ECSS 2019 - First Call for Participation

by Svetlana Tikhonenko, June 3, 2019

The first call for participation has been released for the ECSS 2019. The 15th European Computer Science Summit - ECSS 2019 - will take place in Rome, Italy, Oct 28-30, dedicated to "Social Responsibility of Informatics".

15th European Computer Science Summit - ECSS 2019

'Social Responsibility of Informatics'

28 – 30 October 2019, Rome, Italy

The European Computer Science Summit is the meeting place for anyone interested in issues of research, education and policy in Informatics. The annual summit is a unique opportunity to meet some of the prominent decision makers and discuss critical issues for the discipline. The 15th edition - ECSS 2019 - will be held in Rome, Italy, October 28-30, 2019. The conference this year will have a renewed and enriched format consisting of a main summit of three days composed of a number of complementary events and sessions. 

The conference opens on Monday with a Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education, and a Workshop of the WIRE working group. The program continues with keynote addresses and a thought-provoking discussion panel on the central theme 'Social Responsibility of Informatics'. An array of interdisciplinary topics regarding the interplay between Informatics and Ethics, Law, Privacy as well as Responsible Research and Innovation and Artificial Intelligence will be addressed by a selection of distinguished speakers from all over Europe. Rounding up Tuesday’s program, we will have the Informatics Europe and ERCIM Awards Ceremony, the Dialogue with Members Session and the Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly where key topics of relevance to the community and the development of the organisation will be actively discussed. This year we want to encourage a closer dialogue and an even more active participation from our members. The program will include a Creative Coffee Break and a Members' Voice track where members will have the opportunity to actively contribute and discuss ways to implement their ideas. The Summit is concluded on Wednesday with a very special Workshop on Bridging the Digital Talent Gap in Europe organised by Informatics Europe in partnership with the European Commission DG CONNECT. The workshop will bring together leaders from Universities, Industry and the European Commission for an open, transparent and productive conversation on the complex, pervasive and pressing issue of the digital talent gap.

ECSS 2019 is devoted to important and timely strategic issues and trends regarding all aspects of Informatics, including research, education, entrepreneurship, funding, career development, management and policies and will bring together:

  • Heads (deans, chairs) of academic Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT) departments (schools, faculties, institutes);
  • Research directors and managers of research centres, institutes and laboratories, both in public institutions and in industry;
  • Faculty members and researchers from both academia and industry;
  • Members of funding and governmental agencies at European, national, regional and local level;
  • Experts, advisors and thinkers of numerous key issues like ethics, the relation between Informatics and other sciences, the discipline’s future and its influence on the academic world and society.

The Summit is co-chaired by Enrico Nardelli, Informatics Europe President, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' and Gianfranco Basti, Pontifical Lateran University, with organisational support by Alessandro Mei, 'Sapienza' University of Rome and Paolo Atzeni, University of Rome 'Tre'. Program Chairs include Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, and Paola Mello, University of Bologna; Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TU Vienna and Gregor Engels, University of Paderborn; Erika Abraham, RWTH Aachen University, Lejla Batina, Radboud University, and Alexandra Silva, University College London; Fabrizia Benini and Alexander Riedl, European Commission (DG CONNECT).

Below, the information about the venue, coordinates and logistics is provided. Reading further, you will also find an overview of the whole Summit, with summary of each day and more details about the events and sessions. For further information, you can visit the ECSS website or access directly the information concerning each specific session:

An  advance detailed schedule is also available on the ECSS 2019 website. Registrations will open by the end of June.

Venue/Travel

ECSS 2019 Venue Location

The Summit will be held at the Hotel NH Collection Roma Centro - Via dei Gracchi, 324, 00192, Rome, Italy. See here a map of the location.

How to Reach the Venue

The Hotel NH Collection Roma Centro is located in the heart of Rome, in the Prati/Vatican City area. The closest Metro station is Lepanto.

From the Airport:

  • Taxi: approx. 33 minutes ride for around 60 EUR.
  • Aerobus shuttle: Departs every 30-45 minutes and costs 6 EUR. Drop off at Stazione Termini and from there take Metro A direction Battistini for 5 stops, get off in Lepanto walk few meters.

From Train Station Termini:

  • Metro A direction Battistini for 5 stops, get off in Lepanto, walk few meters.
Click here for a Rome Metro map.

By Car:

  • The hotel's GPS Coordinates: 41.90977640000001°N 12.468713999999977°E
  • Parking: Offsite. The parking is owned by a 3rd party and is 25 EUR/day.

For more information about public transportation in Rome and ways to reach the Conference Venue, you can visit www.atac.roma.it.

Accommodation

Beyond the Hotel NH Collection Roma Centro, you can check the following hotels at walking distance from the venue - we recommend early booking since Rome is always a busy touristic city -


Special Offer for Prospective Members

If your organisation is planning to join Informatics Europe, we have a special offer in combination with ECSS 2019: your conference registration fee(s) will be discounted from the annual membership fee of your institution when joining Informatics Europe. The offer includes the discount of one individual registration fee per institution up to the value of maximum one annual membership.

For details about membership, please visit our Membership page. For further information about this offer, please contact [email protected].


ECSS 2019 - EVENTS AND SESSIONS

Leaders Workshop - Developing as a Leader in an Academic Context
Day I (Monday, October 28)

The Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education addresses specific challenges they encounter in their role. The workshop is a unique networking forum for leaders of Informatics institutions and research groups, and focuses on concrete issues and practical solutions.

The 2019 workshop will be held on Monday, October 28, chaired by Gregor Engels, Paderborn University and Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TU Vienna.  The central theme is Developing as a Leader in an Academic Context, with main focus on special skills and leadership training needed to play a leadership role at any level in an academic context.

This will be a highly interactive workshop, based on evidence-based leadership research, with a series of discussions/knowledge sharing/exchange in both large and smaller groups and summarising presentations that point to current research and practical guidelines.

To get more details about the content and topics covered, visit the Leaders Workshop web page.

WIRE Workshop - The Computer Science Career Journey - Opportunities and Challenges for Women
Day I (Monday, October 28)

The Informatics Europe working group on Women in Informatics Research and Education (WIRE) promotes actions that help improving gender balance at all stages of the career path in Informatics (Computer Science, Computing) in Europe. WIRE will be organising a full-day workshop with the main goal of fostering and strengthening a European network of colleagues working at the university and country level on the issue of gender unbalance in Informatics. The workshop is open only to invited participants and is chaired by Erika Abraham, RWTH Aachen University, Lejla Batina, Radboud University, and Alexandra Silva, University College London.

For more information and requests for invitation visit the WIRE Workshop web page.

Keynotes and Panel - Social Responsibility of Informatics
Day I, II and III (Monday, October 28, Tuesday, October 29, Wednesday, October 30)

The last years have clearly shown that Informatics is not anymore only a solid and pervasive scientific discipline with a huge potential for technological innovation, but it is also deeply affecting the fabric of our society. More and more, Informatics systems automatically control our lives, regulate our personal and social relations, and take decisions directly affecting ourselves and the whole society. While the increasing automation offered by Informatics could allow humankind to achieve huge possibilities of progress, it could also dramatically affect not only everybody's quality of life, but also fundamental rights of individuals and society.

It is therefore becoming mandatory that our scientific community reflects on the 'Social Responsibility of Informatics' and makes sure that this 'social responsibility' perspective is more and more integrated into our teaching and research. During the ECSS, prominent academics, industry leaders and decision makers discuss the importance of responsibility assigned to us by an unbelievably powerful technology, offering food for thought in state-of-the-art lectures, engaging panel discussion and examples of successful stories.

Keynote Speakers
Panellists

For more information visit the Social Responsibility of Informatics web page.

Informatics Europe Dialogue with Members and Awards Session
Day II (Tuesday, October 29)

To strength the network of members and allow them to participate actively in the main decisions regarding the strategy for future development of Informatics Europe, as well as keeping them informed of the main activities and outcomes of the organisations’ work, Informatics Europe will be organising this year in Rome:

  • A Dialogue with Members session which will include a track focused on the progress of Activities and Outcomes of Informatics Europe Working Groups and High-Level activities, a Creative Coffee Break and a Member's Voice track where members of the association will have the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other members and the Board and present their ideas on how they would like to contribute and shape the future of the organisation.
  • The Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly to discuss the main organisational and financial outcomes of the past year and outline the association's plans and finances for future years.

For more up to date information, visit the Informatics Europe Sessions web page.

In partnership with ERCIM, Informatics Europe will organise a joint Award ceremony where the winners of three awards are presented:

  • Best Practices in Education Award recognising educational initiatives across Europe that improve the quality of Informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline.
  • Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognising best practices in departments or faculties of European universities and research labs that encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education.
  • Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award recognising a promising young researcher in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.

For more information visit the Awards web page.

Workshop Bridging the Digital Talent Gap - Towards Successful Industry-University Partnerships
Day III (Wednesday, October 30)

Informatics Europe in partnership with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) will organise a workshop that will bring together higher education organisations, industry and public policy makers to reflect and act on the problem of the Digital Talent Gap. The goals are to identify current challenges, opportunities and together propose solutions that could help bridging the supply-demand gap in ICT in Europe, resulting in more graduates with the skills needed by European businesses to grow and innovate. Particular areas of interest are: Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Software Engineering.

The workshop will be a mixture of presenting results of preparatory desk research, including a short survey, presentation of success stories, participatory workshops on concrete topics run by professional facilitators with a high degree of interactivity, harvesting and discussions, planning next possible steps as emerged at the workshop.

Concrete outcomes will be sought and  a report from the workshop will be published, containing, for example, proposals for new and amended courses; suggestions for new models of industry-academy cooperation in higher education; input to existing and future funding programmes at the European (Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe), national and regional level; ideas for possible increase of private-sector investments. It will be considered whether a large consensus emerges on some key points that could be the base for a possible joint manifesto signed by the workshop participants.

To get more details about the content and topics discussed, visit the Talent Gap Workshop web page.