I suggest if Leicester really wants to aim for excellence that it should look to those computer science departments in the world that are widely acknowledged as excellent, and then look at the percentage of their faculty that work on foundational/theoretical issues.
A
Anonymous
5 years ago
Marge: We're just gonna have to cut down in luxuries.
Homer: Well, you know, we're always buying Maggie vaccinations for diseases she doesn't even have.
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Ulle Endriss
5 years ago
Professor of AI, University of Amsterdam
A computer science department without a strong theory group won’t be taken seriously.
J
Jeroen Keppens
5 years ago
To fill the void left by the absence of a sound rationale for this restructuring exercise, there is, of course, an inane slogan. "Shaping for excellence" is the kind of motto one would expect on the website of a third-rate landscaping company. I wonder how much they paid for this brainfart.
M
Mauro Jaskelioff
5 years ago
Appalling and incredibly short-sighted decision.
M
Magnus Wahlström
5 years ago
This is as silly as .it would have been to replace CS by a "department of web design" in the 90's.
T
Tarmo Uustalu
5 years ago
As someone who had to move country because of the takeover of my alma mater and longtime workplace by a similar visionary with no respect toward the faculty that had dedicated their entire careers to serve the university, I am short of words to express the disgust I feel each time I see this type of pillage happening somewhere.
The faculty at Leicester's FoCo are well-known in the CS community held in high esteem by their peers. How can it be that I know of the work of each of them and you don't?
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Bernardo Toninho
5 years ago
Completely shortsighted.
D
David Pennock
5 years ago
Some of the key early people at Google, Yahoo, etc., came from theoretical computer science backgrounds. --Director, DIMACS Center, and Professor, Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University.
H
Hernan Melgratti
5 years ago
Shaping for excellence by ceasing research on foundations does not make any sense.
N
Nick Bezhanishvili
5 years ago
I fully support the colleagues in Leicester. This is a very
dangerous and completely ill-judged move that needs to be reversed.
R
Rachael Henshaw
5 years ago
N/a
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Luis Caires
5 years ago
Computing is a first class science.
E
Eric Allender
5 years ago
Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University; Fellow of the ACM
A
Anonymous
5 years ago
Concerned member of another institution - this research is important!
S
Simone Teufel
5 years ago
I want to show my support for this group and their wonderful work. What a shortsighted, damaging decision. Mathematical foundations underly everything!
J
Jakub Tomek
5 years ago
Strong foundations of computer science are what made me a flexible researcher who can approach new problems in new disciplines with ease. To scrap it because there are two steps to application rather than one would be incredibly short-sighted.
B
Bas Luttik
5 years ago
Continuous research on the foundations is absolutely essential for any kind of progress in Computer Science.
M
Mahdi Cheraghchi
5 years ago
This is a disgrace, and even proposing the move is an insult to academia. Theoretical Computer Science is what defines the future of Computing, and pure Mathematics can absolutely capture the pinnacle of human achievement.
Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
I suggest if Leicester really wants to aim for excellence that it should look to those computer science departments in the world that are widely acknowledged as excellent, and then look at the percentage of their faculty that work on foundational/theoretical issues.
Marge: We're just gonna have to cut down in luxuries. Homer: Well, you know, we're always buying Maggie vaccinations for diseases she doesn't even have.
Professor of AI, University of Amsterdam A computer science department without a strong theory group won’t be taken seriously.
To fill the void left by the absence of a sound rationale for this restructuring exercise, there is, of course, an inane slogan. "Shaping for excellence" is the kind of motto one would expect on the website of a third-rate landscaping company. I wonder how much they paid for this brainfart.
Appalling and incredibly short-sighted decision.
This is as silly as .it would have been to replace CS by a "department of web design" in the 90's.
As someone who had to move country because of the takeover of my alma mater and longtime workplace by a similar visionary with no respect toward the faculty that had dedicated their entire careers to serve the university, I am short of words to express the disgust I feel each time I see this type of pillage happening somewhere. The faculty at Leicester's FoCo are well-known in the CS community held in high esteem by their peers. How can it be that I know of the work of each of them and you don't?
Completely shortsighted.
Some of the key early people at Google, Yahoo, etc., came from theoretical computer science backgrounds. --Director, DIMACS Center, and Professor, Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University.
Shaping for excellence by ceasing research on foundations does not make any sense.
I fully support the colleagues in Leicester. This is a very dangerous and completely ill-judged move that needs to be reversed.
N/a
Computing is a first class science.
Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University; Fellow of the ACM
Concerned member of another institution - this research is important!
I want to show my support for this group and their wonderful work. What a shortsighted, damaging decision. Mathematical foundations underly everything!
Strong foundations of computer science are what made me a flexible researcher who can approach new problems in new disciplines with ease. To scrap it because there are two steps to application rather than one would be incredibly short-sighted.
Continuous research on the foundations is absolutely essential for any kind of progress in Computer Science.
This is a disgrace, and even proposing the move is an insult to academia. Theoretical Computer Science is what defines the future of Computing, and pure Mathematics can absolutely capture the pinnacle of human achievement.