Keynote Speakers

ECSS Opening

Short Bio

Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth. She is responsible for important EU programmes as Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps and Creative Europe. She was Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society from 2017 to 2019. Under her leadership, the Digital Single Market has become a reality. She has created the first pan European “Digital Europe” programme. 
She has been elected to the European Parliament in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
Mariya Gabriel is a Vice-President of the European People's Party, and since 2012 she has been a Vice-President of EPP Women.
She is one of the 50 most influential women in Europe in the field of cybersecurity. Mariya Gabriel has been awarded a number of prizes. Among them are the “Women of Influence 2018” award in the category “Talent in Politics”, the most prestigious Italian prize “Golden Apple” for highest achievements for women, the Beaumarchais Medal for her contribution to the protection of the interests of European artists. The Honorary Committee of USA-Central European Women in Business Summit presented her with the 2019 award for her series of initiatives to promote greater participation of women in the digital sector and recognition of their role in the development of the digital society and economy.
Mariya Gabriel holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Politics and International Relations from the Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux. From 2004 to 2008, she was a temporary teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux. Her teaching focused in particular on the decision-making process of the European Union, political sociology and international relations.

Computational Biology in Europe - The EMBL Perspective

Abstract

Computational Biology has become a major driver in both fundamental life sciences research and increasingly applied research and healthcare. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), an inter-governmental treaty organisation headquartered in Heidelberg Germany with 5 other sites across Europe has been at the forefront of this change. In his talk, Ewan will provide a perspective from both the technical and algorithmic view point and the data science view point, with a historical perspective leading to the modern day opportunity and future.

Short Bio

Ewan Birney is Director of European Bioinformatics Institute(EMBL-EBI) with Dr. Rolf Apweiler, and runs a small research group. He is also EMBL-EBI's Joint Head of Research, alongside Dr. Nick Goldman. Ewan completed his PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute with Richard Durbin. In 2000, he became Head of Nucleotide data at EMBL-EBI and in 2012 he took on the role of Associate Director at the institute. He became Director of EMBL-EBI in 2015. Ewan led the analysis of the Human Genome gene set, mouse and chicken genomes and the ENCODE project, focusing on non-coding elements of the human genome. Ewan’s main areas of research include functional genomics, DNA algorithms, statistical methods to analyse genomic information (in particular information associated with individual differences in humans and Medaka fish) and use of images for chromatin structure.

Ewan is a non-executive Director of Genomics England, and a consultant and advisor to a number of companies, including Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Dovetail Genomics and GSK. Ewan was elected an European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) member in 2012, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. He has received a number of awards including the 2003 Francis Crick Award from the Royal Society, the 2005 Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology and the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award for contributions in Open Source Bioinformatics.

The Renewed Digital Education Action Plan

Abstract

In September, the European Commission will adopt an ambitious Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027). As part of the Next Generation EU Strategy, the Action Plan will a provide a coherent and integrated framework for addressing the gradual transition of education and training to the digital age by addressing challenges in education and training arising from the COVID-19 crisis and the overarching digital transformation. Building on the success of its predecessor (2018-2020), the new Action Plan will include a limited set of impactful actions addressing the need to strengthen digital capacities for resilient education and training systems, digital literacy and competences for the 21st century and a trusted digital ecosystem of education content and tools.

Short Bio

Georgi Dimitrov, Deputy Head of Unit Innovation and EIT (DG EAC) joined the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture, as a Policy Officer in 2008. Hi was involved in various roles in setting up the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Georgi has managed the HEInnovate initiative launched in November 2013 by the European Commission and the OECD. Currently he is leading a project for update of Digital Education Action Plan. Before joining the Commission, Georgi worked for a leading multinational telecommunication company in Germany. Prior to that, he worked in a software start-up for four years, also in Germany. Georgi studied at the University of Bonn (M.A.), the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (PhD) and the Open University UK (towards MBA in Technology Management).

Building a Resilient Academic Environment

Abstract

In this talk I will share the experience acquired at University of L’Aquila in facing a sequence of exceptional and disruptive events, notably earthquakes in 2009 and 2016/17 and the current coronavirus pandemic. Although very different in nature, the effects and the recovery process from such events, at least in our experience, required similar processes to go back to operation. That is to go back to research and teaching when the ordinary physical places and processes are not available anymore. Actually, facing the pandemic benefitted of our previous experience in dealing with earthquakes. Making an academic community resilient implies an investment on the overall community starting from students, to administrative staff to teaching and research staff which requires strategic decisions, supporting budget, continuous educational and operational activities.

Short Bio

Paola Inverardi is full professor in Computer Science at University of L’Aquila since 1994. Previously she has been researcher at the IEI-CNR institute in Pisa and at the Olivetti research center in Pisa. At University of L’Aquila she has been Coordinator of the Laurea degree in Computer Science, Head of the Computer Science Department, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Head of the Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, Rector of University of L'Aquila from 2013 to 2019.
Paola Inverardi has been member of the ACM SIFSOFT Executive Committee and of the ACM Europe Council. At present she is vice-chair of the ACM ETPC . Paola Inverardi is member of Academia Europea. Since 2013 she is the Italian representative in the H2020 ICT LEIT program committee. Since October 2019 she is the Italian representative in the Eurohpc Initiative Governing Board. Paola Inverardi has received an Honorary Doctorate in computer science from Mälardalen University Sweden and Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Shibaura University, Tokio Japan. In 2013 she has received the IEEE TCSE Distinguished Service Award.

How to Design for Gender Diversity?

Abstract

There has been a persistent underrepresentation of women in higher education in Informatics for decades. Such lack of gender diversity (the ‘digital gender gap’) has raised political, economic and scientific concerns. The lack of women in these fields legitimizes and supports the hierarchical relations of men and women in society at large. The annual productivity loss for the European economy for the digital gender gap is in a report by the European Commission estimated to 16.2 billion euro (SMART 2016/0025). Moreover, gender imbalance reduces the pool to harvest talents from and lack of diversity also makes for less innovative scientific outcomes (Nielsen et al., 2017). In spite of this widespread concern and also much resources spent on getting more women in, the results have been rather poor. How may we design for better inclusion for (gender) diversity in informatics? The talk introduces some evidence-based ideas on how to do this.

Short Bio

Vivian Anette Lagesen is a sociologist and Professor in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has published widely on the topic of gender, science and technology. She has studied inclusion design and inclusion strategies in higher education in Informatics and studied Software Engineering industries in Norway, the US and Malaysia. Her current research is a study on gender balance and diversity in academia, investigating management, culture and inclusion strategies on all levels from department to national policies and the dynamics between them. She has been a visiting scholar at the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs at Harvard University.

On the Disappearing Boundary Between Digital and Physical Spaces in Academia

Abstract

The UK Open University (OU) was established over 50 years ago to provide education for those unable to participate in higher education at a particular time or place in their lives. Its mission was, and continues to be, open to people, places, methods and ideas, with an unwavering aim to provide educational opportunity and social justice. To achieve this, the OU pioneered a model for supported distance learning – what has often been regarded as a niche type of educational provision. Niche no longer! Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid and mass movement of many universities from face-to-face to “online” teaching, and a world-wide interest in the OU’s learning and teaching methods. This has presented both opportunities and challenges: opportunities to share the OU’s pedagogy with educators around the world, but also challenges of assimilating a range of online teaching experiences gained by those educators. In this presentation, we reflect on the experiences of OU colleagues, both in management and on the frontline, before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. We also discuss some lessons learned that may benefit a broader audience: an audience of educators previously not accustomed to distance education, and an audience of academics revisiting the relationship between research and teaching. The experiences reported are grounded in computing - the speakers being responsible for leading research and education across the complex but increasingly invisible boundaries between the digital and physical spaces that they, their colleague, and their students occupy.

Short Bio

Arosha K. Bandara is a Professor of Software Engineering at the Open University in the UK, whose research and teaching focuses on software engineering for adaptive systems. His work has led to novel techniques for engineering adaptive software systems, applying rigorous formal techniques to ensure that the software at the heart of ‘smart systems’ can continuously satisfy requirements like performance, security, privacy and usability. He is currently the Head of the School of Computing & Communications at the OU and is also the lead educator for the OU’s successful “Introduction to Cyber Security” MOOC.

On the Disappearing Boundary Between Digital and Physical Spaces in Academia

Abstract

The UK Open University (OU) was established over 50 years ago to provide education for those unable to participate in higher education at a particular time or place in their lives. Its mission was, and continues to be, open to people, places, methods and ideas, with an unwavering aim to provide educational opportunity and social justice. To achieve this, the OU pioneered a model for supported distance learning – what has often been regarded as a niche type of educational provision. Niche no longer! Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid and mass movement of many universities from face-to-face to “online” teaching, and a world-wide interest in the OU’s learning and teaching methods. This has presented both opportunities and challenges: opportunities to share the OU’s pedagogy with educators around the world, but also challenges of assimilating a range of online teaching experiences gained by those educators. In this presentation, we reflect on the experiences of OU colleagues, both in management and on the frontline, before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. We also discuss some lessons learned that may benefit a broader audience: an audience of educators previously not accustomed to distance education, and an audience of academics revisiting the relationship between research and teaching. The experiences reported are grounded in computing - the speakers being responsible for leading research and education across the complex but increasingly invisible boundaries between the digital and physical spaces that they, their colleague, and their students occupy.

Short Bio

Bashar Nuseibeh is Professor of Computing at The Open University and a Professor of Software Engineering and Chief Scientist at Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre. He is also a Visiting Professor at University College London (UCL) and the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Tokyo, Japan. Previously, he was a Reader in Computing at Imperial College London and Head of its Software Engineering Laboratory. He has had a career-long research interest in software requirements & design, broadening in recent years to encompass the engineering of adaptive socio-technical systems. He is particularly interested in security & privacy requirements of modern software-intensive systems, and the engineering dependable autonomy & adaptation in those systems.
Bashar received an ICSE Most Influential Paper Award, a Philip Leverhulme Prize, an Automated Software Engineering Fellowship, and a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship. He received an IFIP Outstanding Service Award (2009) and an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Service Award (2015). Together with Arosha Bandara and colleagues at the Open University, their research team received the 2017 IET Innovation Award in Cyber Security, and as Chief Scientist of Lero he was the recipient of the 2018 IEEE TCSE Distinguished Synergy Award for research-Industry and Innovation collaboration. He is also the recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award and two European Research Council (ERC) awards, including an ERC Advanced Grant on ‘Adaptive Security and Privacy’.
Bashar is a Fellow of the British and Irish Computer Societies, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, and a Member of Academia Europaea.

Informatics Education Research: A First Class Citizen in Informatics Departments

Abstract

It is generally agreed that digital competences are among the most important 21st century skills. Computers and technology are shaping the future of jobs, as well as everybody’s participation in society, including democracy. We are only just beginning to understand the core nature of the digital competences that we need to teach the next generation in order to prepare them for a future with artificial intelligence and robots. In this talk, I will give an overview of the Danish efforts in informatics education, with a particular focus on the university sector and the IT University of Copenhagen.

Short Bio

Martin Zachariasen has been Rector at the IT University of Copenhagen since January 2019. He has a PhD in computer science from the University of Copenhagen. His area of research is algorithms and operations research. Prior to his present position, he held leadership positions as Head of Department at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, and as Dean at the Faculty of Science, University of Southern Denmark. Martin Zachariasen is strongly committed to the digital education of the next generation, as well as debating the consequences of the use of digital technologies in society – including a gender and diversity perspective. The IT University of Copenhagen, which is the youngest university in Denmark, is the national leading university focusing on IT research and education. With a strong and international academic environment, the IT University is conducting interdisciplinary research in IT. For more than 20 years, the IT University of Copenhagen has trained students in disciplines within computer science, business IT, and digital design, offering Denmark’s biggest master’s programme in IT. Teaching is research-based, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit characterizes students and researchers who largely cooperate with industry, the public sector, and international researchers. The ambition for the IT University of Copenhagen is to create and share knowledge that is profound and leads to ground-breaking information technology and services for the benefit of humanity.