Welcome Address
Dear Colleagues,
The 12th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2016), one of the most prominent meetings of the European Informatics community, will take place in Budapest, Hungary, October 24-26, 2016, in the modern campus of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) located on the scenic banks of the Danube.
The theme of the ECSS 2016 will be “Informatics Driving the Digital World”. Worldwide, efforts are multiplying towards digitising all aspects of life and work in modern society. The world simply becomes digital. People communicate and connect over social digital media, economic and political decisions are based on analysing digital data, mobility is supported by digital devices, manufacturing is based on cyber-physical systems, health systems are using globally interconnected knowledge bases, etc. Informatics and Information Technology are at the core of all these endeavours. New insights in theory and practice of Informatics are fueling the innovative progress in each of these application areas.
With progress also come heightened expectations. Stakeholders expect systems to become safer, more complex, more performing, more affordable, and more easily accessible. This opens a rare and remarkable opportunity for Informatics, as a basic science and as an application field, to leverage its in-depth knowledge to advance theory and practice, and policy. Although existing information technologies have tremendous potential to drive the digital world, significant challenges will need to be overcome for them to fully realize this potential.
ECSS 2016 will focus on the challenges for the Informatics discipline in driving the digital world. Prominent academics, industry leaders and decision makers will address the topic, offering food for thought in state of the art lectures and engaging panel discussions.
At a special Award Ceremony, we will announce and celebrate the winners of the 2016 Best Practices in Education Award and the 1st Minerva Informatics Equality Award. ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, will present the Cor Baayen Award that is awarded each year to a promising young researcher in computer science and applied mathematics.
As every year, we will have the popular Pre-Summit Workshop for Deans and Department Heads, chaired by Mehdi Jazayeri, University of Lugano, Switzerland, to enable focused discussion and exchange of practical, proven strategies on key issues we all face in managing our departments, faculties or research work.
We are confident that ECSS 2016 will represent for all participants an unforgettable personal and professional experience, and we look forward to welcoming you to Budapest.
Conference Chairs
Zoltán Horváth - Faculty of Informatics, Eötvös Loránd University
Lynda Hardman - Informatics Europe President, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
Program Chairs
Gregor Engels - Department of Computer Science, University of Paderborn
László Monostori - MTA SZTAKI, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, ERCIM