Informatics Europe

Last updated
Informatics Europe
Formation2006
TypeLearned Society - Nonprofit organization
Headquarters Zurich, Switzerland
Membership
Around 200 institutions (over 30 countries)
Official language
English
President
Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA / University of Rennes)
Key people
Informatics Europe Community
Website http://www.informatics-europe.org

Informatics Europe is the European association uniting university departments, research labs and companies in the field of informatics (also known as computer science).

Contents

Overview

Founded in 2006, [1] [2] Informatics Europe is a non-profit organization with head office in Zurich, Switzerland. They represent the Research and Education community in Europe, uniting some 200 member institutions and connecting over 50,000 researchers in informatics and related disciplines from more than 30 countries. Informatics Europe members include university departments of Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT), public and private research labs as well as national informatics associations.

Informatics Europe liaises with other scientific organisations such as the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computing Research Association (CRA).

History

On 21 October 2005, the “1st European Computer Science Summit” brought together, for the first time, heads of Informatics and Computer Science departments throughout Europe. This landmark event was a joint undertaking of the Computer Science departments of the two branches of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: EPFL (Lausanne) and ETH (Zurich).

Besides the keynotes, talks, panels and workshops, the result of the summit was the unanimous view that European computer scientists needed an organisation with aims and scope similar to those of the CRA in the US, extended—in light of the situation in Europe—to cover education as well as research. As a result, Informatics Europe was created with the aim to become the recognized voice of the European computer science community, including both universities and research centres.

Bertrand Meyer from ETH Zurich, one of the founding members of the organisation, served as its first President from 2006 to 2011. Other former Presidents include Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano (from 2012 to 2015), Lynda Hardman, CWI / Utrecht University (from 2016 to 2017), [3] Enrico Nardelli,Università di Roma 'Tor Vergata', (from 2018 to 2023). The current President is Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA/ University of Rennes, who took office since January 2024.

Mission and Activities

Informatics Europe mission is to empower and unite the European informatics community, find concerted positions, act on shared priorities, and support policy-making in Education, Research, and the Social Impact of informatics in Europe. They do so by addressing strategic matters and emerging trends in informatics and related fields, fostering unity in the variety of their member institutions, and promoting pan-European collaboration. [4]

Informatics Europe is involved in a number of activities and services. While some are exclusive to members (and researchers affiliated with those institutes), others are open to the broader informatics and related disciplines community.

ECSS - European Informatics Leaders Summit

The European Informatics Leaders Summit is open to the broad informatics community. It takes place once a year and offers a platform where leaders and decision-makers in Informatics and related disciplines in Europe gather to debate strategic themes and trends related to informatics research, education and its social impact. Originally the European Computer Science Summit, ECSS has been renamed since 2024 in celebration of its 20th anniversary and to reaffirm the core value and importance of the Summit to informatics leaders and communities across Europe.

Past Summits since 2005:

Working Groups

Informatics Europe fosters various working groups to shape strategic priorities within the European Informatics community. Each working group has thereby a focus on a specific topic or goal that is agreed upon at the beginning of each year. The current groups are as follows:

Past working groups:

Awards

Each year, Informatics Europe presents awards recognizing outstanding initiatives that advance the quality of research and education in Informatics in Europe.

Since 2023, the Best Dissertation Award aims to support young researchers in informatics by rewarding and disseminating their excellent research. The award criteria include the originality of the research and methods used, the quality of the achieved results, the societal impact of the thesis, and the quality of the exposition. [17]

Since 2016, the Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognizes best practices in Departments or Faculties of European Universities and Research Labs that encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education. [18] [19] [20] [21]

Since 2012, the Best Practices in Education Award recognizes educational initiatives across Europe that improve the quality of Informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline. [22] [10] At present the award is on hold, awaiting sponsor. [23]

EU-funded Projects

Informatics Europe contributes to pan-European projects in the promotion of informatics research and education:

Services

Informatics Higher Education Data Portal

The Higher Education Data Portal is a project of Informatics Europe created with the goal of providing members, the Informatics academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders a complete and reliable picture of the state of Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT) higher education in Europe. The full dataset, now covering 10 academic 8 years of data from more than 20 countries , is the only one of its kind in Europe. The focus on Informatics, and the central role played by data curation makes it unique, reliable and relevant.

Leaders Workshop

Every year Informatics Europe organises a special Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education, as part of the ECSS global program, to address specific challenges they encounter in their role. The workshop is a unique networking forum for leaders of Informatics institutions and research groups, and focuses on concrete issues and practical solutions.

CV Repository

Established in 2023, Informatics Europe’s CV Repository is a cutting-edge platform revolutionizing the way informatics students, recent graduates and recruiters connect across Europe’s top institutions. It aims to support the European informatics community in fostering research and education quality by connecting new generations of talent in informatics and relevant disciplines to employers across Europe.

Informatics Job Platform

The Informatics Europe Job Platform lists open scientific positions in Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, Computer Engineering, IT, ICT) and closely related fields and includes positions requiring a PhD degree or higher (e.g.: scientific researcher, post-doc, professor, etc.).

Department Evaluation

The Department Evaluation is an expert-led service offered by Informatics Europe to assess research quality and support the continuous improvement of informatics university departments/faculties. The evaluation is conducted by internationally recognized researchers in the field and is supervised by the Informatics Europe Executive Committee.

Bespoke Academic Leadership Course

Facilitated by Prof. Geraldine Fitzpatrick and Prof. Austen Rainer, esteemed informatics experts and accomplished facilitators of leadership ccourses, the Bespoke course provides a cost-effective approach to work with academics from the same institute, and thus develop positive academic leadership based on their academic culture. Those attending the course acquire the skills needed for developing a leadership peer support group.

Informatics Research & Education Directory

The Research & Education Directory includes institutions (faculties, departments, institutes, etc.) doing research and offering education in Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, Computer Engineering, IT, ICT) in Europe. The directory provides quick access to these institutions and the information is self-maintained by them.

Publications

Related Research Articles

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, reporting nearly 110,000 student and professional members as of 2022. Its headquarters are in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer science</span> Study of computation

Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines to applied disciplines.

Software engineering is an engineering approach to software development. A practitioner, a software engineer, applies the engineering design process to develop software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristen Nygaard</span> Norwegian computer scientist and mathematician

Kristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer, and politician. Internationally, Nygaard is acknowledged as the co-inventor of object-oriented programming and the programming language Simula with Ole-Johan Dahl in the 1960s. Nygaard and Dahl received the 2001 A. M. Turing Award for their contribution to computer science.

An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people, structure, and technology. Information systems can be defined as an integration of components for collection, storage and processing of data of which the data is used to provide information, contribute to knowledge as well as digital products that facilitate decision making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertrand Meyer</span> French computer scientist

Bertrand Meyer is a French academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language and the concept of design by contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technische Universität Darmstadt</span> Public university in Darmstadt, Germany

The Technische Universität Darmstadt, commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882, it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and introduced the world's first degree course in electrical engineering. In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. TU Darmstadt has assumed a pioneering role in Germany. Computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, business informatics, political science and many more courses were introduced as scientific disciplines in Germany by Darmstadt faculty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daphne Koller</span> Israeli-American computer scientist

Daphne Koller is an Israeli-American computer scientist. She was a professor in the department of computer science at Stanford University and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient. She is one of the founders of Coursera, an online education platform. Her general research area is artificial intelligence and its applications in the biomedical sciences. Koller was featured in a 2004 article by MIT Technology Review titled "10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change Your World" concerning the topic of Bayesian machine learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National College of Ireland</span> Third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland

National College of Ireland (NCI) is a not-for-profit, state-aided third-level education institution in Dublin. It was founded in 1951 as a joint venture between the Jesuits in Ireland and Irish trade unions, and was originally named the Catholic Workers College, Dublin. It is now an independent higher education institution, offering full and part-time courses from undergraduate to postgraduate level, in the areas of business, computing, psychology and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erol Gelenbe</span> French-Turkish computer scientist

Sami Erol Gelenbe, a Turkish and French computer scientist, electronic engineer and applied mathematician, pioneered the field of Computer System and Network Performance. Currently Professor in the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he is also an Associate Researcher in the I3S Laboratory and Abraham de Moivre Laboratory. Fellow of several National Academies, he Chairs the Informatics Section of Academia Europaea since 2023. His previous Professorial Chairs include the University of Liège (1974-1979), University Paris-Saclay (1979-1986), University Paris Descartes (1986-2005), NJIT (1991–93), ECE Chair at Duke University (1993-1998), University Chair Professor and Director of EECS, University of Central Florida (1998-2003), and Dennis Gabor Professor and Head of Intelligent Systems and Networks, Imperial College (2003-2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Guzdial</span>

Mark Joseph Guzdial is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the College of Computing and the GVU Center. He has conducted research in the fields of computer science education and the learning sciences and internationally in the field of Information Technology. From 2001–2003, he was selected to be an ACM Distinguished Lecturer, and in 2007 he was appointed Vice-Chair of the ACM Education Board Council. He was the original developer of the CoWeb, one of the earliest wiki engines, which was implemented in Squeak and has been in use at institutions of higher education since 1998. He is the inventor of the Media Computation approach to learning introductory computing, which uses contextualized computing education to attract and retain students.

Computational thinking (CT) refers to the thought processes involved in formulating problems so their solutions can be represented as computational steps and algorithms. In education, CT is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could also execute. It involves automation of processes, but also using computing to explore, analyze, and understand processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computing education</span> Pedagogy of computer science

Computer science education or computing education is the field of teaching and learning the discipline of computer science, and computational thinking. The field of computer science education encompasses a wide range of topics, from basic programming skills to advanced algorithm design and data analysis. It is a rapidly growing field that is essential to preparing students for careers in the technology industry and other fields that require computational skills.

Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the central notion is transformation of information. In some cases, the term "informatics" may also be used with different meanings, e.g. in the context of social computing, or in context of library science.

The Institute for Computer Science and Control is a Hungarian research institute in Budapest, founded in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey C. Fox</span> British computer scientist and physicist

Geoffrey Charles Fox is a British-born American theoretical physicist and computer scientist. As of March 2024, he is a professor in the Computer Science Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACM-W</span> Subdivision of the Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W) supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W is an active organization with over 36,000 members.

Valerie Barr is an American computer scientist, and is the Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Bard College. She formerly held the Jean Sammet endowed chair in the department of Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is known for her work with women in computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthias Grossglauser</span> Swiss communication engineer

Matthias Grossglauser is a Swiss communication engineer. He is a professor of computer science at EPFL and co-director of the Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory (INDY) at EPFL's School of Computer and Communication Sciences School of Basic Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael E. Caspersen</span> Danish computer scientist

Danish computer scientist Michael Edelgaard Caspersen has spent his academic life furthering computer science education, at all levels. His research interests are computing education, programming didactics, programming methodology, and object-oriented programming. He is best known for his work on computing education research and development, particularly his work to promote informatics as a fundamental discipline for all.

References

  1. Bertrand Meyer and Willy Zwaenepoel, European Computer Science Takes Its Fate in Its Own hands, in Communications of the ACM, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 21–24, March 2006; draft copy available here.
  2. Bertrand Meyer "Showcasing European Computer Science".
  3. 1 2 "Lynda Hardman President Informatics Europe". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  4. "Mission and History". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  5. "ECSS 2023, Edinburgh". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  6. "ECSS 2022, Hamburg". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  7. "ECSS 2021". www.informatics-europe.org. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  8. "ECSS 2020". www.informatics-europe.org. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  9. "2019 ERCIM Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award for Ninon Burgos and András Gilyén". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  10. 1 2 "ALaDDIn wins 2016 Best Practices in Education Award". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  11. "ECSS 2015: Informatics in the Future – in the Year 2025". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  12. 1 2 "Informatics Europe offers Department Evaluation". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  13. Caspersen, Michael; McGettrick, Andrew; Gal-Ezer, Judith; Nardelli, Enrico (April 2019). "Informatics as a Fundamental Discipline for the 21st Century". cacm.
  14. "Research Evaluation in Informatics". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  15. "Reports". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  16. "Women in Informatics Research and Education". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  17. "Best Dissertation Award". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  18. Dublin, T. U. "TU Dublin wins European Award for Gender Equality in Technology". tudublin.ie. Retrieved 2019-11-15.[ permanent dead link ]
  19. "Minerva Informatics Equality Award • European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS". European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  20. "University College London wins first Minerva Informatics Equality Award". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  21. "Minerva Informatics Equality Award". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  22. "Best Practices in Education Award 2018 Edition "Transforming Informatics Education" - Informatics Europe | ATIEF". www.atief.fr. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  23. "Best Practices in Education Award". Informatics Europe. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  24. Fatourou, Panagiota (April 2019). "Women Are Needed in STEM: European Policies and Incentives". cacm.
  25. Inverardi, Paola (April 2019). "The European Perspective on Responsible Computing". cacm.