Now former Head of the Department, Jesper Kjeldskov, presented the new Head, Peter Axel Nielsen, with a little wooden monkey in exchange for his farewell gift.
The meeting also included a changing of the guards with Head of the Department Jesper Kjeldskov handing on what would normally be a torch - in this case substituted by a little wooden monkey - to the new Head, Peter Axel Nielsen. In return, Peter thanked Jesper for his stamina and the tremendous impact that he has had – to name but one of many examples - on integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into the research and educational programmes at CS.
Jesper is headed for Brisbane, where he will take up a position as Research Director of Cyber Physical Systems at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). He will be affiliated with CS for three years in a 10 percent professorship after which he will rejoin CS in a full professorship.
DOING REALLY WELL
A fixed item on the summer meeting agenda is the State of Affairs speech given by the Head of the Department.
The overall message from Peter was that we are doing really well at CS; we actually excel in many areas. We should, however, still ask ourselves the question “How can we keep improving?”
- The activities at CS revolve around three areas: research, education and collaboration. Going forward, I would like for us to ask ourselves not only how we can improve within these three areas, but also and very importantly, how we can improve together, he said.
What we do within these three areas should ultimately be to the benefit of the world around us. This means that there are a number of challenges that we should be able to address:
- Although we are doing very well on all key indicators in our research, we should always ask ourselves the question if we are in fact providing answers to what is called for. With regard to collaboration, how can we contribute even more to society at large, industries, and public agencies? And when it comes to education, we should ask ourselves how we can succeed in boosting diversity when recruiting new students?
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
It is obviously very nice to know that you are good at what you do, but it is even better to have somebody else acknowledge and document it. This is in fact what a committee consisting of internationally leading researchers have done in the latest – and seventh – external evaluation of the research carried out at CS. In the Research Evaluation 2016 – 2020 report, proudly presented by Kim Guldstrand Larsen at the summer meeting, the committee states that:
- Our most important observation is that the Department of Computer Science performs excellently in Denmark, Europe and world-wide in terms of publications, visibility, industrial collaboration, start-ups, and societal impact with respect to the selected SDGs (Sustainability Development Goals). Compared to the previous evaluation period, all key performance indicators, like number of students, staff, funding, publications, citations, awards and honours (just to name a few), evolved in a positive direction.
Kim Guldstrand Larsen presented the Research Evaluation 2016 – 2020 report, which basically states that the research at CS is world-class.
Kim, who acted as chairman of the committee, told a tale of a very intense and compressed programme of online meetings – including an online dinner – leading up to the publication of the report in late June. Although the collaborative effort put into the making of the report was indeed impressive – and the outcome highly satisfying – the process was not really one Kim would recommend for future evaluations.
The report, as you would expect of a report, also pinpointed some challenges that CS should address going forward, but the key message, as expressed by committee member Franz Baader of TU Dresden, was “keep up the good work!”
Printed copies of the report have been distributed to everybody at CS, but you can also check out the digital version here: Research Evaluation 2016 – 2020.
Helle Westmark presented Ulla Øland with a bouquet of flowers to mark her 25th anniversary at Aalborg University.