Teaching and Research of Informatics in Germany Martin Wirsing Institut für InformatikLudwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Contents • Education and Research Policy • Universities • Applied Universities (Fachhochschulen) • Research Funding • DFG • BMBF (Federal Ministery of Education and Research) • (Regional funding) • Research Institutes (non-university research) • Max-Planck Institutes • Fraunhofer Institutes • DFKI • (Industrial Research • Siemens CT, SAP, Telecom, …) • Concluding Remarks Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
1. Education and Research Policy • Gesellschaft für Informatik • Largest German Informatics non-profit organization with about 25,000 members • Aims • strengthen Informatics as academic discipline • raising public awareness of informatics • Main current topics of interest • Security, data protectection, intellectual property, woman in informatics, Inf. history • Fakultätentag Informatik • Association of University Informatics Departments • 48 member institutes, 19 guest institutes • Goal: coordination of Informatics studies and research • E.g. gives recommendations for introducing bachelor and master studies • CHE (Centre for Higher Education Development ) • non-profit making limited company founded by Bertelsmann Foundation and German Rectors Conference • think tank for higher education • most sophisticated university ranking in Germany • Indicators: Third party money; publications; patents; PhDs; reputation Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
2. Universities: Organisation • Professors • Degrees • W3 “Full professor” (Tenure) • W2 “Associate professor” (Tenure track/tenure) • W1 “Junior professor” (limited, max 6 years) • Teaching load • 9 hours/week corresponding to 252 hours/year (2 terms à 14 weeks) • Lecturing professorships (new): 12-16 hours/week corresponding to 336-448 hours/year • Research assistants (wiss. Mitarbeiter, akad. Räte/Oberräte) • Typically limited contracts, max 12 years (6 y. before, 6 y. after PhD) • Teaching load • 5-10 hours/week corresponding to 140-280 hours/year • Lecturers (Lehrkräfte für besondere Aufgaben, new) • Teaching load • 13-18 hours/week corresponding to 364 – 504 hours/year • Non-scientific staff • Engineers, secretaries Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
2. Universities: Education • Diploma Studies • Ending by 2010 • Duration: 9 semesters (ideal), 10-11 semesters (average) • Comprising major and minor subject • Structured into • „Basic Studies“ (Grundstudium) • 4 terms including „Pre Diploma Examination“ • „Main Studies“ (Hauptstudium) • 5 terms including „Diploma Thesis“ and final „Diploma Examination“ • Major subjects • Informatics; Software Engineering (Stuttgart) • Combined Studies • Bioinformatics; Media Informatics; Business Informatics; Geoinformatics, … Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
2. Universities: Education • New Bachelor/Master studies (according to Bologna process) • Consecutive studies, i.e. Bachelor + Master • Bachelor • 3 years, 180 ECTS points, • typically 30 points for minor subject • Computer Science contents • Modelling and formalization; algorithms; • information systems; IT security; human computer interaction; • embedded systems, system software, computer networks; • software engineering; programming languages and methods • Master • 2 years, 120 ECTS points • Specialised contents [Recommendations, Fakultätentag Informatik, 2004] Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
3. Applied Universities • Universities of Applied Sciences • focus on practiucal applications and on the transferability of professional skills • award Bachelor's and Master's degrees • But not formally equivalent with University degrees • research in cooperation with industry • Teaching load • 19-20 hours/week corresponding to 532-560 hours/year (2 terms à 14 weeks)! Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
4. Research Funding:DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) • Central funding agency for research in all fields of science and the humanities including support for • individual projects and research collaboration, • awards for outstanding research achievements, and • funding for scientific infrastructure and scientific cooperation. • History • 1920 funded as “Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft” • 1951 re-funded as “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” (“German Research Foundation “) • Budget 2007 • Total ~2,1 Billion Euros (~60% federal (Bund), ~40% states (Länder)) • Excellence Initiative ~ 117 Mio Euro Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
4. Research Funding (cont.):DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) • Funded fields • Humanities • Life Sciences • Natural Sciences • Engineering Sciences (includes Informatics) • Funding categories • Individual grants and Young Researcher Grants (635 Mio € & 136 Mio €)/ • Collaborative Research Centers (Sonderforschungsbereiche, 525 Mio €, CS/Engineering/Total: 4+2,5/68+?/292+36) • E.g. Spatial World Models for Mobile Context-Aware Applications, Stuttgart; AVACS - Automated Verification and Analysis of Complex Systems,Oldenburg, Freiburg, Saarbrücken • Priority Programmes (Schwerpunktprogramme, 7/39/131) • E.g. Reconfigurable Computing Systems, Erlangen; Organic Computing, Karlsruhe, Algorithm Engineering, Karlsruhe • Research Units (Forschergruppen, 1/31/219) • E.g. Quality of Peer-to-Peer Systems, Darmstadt • Research Training Centers (PhD programmes, Graduiertenkollegs, 12/36/267) • E.g. PUMA, Program and Model Analysis, Munich Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
4. Research Funding (cont.): DFG Excellence Initiative • Excellence Initiative promotes top-level research and improves quality of German universities and research institutions • 39 graduate schools (à 1 Mio/year) • 37 Clusters of excellence (à 6 Mio/year) • 9 Institutional strategies • >= 1 graduate school + >=1 excellence cluster • LMU Munich, TU Munich, Karlsruhe, Aachen, Free Univ. Berlin, Freiburg, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Konstanz • Budget: 1,9 Bio €, 2006-2012 Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
4. Research Funding (cont.): BMBF (Federal Ministery of Education and Research) • “High Tech Strategy” for Germany • Developing lead markets (including nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, optical technologies, microtechnologies, and ICT). • Improving the cooperation between science and industry • Accelerating direct application of research findings • Research Funding (in ICT) • ICT 2020 (BMBF & BMWi) • 300 Mio € p.a. for 5 years • Funding of cooperations with industry: • Lead innovations • Automotive electronics; networked intelligent objects in logistics; communication technology for safe mobility; ICT for healthcare • Technology alliances • Digital product memory; communication of the future; virtual technologies and real products; ambient intelligence • Service platforms Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
5. Research Institutes:Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society) • Mission • performs basic research in natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities • takes up new and innovative research areas that German universities are not in a position to accommodate or deal with adequately • complements the work done at universities and other research facilities in important research fields • 80 Institutes, 1200 staff members, 9000 PhD students • History • Funded 1948 by chemist Otto Hahn • Successor of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft • Successes • 17 nobel prizes • #1 non-univ. research organisation (2006, Times higher education ranking) • #3 Technology research Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
5. Research Institutes (cont.): Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society) • Computer Science: • MPI for Informatics, Saarbrücken • Algorithms (Mehlhorn), Bioinformatics (Lengauer), Knowledge Bases (Weikum), Visual Computing (Seidel) • MPI for Software Systems, Saarbrücken (Kaiserslautern) • Distributes Systems (Druschel), Internet Systems (Paul Francis) Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
5. Research Institutes (cont.): Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft • Mission • promotes and undertakes applied research in an international context, of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society • help to reinforce the competitive strength of the economy by developing technological innovations and novel systems solutions for their customers, • Overview • Publicly funded pre-competitive research • 80 research units, including 57 Fraunhofer Institutes, at 40 different locations in Germany • 14, 000 staff, majority of scientists and engineers • € 1.4 billion annual research budget; including > 1 billion € from contract research. • History • Funded 1949 • 2000 Integration of GMD (Ges. Für Math. & Datenverarbeitung) into Fraunhofer • Today largest organization for applied research in Europe • Successes • MP3 Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
5. Research Institutes (cont.): Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft • Informatics • Mostly former GMD institutes (13 Institutes) • Algorithmen und Wissenschaftliches Rechnen (SCAI), Sankt Augustin • Angewandte Informationstechnik (FIT), Sankt Augustin • Digitale Medientechnologie (IDMT), Ilmenau • Experimentelles Software Engineering (IESE), Kaiserslautern • Graphische Datenverarbeitung (IGD), Darmstadt • Informations- und Datenverarbeitung (IITB), Karlsruhe • Integrierte Schaltungen (IIS), Erlangen • Intelligente Analyse- und Informationssysteme (IAIS), Sankt Augustin • Mikroelektronische Schaltungen und Systeme (IMS), Duisburg • Offene Kommunikationssysteme (FOKUS), Berlin • Rechnerarchitektur und Softwaretechnik (FIRST), Berlin • Sichere Informationstechnologie (SIT), Darmstadt • Software- und Systemtechnik (ISST), Berlin und Dortmund Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
5. Research Institutes (cont.): DFKI DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) • Overview • Funded by BMBF and industry (SAP, Dt. Telecom, Daimler, Bertelsmann, …) • Located Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen • 270 staff, 225 student assistents • € 23 Mio annual research budget. • History • Funded 1988 • Leading research center in the area of innovative software technology for commercial application • Topics • Image Understanding; Knowledge Management; Agents and Simulated Reality; Augmented Vision; Language Technologies; Intelligent User Interfaces; Information Systems; Robotics; Safe and Secure Cognitive Systems Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
Concluding Remarks • Education in Informatics • Provided by Universities and Applied Universities • Continued education provided mainly by private institutions • Change from Diploma Studies to Bachelor/Master Studies • Research in Informatics • Basic research • Mainly by Universities • Max-Planck Institutes, still rather small size • Funding by DFG • Applied Research • By Universities, Applied Universities, Fraunhofer Institutes, DFKI • Funding by BMBF (and BMBW) • Regional funding • Informatics Policy • Gesellschaft für Informatik, Fakultätentag • CHE Ranking Martin Wirsing: Enseignement et Recherche de l’Informatique en Allemagne
