An overview of year 2007

Department head, Professor Hannu Toivonen

The Department of Computer Science 40 years

This autumn the Department of Computer Science celebrated its 40 th anniversary. It started operations in September 1967 under the management of one professor. As it established itself during the 1970s, the research at the department studied such topics as programming languages, operating systems, methods for data storage and display, using operation research in administrative computer processing, and the theory of round-off errors and computer arithmetic.

In its current strategy for 11 professors, the department has defined the study of data analysis and mobile computing as focal points of its research. In addition, the department encourages new research fields, especially software research. To celebrate, a seminar and an exhibition on the history of the department were held on 19 th October 2007.

Internationally prominent relevant research

The research unit on data analysis appointed Centre of Excellence by the Academy of Finland is the flagship of research at the department. Its six-year period as FDK, From Data to Knowledge, ended at the end of 2007, and from the beginning of 2008, it continues its reformed and even more diversified work for another six-year period under the name of Algodan, Algorithmic Data Analysis.

In 2007, the Academy of Finland staged an international evaluation of Finnish research in computer science. The evaluation panel was ‘very impressed with the focus and depth of research at the department, its ability to combine theory and application, and its international leading position in many focal areas.' Further, the panel applauded the quality of publications and excellent number of references, the level of international networking, the diversity of research at the department, and a number of other features. The panel encourages the department to develop its status as ‘the evident leader of Finnish computer science.' It also recommended that the department strengthens its doctoral education and the internationalisation of its staff.

Reformed teaching and degree requirements to meet the strengths in research

During the past year, a significant readjustment of teaching was launched at the department. The planned goals for education at the department are an extensive basic scientific education for the Bachelor's degree and expert knowledge based on the department's focal areas of research for the Master's degree. The syllabus of degrees and courses has been developed on the basis of the learning profiles and goals of students about to graduate. The most evident change is the restructuring of sub-programmes and the new degree requirements that will be effective from the autumn of 2008. The new sub-programmes at the department are Algorithms and machine learning, Distributed systems and data communications, and Software systems. The two former ones reflect the focal areas of research at the department and the latter is a strategic investment area.

The transition period from degree requirements that had been in force before autumn 2005 will end in summer 2008. A Master's clinic was launched at the department in the spring to aid long-time students in finishing their degree. This meant that the number of Master's theses increased by nearly 100 during 2007. A record-breaking number of Master's degrees, 96, were completed. At least the same number of degrees is expected in 2008. In 2007, there were also more PhD degrees than the average year, as 8 doctors graduated.

Staff and students make up the department

The department consists of its researchers, teachers, other staff, and students. During the past year, the department's staff policy was also reformed. The goal is to clarify the structure of employment by methodically directing and filling open positions, increase the proportional number of professors at the department. Another development project is to create fixed-term positions in research for persons who have passed the post-doc stage on the one hand, and on the other hand to establish new offices of university teachers.

Well-being at the workplace was established as one of the department themes at the end of the year to counterbalance the workload caused by current restructuring. A taskforce for well-being at the workplace was established at the department to design and implement measures for improving the atmosphere. The department strove to promote the circulation of information as well as the transparency and accessibility of decision-preparation and -making. The university's well-being taskforce carried out an enquiry into the atmosphere in the workplace at the end of the year. The results of the enquiry show that the atmosphere at the department is better than the university average in all the measured areas. The annual reviews with the whole staff were the most obvious subject of improvement found through this enquiry.

As tradition has it, the department rewarded two researchers and two teachers for their successes, one senior and one junior. The award for good teachers went to Jyrki Kivinen and Janne Korhonen and the researcher awards to Veli Mäkinen and Petteri Nurmi.

In 2007, students at the department made a veritable breakthrough in the improvement of teaching and learning. The computer science student union, TKO-äly, its activists and volunteers have strongly participated in the development of such areas as study circles staged by students, information and communications, and the atmosphere for studying at the department. This is all geared towards supporting the operations of the department naturally and efficiently.

Quality in results and activities

One of the themes of the past year is quality. As a part of the university's bid to improve quality assurance, an extensive quality manual was compiled at the department. It describes the main structures of activities at the department.

Naturally, the quality of the activities and results are even more important than the quality-assurance system. When it comes to research, their high level is evident from the above-mentioned Centre of Excellence and the flattering results of the research evaluation; in addition, the latest international assessment of university research gave the department the highest possible grade. The Ministry of Education, on its part, has elected the Department of Computer Science one of the national centres of excellence in university education for the years 2007-2009 in recognition of the high level of teaching at the department.

The new steering committee

At the beginning of 2007, Professor Hannu Toivonen was installed as the nead head of Department, with Professor Jyrki Kivinen as the new Vice-Head. Professor Jukka Paakki, who headed the Department oc Computer Science during 2001-2006, became the Dean of the Faculty of Science.

The Faculty Council of the Faculty of Science was also reconstructed. The new council members for the new three-year period (2007-2009) elected from the Department of Computer Science were Professor Hannu Toivonen (deputy: Professor Jyrki Kivinen), Academy Research Fellow Kjell Lemström (University Lecturer Tiina Niklander), Office Manager Päivi Karimäki-Suvanto (Planning Officer Teija Kujala), and student member Taneli Pirinen (no deputy from the department).

The steering committee of the department started its new three-year period with new members.

Chair Professor Hannu Toivonen
Member Professor Jyrki Kivinen(deputy chair)	Deputy Professor Seppo Sippu
Professor Lea Kutvonen	Professor Jukka Paakki
Professor Petri Myllymäki	Professor Juho Rousu
Planning Officer Teija Kujala	IT Specialist Jani Jaakkola
University Lecturer Pirjo Moen	PhD Assistant Antti Leino
Academy Research Fellow Veli Mäkinen	Assistant Sini Ruohomaa
Undergraduate Lauri Ahonen	Undergraduate Maria Aho
Undergraduate Atte Nieminen	Undergraduate Matias Käkelä
Undergraduate Pekka Haavisto	Undergraduate Taneli Pirinen

The operations of the department were supported by an established organisation where research, teaching and support services are ordered into sectors, each headed by their own managers.