Department of Computer Science

The Dept. of Computer Science started at Aarhus University in 1971 as a part of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The Department became independent in January 1998. We have about 1200 students distributed between two bachelor programmes (Computer Science and IT), two masters programmes (Computer Science and IT Product Development), a PhD programme and the continuing education programme. 150 people are employed at the Department of Computer Science. 125 scientific and 25 administrative staff members. The department is strong in both theoretical and experimental computer science and it is our goal to maintain our position as one of the top research centres in Europe within theoretical and experimental computer science. Vision: The education of bachelor, master and PhD students of high quality shall continue. The number of students is high, but we want to increase it, preferably by atracting more women.

Aarhus University is a comprehensive research and teaching university, placed in the world top-100 on the most important rankings. The university has more than 32000 students and is placed in the middle of Aarhus. More than 50,000 people, or every sixth resident of Aarhus, are either a student or an employee at the university or another higher education institution in the city, with whom the university collaborates closely. As a result, Aarhus has the largest proportion of residents aged 17–34 years in Denmark, making it a truly lively and young city. Interdisciplinarity is one of the hallmarks of Aarhus University, the iNANO-centre and Centre of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience being prominent examples. Every year Aarhus University welcomes international students and scholars from aroudn the world. The university offers a broad range of degrees and a growing number of full-time and part-time programs in English, and the summer university, also taught in English, is growing rapidly. Every year Aarhus University hosts more than 4000 international students. Most departments and institutes, and a large number of other educational institutions, are within walking distance of each other, creating a unique study environment. Aarhus Professor Jens Christian Skou was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1997. In 2010 Dale T. Mortensen, a Niels Bohr professor in economics at Aarhus University, received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Among well-known alumni are Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, CEO of the Maersk Group, and Nils Smedegaard Andersen.

At Aarhus University research and teaching in computer science started at the end of the sixties. These activities continued under the Department of Mathematical Sciences until 1998 where the Department of Computer Science was founded. Research profile – multidisciplinary research The mathematical approach is maintained and theoretical computer science has always been an important research area. At the same time a similar area within experimental computer science, system– and software development, has been developed. Today the research profile of the department is more or less equally divided among the two large groups: Theoretical computer science and experimental computer science. The Department of Computer Science has always had a deliberate tradition of a decentralized research management without a fixed grouping, which has resulted in a dynamic development of research activities as well as research groupings. As we emphasise multi-disciplinary attitudes to research, no firm dividing lines are drawn between the various strands of subjects and there is a lively interaction between all areas. Problem-oriented and inter-disciplinary approaches characterize the research. The research at DAIMI is internationally recognized for its contributes within both theory and practice of computing. The faculty members participate actively in both national and international research programmes and they are increasingly financed by external funds. Often several partners from other departments are involved as well as other Danish universities and other institutes of higher education. Department of Computer Science has had numerous successful research projects in cooperation with public as well as private enterprises. At present the department employ both graduate faculty members and numerous temporary researchers. The number of graduate faculty members is expected to raise considerably in the years to come. The establishment of IT City Katrinebjerg will be the next challenge to face. We are looking forward to this challenge as to research, where our job will be to contribute to the growing integration of computer science with other research areas and the surrounding society as well as to teaching where our job will continue to be to meet the need of the society for high educated people within the IT sector. This presentation of our research areas is primarily directed towards academics and enterprises within the area as well towards our employees and students.

Research activities are divided into twelve areas: Algorithms and Data Structures. Bioinformatics Cryptography and Security. Data-Intensive Systems. Computer Mediated Activity. Use, Design and Innovation Group. Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction. Logic and Semantics Programming Languages.