. Honourable Mentions were given to two further projects:

• The ALaDDIN working group in Milano, Italy, also part of the Bebras community.
• The PLAN C (Professional Learning and Networking in Computing) project in Scotland.

The winner and honourable mentions were selected by a prominent team of international experts in an evaluation process that ran from March to August 2015.  

August 2015 - Winner selected

The winner of the 2015 Best Practices in Education Award was selected by the experts of the award committee, chaired by Professor Steve Furber, Professor at the University of Manchester. The winning project will be publicly announced at the ECSS 2015 in Vienna, during a special Award Ceremony, where the award winner will present the impact and results of their project.

 March 2015 - Call for Participation

Informatics Europe proudly announces its 2015 Best Practices in Education Award devoted to initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools.

The Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award recognizes outstanding European educational initiatives that improve the quality of informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline, and can be applied and extended beyond their institutions of origin.

The 2015 Award focuses on curriculum initiatives promoting informatics in schools as a mandatory subject for all students. The Award will reward a successful teaching effort in Europe that:

• has made a measurable difference in informatics education in schools
• is widely applicable and useful for the teaching community
• has made a measurable impact in its original institution and beyond it

The Award will honor original contributions that outline successful initiatives for teaching informatics fundamentals in schools. Experiences and reports on how to use software or hardware tools to improve learning in other disciplines than informatics will not be considered.

Examples of impact include course results, student projects, textbooks, influence on the curriculum of other schools.

The 2015 Award will again be funded through a generous Microsoft grant.

The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000.00

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Proposals should be submitted only at:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iebpea2015

The proposal should include:

• Names and addresses of the applicant or applicants;
• Indication of whether the submission is on behalf of an individual or a group;
• Description of the achievements (max 5 pages);
• Evidence of availability of the curricula materials to the teaching community (max 2 pages);
• Evidence of impact (max 5 pages);
• A reference list (which may include URLs of supporting material);
• One or two letters of support. The letters of support may come for example from school management or colleagues in the same or another institution.

Deadlines:

• Abstract: May 1, 2015
• Full proposal: June 1, 2015
• Notification of winner(s): August 1, 2015

The Award will be presented at the 11th European Computer Science Summit, in Vienna, 12-14 October 2015, where the winner or winners (one representative in the case of an institution) will be invited to give a talk on their achievements.

Award Committee:

• Steve Furber, The University of Manchester (Chair)
• Muffy Calder, University of Glasgow
• Michael Caspersen, University of Aarhus
• Christine Choppy, University of Paris 13
• Michael Fourman, University of Edinburgh
• Maciej Sysło, University of Wrocław & UMK, Toruń
• Letizia Tanca, Politecnico di Milano

Further inquiries:

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Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools

October 2014 - Award Winner and Ceremony at the ECSS 2014

The winner of the 2014 Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award was presented during a special ceremony at the ECSS 2014 in Wroclaw, Poland.

The Computing At School initiative was the winner of the 2014 Best Practices in Education Award, organized by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft, with focus this year on Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools.

The Award ceremony was held in Wroclaw, as part of the ECSS 2014 program, where the winner had the opportunity to present the achievements of their educational efforts.

The winner was selected by a committee composed of top international experts chaired by Prof. Gerard Berry from College de France. A number of excellent proposals were received by the committee, which had the difficult task to select the winner in the evaluation process that run from March to August 2014.

The initiative Computing At School (CAS), submitted by Simon Peyton-Jones, Chair of CAS Working Group and Sue Sentance, CAS National Academic Coordinator, received the award for its outstanding achievements which resulted in computing  being officially established as a mandator subject for primary and high schools in the national curriculum of England. Learn more about the winner here and read the winning Award submission.

The photo below shows Simon Humphreys (middle) and Mark Dorling (right) who represented CAS at the Award Ceremony together with Carlo Ghezzi, President of Informatics (left), Gerard Berry Chair of the 2014 Award Committee (second left) and Judith Bishop, representing the Award sponsor, Microsoft.

October 2014 - Winner to be announced at ECSS 2014 on October 15th at 9:45 (CET)

August 2014 -  Winner Selected

The winner of the 2014 Best Practices in Education Award was selected by the experts of the award committee, chaired by Prof. Gérard Berry (Collège de France). One outstanding submission has been selected and the winner will be publicly announced at the ECSS 2014 in Wroclaw, during a special Award Ceremony, where a summary of the project and its achievements will be presented.

March 2014 - Call for Participation

Informatics Europe proudly announces its 2014 Best Practices in Education Award devoted to initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools.

The Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award recognizes outstanding European educational initiatives that improve the quality of informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline, and can be applied and extended beyond their institutions of origin.

As in 2013, the Award will reward a successful teaching effort in Europe that:

• has made a measurable difference in informatics education in schools
• is widely applicable and useful for the teaching community
• has made a measurable impact in its original institution and beyond it

The 2014 Award is devoted to curriculum initiatives for promoting informatics in schools as a mandatory subject for all students. The Award will honor original contributions who emphasize successful initiatives for teaching of informatics fundamentals in schools. Experiences and reports showing how to use software or hardware tools in order to improve learning in other disciplines than informatics will not be considered.

Examples of impact include course results, student projects, textbooks, influence on the curriculum of other schools.

The 2014 Award is devoted to curriculum initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools and funded through a generous grant from Microsoft.

The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000.00

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

Proposals should be submitted only at:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iebpea2014

The proposal should include:

• Names and addresses of the applicant or applicants;
• Indication of whether the submission is on behalf of an individual or a group;
• Description of the achievements (max 5 pages);
• Evidence of availability of the curricula materials to the teaching community (max 2 pages);
• Evidence of impact (max 5 pages);
• A reference list (which may include URLs of supporting material);
• One or two letters of support. The letters of support may come for example from school management or colleagues in the same or another institution.

Deadlines:

• Abstract: May 1, 2014
• Full proposal: June 1, 2014
• Notification of winner(s): August 1, 2014  ---- NEW DEADLINE: AUGUST 8, 2014

The Award will be presented at the 10th European Computer Science Summit, in Wroclaw, 13-15 October 2014, where the winner or winners (one representative in the case of an institution) will be invited to give a talk on their achievements.

Award Committee:

• Gérard Berry, Collège de France (Chair)
• Michael Caspersen, University of Aarhus
• Barbara Demo, University of Torino
• Michael Fourman, University of Edinburgh
• Avi Mendelson, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
• Maciej Sysło, University of Wrocław & UMK, Toruń
• Jan Vahrenhold, University of Münster

Further inquiries:

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Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools

October 2013 - Award Winners and Ceremony at the ECSS 2013

A team from Romania, led by Zoltan Katai, from the Sapientia University and a team from Poland, led by Maciej Sysło, from the Warsaw School of Computer Science, shared the 2013 Best Practices in Education Award, organized by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft, with focus this year on Informatics Education in Primary and Secondary Schools.

The Award ceremony was held in Amsterdam, as part of the ECSS 2013 program, where the winners had the opportunity to present the achievements of their educational efforts.

The winners were selected by a committee composed of top international experts chaired by Prof. Walter Gander from ETH Zurich. A number of excellent proposals were received by the committee, which had the difficult task to select the winners in the evaluation process that run from March to August 2013.

The evaluation committee praised the originality of the proposal by Zoltan Katai, Laszlo Toth and Alpar Karoly Adorjani "Multi-Sensory Informatics Education". Mixing algorithms learning with sensory experience is a very innovative teaching experiment. The key concept of this proposal is Computer Science education for all, using a creative approach. The committee was impressed and appreciated this approach of abstracting away almost all details that might hinder understanding the idea or principle of an algorithm or a paradigm. The enactments thus not only can be used flexible in teaching environments irrespective of a particular programming- or spoken-language but can be used as a starting point for the teacher to drill down into more technical concepts. Another particularity of the  project is its inter-cultural character - sorting algorithms illustrated by Central European folk dancing, algo-rythmics (see: http://algo-rythmics.ms.sapientia.ro and http://www.youtube.com/AlgoRythmics).

Maciej Sysło, Andrzej Żyławski and Justyna Gołaszewska received the award for the outstanding education initiative "Outreach to Prospective Informatics students: Informatyka +". The proposal was praised by the evaluation committee for being an impressive large-scale project developed in an entire country (Poland) over many years by a large number of contributors. Poland has been one of the most active countries in teaching informatics in schools. The committee was impressed by the emphasis on teaching basic concepts to all students. There is compelling evidence that this outreach approach is effective and can serve as excellent model for many other countries.

The photos below show the winners Zoltan Katai (top) and Maciej Sysło (bottom) receiving the award plaque from the president of Informatics Europe, Prof. Carlo Ghezzi, during the Award Ceremony in Amsterdam.

March 2013- Call for Participation

Informatics Europe proudly announces its 2013 Best Practices in Education Award devoted to initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools.

The Informatics Europe Best Practices in Education Award recognizes outstanding European educational initiatives that improve the quality of informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline, and can be applied and extended beyond their institutions of origin.

The Award will reward a successful teaching effort in Europe that:

•  has made a measurable difference in informatics education in schools
•  is widely applicable and useful for the teaching community
•  has made a measurable impact in its original institution and beyond it

The 2013 Award is devoted to curriculum initiatives for promoting informatics in schools as a mandatory subject for all students. The Award will honor original contributions who emphasize successful initiatives for teaching of informatics fundamentals in schools. Experiences and reports showing how to use software or hardware tools in order to improve learning in other disciplines than informatics will not be considered.

Examples of impact include course results, student projects, textbooks, influence on the curriculum of other schools.

The 2013 Award is devoted to curriculum initiatives promoting informatics education in primary and secondary schools and funded through a generous grant from Microsoft.

The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000.00 

The Award can be given to an individual or to a group. To be eligible, participants must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), or Israel. Members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.
The Award Committee will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals (individuals or teams).

The proposal should include: 

• Names and addresses of the applicant or applicants;
• Indication of whether the submission is on behalf of an individual or a group;
• Description of the achievements (max 5 pages);
• Evidence of availability of the curriculums materials to the teaching community (max 2  pages);
• Evidence of impact (max 5 pages);
• A reference list (which may include URLs of supporting material);
• One or two letters of support. The letters of support may come for example from school management or colleagues in the same or another institution.

Proposals submition closed.

Deadlines:

Abstract: May 1, 2013
Full proposal: June 1, 2013
Notication of winner(s): August 1, 2013

The Award will be presented at the 9th European Computer Science Summit, in Amsterdam, 8-9 October 2013, where the winner or winners (one representative in the case of an institution) will be invited to give a talk on their achievements.

Award Committee: 

• Walter Gander (Chair)
• Antoine Petit (Vice-Chair)
• Avi Mendelson
• Barbara Demo
• Jan Vahrenhold
• Juraj Hromkovic
• Alexander Repenning
• Gérard Berry

Further inquires:

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