Conference Schedule
Mon, 23 Oct Tue, 24 Oct Wed, 25 Oct
The slides of talks given during the conference are available for download from the program below.
Monday, 23 October 2023
08:30 - reception desk opens only for Special Informatics Europe Introductory Session participants.
09:00 - reception desk opens for ALL & arrival coffee
09:00 - 10:00 Special Informatics Europe Introductory Session [Slides]
10:30 - 11:00 ECSS 2023 Official Opening
- Enrico Nardelli, University of Roma "Tor Vergata" (Italy), President of Informatics Europe
- Iain Grant Gordon, University of Edinburgh (UK), Vice-Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering
- Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Two sessions will run in parallel between 11:00 and 18:00.
11:00 - 18:00 Leaders Workshop - "Diversity and Inclusion in a Multicultural World"
Chairs: Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA (France), Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh (UK) and EUGAIN COST Action member.
11:00 - 11:10 Introduction
11:10 - 12.:00 “Where did you come from and where are you now”, session facilitated by Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh (UK) and EUGAIN COST Action member. [Slides]
12:00 - 12:30 "Alice and Eve/Recommendations on Hiring and Promoting Women for CS Departments" by Marieke Huisman, University of Twente (the Netherlands) and EUGAIN COST Action member. [Slides]
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 15:00 “Where do you draw the line?”, workshop facilitated by Richard Boardman, 2Macs (UK) [Slides]
Tackle these key areas:
(1) Rights & Entitlements vs. Wants & Preferences (2) Acceptability
(3) Where Do You Draw The Line? (4) What Can We Do, individually and collectively?
Full details of this session are on our Speakers page.
15:00 - 15:30 Feedback session/reflections on discussions in subgroups
15:30 - 16:o0 Coffee break
16:00 - 17:30 Panel discussion with panellists from underrepresented groups
- Aurora Constantin, University of Edinburgh (UK)
- Jacques Fleuriot, University of Edinburgh (UK)
- Sara Shinton, University of Edinburgh (UK)
17:30 - 18:00 Concluding remarks and further actions, session by Jane Hillston & Sara Shinton, University of Edinburgh (UK) [Slides]
11:00 - 17:30 Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers
Chairs: Dimka Karastoyanova, University of Groningen (the Netherlands), Tobias Grosser, University of Edinburgh (UK)
11:00 - 11:05 Welcome and Introduction
11:05 - 12:30 Session 1: “A Fresh Approach to Research Leadership" by Sara Shinton, University of Edinburgh (UK) [Slides]
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 -15:30 Session 2: panell discussion "How to turn a research career into a success"
- Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart (Germany) [Slides]
- Manuel Carro, Technical University of Madrid/IMDEA Software Institute (Spain) [Slides]
- Victor Lomüller, CodePlay (UK)
- Dympna O'Sullivan, TU Dublin (Ireland) [Slides]
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Ambrish Rawat, IBM Research Europe (Ireland)
15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 - 17:30 Session 3: "Sustainable growth in research career"
Round table discussions between the workshop participants and the speakers of the panel will be held in small groups. During these discussions, participants will have the opportunity to review their career vision board in interaction with both the panellists and peers.
18:15 - 20:30 Welcome Cocktail including the Early Career Researchers Poster Session
Featured Posters:
- "Automated Identification and Analysis of Structures in Large-scale Electron Microscopy Images" by Anusha Aswath, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) [Poster]
- "Machine Learning Predictive Models Applied to COVID-19 Datasets to Estimate the Infection Risk in Specific Geographic Regions" by Diogen Babuc, West University of Timisoara (Romania) [Poster]
- "Qualitative insights into abstraction skills from exam scripts" by Julia Crossley, City University of London (UK) [Poster]
- "Self-Adaptive Smart Grids: A Case Study on EV Charging Stations" by Vick Dini, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) [Poster]
- "ChatterGlove - A healthcare appliance for speech/hearing impaired individuals" by Theodor-Radu Grumeza, West University of Timisoara (Romania) [Poster]
- "Empowering Women in the ICT Sector: Addressing Gender Inequality in Albania and the Wider Western Balkans" by Elva Leka, Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania) [Poster]
- "An Eternal Dilemma Resolved: The Choice Between Pure Reasoning and Raw Performance" by Anton Lorenzen, University of Edinburgh (UK) [Poster]
- "Challenges and Strategies of Women in STEM. Gender Balance - Albanian Case." by Olgerta Idrizi, Mediterranean University of Albania (Albania) & Miranda Harizaj, Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania) [Poster]
- "Building A National Spatio-Temporal Datacube" by Alexandru Munteanu, West University of Timisoara (Romania) [Poster]
- "Enabling Efficient Exploration of Linux Configuration Space with Incremental Build" by Georges Aaron Randrianaina, IRISA Rennes (France) [Poster]
Monday's coffee breaks are scheduled at 10:00 & 15:30 and lunch at 12:30, for all sessions.
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
08:30 - reception desk opens & arrival coffee
09:00 - 12:30 Main Theme - "Informatics: Shaping the Future"
Chairs: Gregor Engels, Paderborn University (Germany), Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh (UK)
09:00 - 09:30 "Finding the Quantum Advantage" by Elham Kashefi, The National Quantum Computing Centre (UK) [Slides]
09:30 - 10:00 "Large Language Models" by Mirella Lapata, University of Edinburgh (UK) [Slides]
10:00 - 10:30 "Big data in life sciences, from theory to applications" by Stefano Ceri, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) [Slides]
10:30 - 11:00 "Beyond common Computing – Does Sustainability require new (and old) Alternatives to “classical” Digital Computing Machines?" by Jochen Viehoff, Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (Germany) [Slides]
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 -12:30 Panel Discussion: "How do we ensure that informatics shapes the future that we hope for?"
Panel chair: Ewa Luger, University of Edinburgh (UK)
- Stefano Ceri, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
- Elham Kashefi, The National Quantum Computing Centre (UK)
- Jochen Viehoff, Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (Germany)
- Mira L. Wolf-Bauwens, IBM Research Europe
13:30 - 14:15 Informatics Europe Awards Ceremony
- Best Dissertation Award 2023 (sponsored by Springer) - Winner announcement by Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano (Award Committee Chair) and Short Talk by Winner [Slides]
- Minerva Informatics Equality Award 2023 (sponsored by Google and co-organized with EUGAIN COST Action) - Winner announcement by Simona Motogna, Babeş-Bolyai University (Award Committee Chair) and Short Talks by Winners. [Slides]
14:15 - 15:30 Informatics Europe Dialogue with Members
Chairs: Enrico Nardelli and Nuria Anguera, Informatics Europe [Slides]
Two sessions will run in parallel between 16:00 and 18:00.
16:00 - 18:00 Academia & Industry - "Plugging the Informatics Skills Gap"
Chairs: Lenuta Alboaie, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania), Jim Ashe, University of Edinburgh (UK)
16:00 - 16:05 Welcome by the session chairs
16:05 - 17:25 Informatics Life-long learning: the industry perspective
- "Industry and Academia Collaboration - from a Sony Perspective" by Faisal Kamran, Principal Technology Analyst, SONY [Slides]
- "Innovate Through Science – Life-long Learning in Company Research" by Michael Gienger, Chief Scientist, Honda Research Institute [Slides]
- "The Cisco Networking Academy: Powering an Inclusive Future for All" by Elizabeth Barr, Business Development Manager, CISCO Networking Academy, UK&I, CISCO [Slides]
17:25 - 17:55 Academia-Industry way forward - panel discussion
17:55 - 18:00 Closing
16:00 - 18:00 Higher Education Data Workshop
Chair: Přemek Brada, University of West Bohemia (Czechia)
16:00 - 16:05 Welcome and introduction
16:05 - 17:20 Turning Data into Information: driving changes with IE Data Portal
- "Informatics Higher Education in Europe: A Data Portal and Case-Study", Elisabetta di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) [Slides]
- “Behind-the-scenes of the IE Data Portal”, Svetlana Tikhonenko, Informatics Europe [Slides]
17:20 - 17:50 Joint work by participants
17:50 - 18:00 Wrap up and next steps
18:00 - 19:00 Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly
Chairs: Enrico Nardelli and Nuria Anguera, Informatics Europe
19:00 - 22:00 Official Dinner
Tuesday's coffee breaks are scheduled at 11:00 & 15:30 and lunch at 12:30, for all sessions.
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
08:30 - reception desk opens & arrival coffee
Two sessions will run in parallel for the whole day.
09:00 - 16:00 AI and the Future of Informatics Education Workshop, co-organised with National Informatics Associations
Chairs: Pekka Orponen, Aalto University (Finland), Manuel Carro, Technical University of Madrid/IMDEA Software Institute (Spain)
09:00 - 10:30 Session 1: AI and the practice of teaching Software Engineering
- "Software engineering education in the era of large language models: promises and perils"
by Massimiliano Di Penta, University of Sannio (Italy) [Slides] - "Teaching software engineering for AI-enabled systems" by Filippo Lanubile, University of Bari (Italy) [Slides]
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 Session 2: The impact of AI on Informatics curricula and educational practices
- "Benefits, risks, and challenges of AI in informatics education" by David López, Scientific Society of Computing of Spain/Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain) [Slides]
- "Should we still teach 'Programming'?" by Thomas Gross, ETH Zurich (Switzerland) [Slides]
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Session 3: The future of Informatics research evaluation
- "Open science and research assessment: Which agenda should the informatics community push forward?"
by Pierre Paradinas, CNAM/SIF (France) & Laurent Romary, Inria (France) [Slides]
15:30 - 16:00 Summary and next steps
09:00 - 12:30 Academia & Industry - "The Journey from Higher Education to Entrepreneurship"
Chairs: Lenuta Alboaie, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania), Jim Ashe, University of Edinburgh (UK)
09:00 - 09:05 Welcome by the session chairs
09:05 - 10:05 Fostering & Supporting Data-Driven Start-ups in Academia
- "Creating and nurturing data science-based and AI-driven businesses" by Laura Bernal & Katy Guthrie, Edinburgh Innovations (UK) [Slides]
- "From research lab to startup: Navigating the ethical AI journey" by Brian Hills, The DataLab [Slides]
- "The entrepreneurship journey at TUM" by Marisa Schneider, UnternehmerTUM GmbH (Germany) [Slides]
10:05 - 10:30 Q&A Session
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:40 Successful Stories
- "From start-up to scale-up and exit: lessons learned from 30 years of building and selling technology companies in transactions round the world" by David Farquhar, Intelligent Growth Solutions Limited (UK) [Slides]
- "Minecraft and other stories: The story of building 4J Studios" by Chris Van der Kuyl, 4J Studios (UK)
11:40 - 12:10 The Role of Investment & Fundraising
- "Why investment matters - from an Edinburgh Perspective" by Andrea Young, Old College Capital (UK) [Slides]
- "Why investment matters - from a Scotland Perspective" by Kerry Sharp, Scottish Enterprise (UK) [Slides]
12:10 - 12:40 Panel discussion
- David Farquhar, Intelligent Growth Solutions Limited (UK)
- Chris Van der Kuyl, 4J Studios (UK)
- Andrea Young, Old College Capital (UK)
12:40 - 12:45 Closing
12:45 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 15:30 Green ICT and ICT for Green Workshop
Chair: Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart (Germany) [Slides]
14:00 - 14:30 Panellists' sharing
- "Software as a Service through the Cloud: who is responsible for what emissions?" by Vasilios Andrikopoulos, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) [Slides]
- “Environmental Impact of Deep Neural Network Training” by Kawsar Haghshenas, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)[Slides]
- "Embedding Sustainability into Third Level Education to meet Sustainable Development Goals" by Brian Keegan, TU Dublin (Ireland) [Slides]
14:30 - 15:30 Open discussion with panellists, moderated by Marco Aiello, University of Stuttgart
with additional contributions from Green ICT Working Group member: Rafael Capilla, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain [Slides]
15:30 - 16:00 Wrap up and next steps toward a green ICT agenda
Wednesday's coffee break is scheduled at 10:30 and lunch available from 12:30, for all sessions.