Trends in IT Research: Experiences from Katrinebjerg

and BRICSIvan Damgård, Århus University

Katrinebjerg• A Part of Århus, housing a wide range of IT related

activities• Started in 1999, backed by local government,

University of Århus, several companies.• Now includes

– A science park with 60+ companies including Google, VM data, Bang and Olusen

– The CS department– Dept. Of Media sciences– IT dept. of the Engineering school– The Alexandra Institute– Parts of the Architect School

Business, research and education• 90+ companies

• World-class IT research: 250+ scientists

• Denmark's largest concentration of it students: 1800+

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• 10.000 employees within the IT area in a radius of 10 km

Alexandra Institute Bridge-builder between research and business

Innovation• Idea generating, research and development projects

Knowledge spreading• Professional networks, consultancy, further education, presentation of research

A Private Company, but integrated with the CS Department, physically and ”mentally”

A trend, seen in other places as well: bring lots of IT related activities physically together.- Does it work?My opinion: definitely yes.• Gives a boost and inspiration to research• Easier access to knowledge and new employees for companies

Even in the digital age: physical closeness matters!

BRICS Basic Research in Computer Science

• Started in 1998 as a Research Center and international PhD school at Aarhus and Aalborg Universities, supported by the Danish National Research Foundation

• Originally in the areas of Algorithmics, Complexity, Semantics and Logic.

• Today, BRICS is a PhD school covering the entire CS department in Århus (and more).

• Activities: PhD education, postdoc positions, guests, seminar series, summer schools, courses,...

History of BRICS – the institution• At first: massive external funding, BRICS almost an

institute in its own right.• Over the years: less external funding, more integration

with rest of CS dept. Former temporary employees get permanent positions.

• Now: BRICS fully integrated in the Aarhus CS dept., Former PhD students get full professorships. Not much external funding specifically for BRICS - but the brand remains!

History of BRICS – the research• At first: large emphasis on basic research.• Over the years: broader coverage of areas overlapping

with other parts of CS (prog.lang., web tech), or other sciences (Bio-informatics, Quantum-informatics).

• Now: new collaboration across all of CS. Examples: Cryptography – Human/Computer Interaction. Algorithmics – Databases.

Conclusion on Research Trends• More collaboration between different areas in CS, and

with other science• More focus on entire solutions, rather than tools for

solutions• More integration and fuzzier borders between applied

and basic research. • Has basic or applied research suffered? – on the

contrary! In my opinion, symbiosis between basic and applied research is the way to stay alive for both.