Conference Topics
Informatics (or Computing) has a fundamental impact on science, business, industry and society and thus on every facet of our daily lives. Informatics progresses steadily in the fundamental understanding of complex information processing systems and it leads to the marvels of Information Technology that are at the basis of many innovations, from intelligent systems to interactive services of unprecedented caliber. Informatics is seen by many as one of the leading disciplines of the 21st century, crucial to progress and economic growth, see e.g. IKT 2020 - Research for Innovation.
While companies and industries are increasingly dependent on the advances of Informatics and its technologies, many obstacles must be overcome in the development of the field. This is experienced daily by departments and research institutes everywhere: in securing their positions, in setting their strategies for the future, in acquiring research funds, in finding and keeping top researchers, in adjusting their PhD-, MSc-, and BSc-programs to the ever changing needs of science and society, in attracting students in sufficient numbers to the field, and in battling against wrong images of the field.
Summit 2008
The European Computer Science Summit 2008 is devoted to the many issues in strengthening the position of research and high-level education in Informatics in Europe: strategic issues in leading our departments, trends in research strategies, creative approaches in PhD- and MSc curricula, and ways of attracting new generations of students ad researchers to the challenges of Informatics.
Topics
- Image of Informatics: in society, in industry, trust in IT, trends in research, attractiveness of curricula, public perception of the field
- Impact of Informatics: Informatics as a discipline, impact on science, industry and society, theory versus practice, role in innovation, relation to other disciplines, algorithmic and computational thinking
- Teaching CS: curriculum innovations, life after Bologna, accreditation standards, graduate programs (from MSc to PhD), joint degrees, student recruitment, careers in Computing
- Innovation with Informatics: expectations in industry versus academia, relationships and experiences, impact of research collaboration, impact on research strategies
- Research in CS: Strategic directions in Europe, national focus programs, research agendas, research infrastructures, interdisciplinary research, research evaluation standards
- Philosophy of Informatics
- Leadership in Informatics: responsibilities, being a department head, leading professionals in Informatics, setting strategies, how to achieve top rankings
Presentations on relevant experiences, best practices, views and visions may be submitted to the program committee: see the call for submissions.
Workshops
Informatics Europe has formed a number of working groups that will report on their progress, recent activities and challenges concerning:
- Setting standards for computer science curricula
- Evaluating the quality of computer science research
- Student enrollment and image of the discipline
On October 8, 2008 a special pre-Summit workshop will be held for beginning and prospective department heads and research leaders, devoted to issues in the daily responsibilities of their job. The workshop will be very interactive, and includes e.g. a session on best practices in coaching and writing large proposals in IT.