Around 180 deans, department heads, research directors, senior academics, industry and public policymakers from over 30 countries met in Rome, Italy, October 28-30, for the 15th edition of the European Computer Science Summit, ECSS 2019. With the main theme ‘Social Responsibility of Informatics’, the summit was a platform of inspiring presentations and lively discussions dedicated to an array of interdisciplinary topics regarding the interplay between Informatics and Ethics, Law, Privacy as well as Responsible Research and Innovation and Artificial Intelligence.
The conference in 2019 had a renewed and enriched format consisting of the main summit of three days composed of several complementary events and sessions. The program started on Monday with two workshops, the Workshop of the WIRE Working Group and the Leaders Workshop. Both workshops offered a unique networking forum for leaders of Informatics institutions and research groups, and academics acting on gender diversity initiatives and focused on concrete issues and practical solutions.
Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education
The Leaders Workshop was chaired by Gregor Engels, Department of Computer Science, Paderborn University and Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien. The central theme was Developing as a Leader in an Academic Context, with the main focus on special skills and leadership training needed to play a leadership role at any level in an academic environment. Questions raised were: How to be a leader of leaders? How to bring your best self to the role of a leader? How to handle the multiple demands/stress of being a leader? How to create a collaborative support culture? What environments enable people to do good work and to develop professionally? How to handle difficult people/situations? How to create a more diverse culture?
The Workshop of the Women in Informatics Research and Education (WIRE) working group brought together colleagues from all over Europe working on the forefront of the efforts to increase the number of women in Informatics research, education and profession. The workshop created a forum for experience reports from existing measures and best practices sharing and helped to bring forward a European network of actors and to increase the visibility of their initiatives. During the first session, Caroline Oehlhorn, Lejla Batina and Alexandra Silva, representing winners of the past three years Minerva Award, delivered inspiring impulse talks and leaded discussion on how to encourage female students to enrol in Informatics programmes, how to support the transition for PhD and postdoctoral researchers into faculty positions and how to develop the careers of female faculty. The second session was a joint venture between both workshops – Leaders and WIRE and the result was a highly interactive and captivating discussion around the topic of "Unconscious Bias – Promoting Diversity". For the last session further perspectives from Industry and EU policy side were presented in exciting talks by Karin Hilton from Elsevier and Fabrizia Benini from DG CONNECT, European Commission.
Social Responsibility of Informatics
The Summit continued with keynote addresses and a thought-provoking discussion on the central theme "Social Responsibility of Informatics". Prominent speakers from all over Europe provided their perspectives and fuelled discussions on lively debated topics like Responsible Artificial Intelligence, Speaking Law to Computer Scientists and Other Folks, Ethical and Social Responsibility Issues in Social Robots, Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT, and Ethics and Privacy in the Digital Societies. Sharing their expert views and insights at ECSS 2019 were Tony Belpaeme, Virginia Dignum, Luciano Floridi, Mireille Hildebrandt, Paola Inverardi, Philip Larrey, Bernd Stahl, Guglielmo Tamburrini, Peggy Valcke and Hannes Werthner. Slides of most talks are available at the ECSS 2019 program web page.
Award Ceremony
Beyond lively discussion, presentations, and networking, there was also time for celebration. At a special Award Ceremony, Informatics Europe announced the project ‘Welcome.TU.code’ submitted by Doctor Nysret Musliu and Professor Reinhard Pichler on behalf of the Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien, Austria as one of the two winners of the 2019 Best Practices in Education Award. The second project honoured 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 winner of the 4th Minerva Informatics Equality Award was TU Dublin Computer Science, Ireland, for their gender equality initiatives and policies to develop the careers of female Faculty. ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, presented the Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award for Ninon Burgos and András Gilyén.
Dialogue with Members - Members' Voice
During the ECSS 2019, a special session was organised by Informatics Europe to strengthen the network of members and allow them to participate actively in the main decisions regarding the strategy for the future development of Informatics Europe, as well as keeping them informed of the main activities and outcomes of the organisations’ work.
Initially, chairs and members of Informatics Europe Working Groups on Data Collection and Reporting (Svetlana Tikhonenko), Informatics Education (Michael E. Caspersen), Ethics (Paola Mello), Wide Role of Informatics at Universities (Susan Eisenbach) and Women in Informatics Research and Education (Erika Ábrahám) presented the progress and important outcomes of their working groups. The highlight of the session was the public launching of the Informatics Europe Higher Education Data Portal, the online portal publishing Informatics higher education statistics from across 20 countries over the past 8 years. This is a fundamental service that Informatics Europe offers to its members (raw data can exclusively be downloaded by our members) and the community.
Following, a Creative Coffee Break was organized where people could join table leaders to brainstorm on a number of strategic topics that Informatics Europe is already working on, planning to work on or should start working on. Topics debated were China (Asia) relations with the EU; Support to PhD students and their research careers; Women in Informatics Research and Education; Leadership and New Ideas. Table leaders reported back on the outcome in the Members' Voice Track where a general discussion created the opportunity for members to be heard and to contribute and shape the future of the organisation. To close the afternoon, the Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly was held, where members voted for Board elections and approved the financial reports and budget.
Workshop Bridging the Digital Talent Gap
For the first time, Informatics Europe organised in partnership with the European Commission DG CONNECT the workshop Bridging the Digital Talent Gap - Towards Successful Industry-University Partnerships. The workshop brought together higher education organisations, industry, public policymakers and students to identify current challenges, opportunities and solutions to bridge the supply/demand gap in Europe for graduates with the skills needed by European businesses to grow and innovate. In three parallel breakout sessions dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Software Engineering, participants were able to work together to explore the issues at stake, and co-design concrete solutions for the way forward. The results of the joint work will be published in the form of a report and will feed into the current debate on future policies, including programmes at European level like the Digital Europe programme. More details about the content and topics discussed during the workshop can be found at the Talent Gap Workshop web page.
Overall, the conference was a great success. We would like to thank our co-organisers, the International Research Area on Foundations of the Sciences of the Pontifical Lateran University, as well as the ECSS 2019 sponsors, CINI - Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l'Informatica, Roma Tre University, "Sapienza" University of Rome, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", and Elsevier, whose support contributed to setting up such a high-quality event.
The next Summit, ECSS 2020, will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, October 26-28, co-organised by the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University. It will be again a unique opportunity to join your European peers to debate the future of our field and contribute to a stronger European Informatics community.
Save the dates on your calendar! ECSS 2020, 26-28 October.
Enrico Nardelli, Informatics Europe President, is opening the ECSS 2019
Gianfranco Basti, Pontifical Lateran University, at ECSS 2019 opening
Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TU Wien, is leading the Leaders Workshop on Monday
Participants of the WIRE Workshop on Monday
At the WIRE Workshop
Talk by Minerva Award Winner 2018: University of Bamberg represented by Caroline Oehlhorn
Talk by Minerva Award Winner 2017: Radboud University represented by Lejla Batina
Talk by Minerva Award Winner 2016: University College London represented by Alexandra Silva
Small talks and networking at coffee breaks
Representatives of Sofia University, co-organisers of the ECSS 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Gregor Engels, Paderborn University, co-organiser of the Leaders Workshop
Small group discussions at the Leaders and WIRE Workshops Joint Session
Sharing best practices with colleagues at the Leaders and WIRE Workshops Joint Session
Round-table dialogues at the WIRE Workshop
Lively discussions at the WIRE Workshop
Fabrizia Benini, DG CONNECT, European Commission, shares the EU policy perspective on gender diversity at the WIRE Workshop
Participants and organisers of the WIRE Workshop
Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, co-chair of the Social Responsibility of Informatics Sessions
Virginia Dignum, Umeå University, is talking about Responsible Artificial Intelligence
Markus Püschel, ETH Zurich
Mireille Hildebrandt, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is Speaking Law to Computer Scientists and Other Folks
Hélène Kirchner, Inria
Tony Belpaeme, Ghent University, is discussing Ethical/Social Responsibility Issues in Social Robots
Springer books exhibition
Bernd Stahl, De Montfort University, is talking about Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT
Guglielmo Tamburrini, University of Naples, is chairing the Panel on Social Responsibility of Informatics
Philip Larrey, Pontifical Lateran University, at the Panel on Social Responsibility of Informatics
Peggy Valcke, KU Leuven, at the Panel on Social Responsibility of Informatics
Hannes Werthner, TU Wien, at the Panel on Social Responsibility of Informatics
Winners of the 2019 Best Practices in Education Award from TU Wien with Letizia Jaccheri (Award Chair), Alessandra Migliore (Microsoft) and Enrico Nardelli (Informatics Europe President)
Winners of the 2019 Best Practices in Education Award from Erasmus+ InventEUrs project - Inventors4Change (I4C) with Letizia Jaccheri (Award Chair), Alessandra Migliore (Microsoft) and Enrico Nardelli (Informatics Europe President)
Minerva Award Winners from TU Dublin with Dana Petcu (Award Chair), Beate List (Google) and Enrico Nardelli (Informatics Europe President)
Winners of the ERCIM Cor Baayen Award with Jos Baeten (ERCIM President) and Enrico Nardelli (Informatics Europe President)
Cristina Pereira, Informatics Europe Executive Director, is opening the Dialogue with Members Session
Public launching of the Informatics Europe Higher Education Data Portal
Paola Mello, University of Bologna, is reporting on Ethical/Social Impact of Informatics as a Study Subject
Susan Eisenbach, Imperial College London, is presenting the report on the Wide Role of Informatics at Universities
Brainstorming at the Informatics Europe Creative Coffee Break
Lively discussions at the Informatics Europe Creative Coffee Break
Small talks at the conference dinner
Networking at the conference dinner
At the conference dinner
Past and current heads of Informatics Europe - Carlo Ghezzi, Enrico Nardelli, Lynda Hardman and Christine Choppy
Current and future Board Members of Informatics Europe
Fabrizia Benini, European Commission, is opening the Talent Gap Workshop on Wednesday
Fabrizia Benini, European Commission, Paola Inverardi, University of L'Aquila, Anna Wypior, SAP SE, and Andrea Dal Piaz, Roma Tre University at the Discussion Panel 'The Digital Talent Gap in Europe'
Daniele Nardi, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, is introducing the Artificial Intelligence breakout session
Tanya Suarez, BluSpecs, at the Artificial Intelligence breakout session
Javier Lopez, University of Malaga, is introducing the Cyber Security breakout session
Alexander Riedl, European Commission, at the Cyber Security breakout session
Gregor Engels, University of Paderborn, and Alessandro Bogliolo, University of Urbino, are introducing the Software Engineering breakout session
Ernesto Pimentel, CODDII, Alessandro Bogliolo, University of Urbino, and Anna Wypior, SAP SE, at the Talent Gap Workshop Software Engeneering breakout session
Small group discussions at the Talent Gap Workshop Software Engeneering breakout session
Brainstorming at the Talent Gap Workshop Artificial Intelligence breakout session
Brainstorming at the Talent Gap Workshop Cyber Security breakout session
Paola Inverardi, University of L'Aquila, is talking about Ethics and Privacy in the Digital Societies
Rapporteurs, Facilitators and Organisers of the Talent Gap Workshop
