Foundations of Computer Science are not redundant

It is as absurd as to expect that Alan Turing could have developed his revolutionary contributions without a mathematical foundation

This is absolutely shocking and must be avoided at all cost. These professionals have helped to inspire so many young people who have been through the computer sci and maths department at the Uni.

As a former employee of Leicester’s School of Informatics, I would like to ask why is the uni doing this to itself?! I have seen this movie before, from Birkbeck (U of London) to Japan, and trust me that it never ended well.

This is the problem of business-minded people deciding what happens in academia. Shameful.

Institution: University of Applied Sciences Mittelhessen, THM. Germany. I teach several AI courses and already implemented several AI solutions. In all applications, the good solution is a combination between AI techniques and techniques from theoretical computer sciences as well as mathematics. So I think it is a big mistake if the students do not learn the basics in algorithmics and mathematics.

Surprised to see an Executive Board losing their mind in a hype. Only those who do not understand enough can make such whimsical decisions. It is the same as suggesting that there is no need to know how multiplication works because practically speaking you just type 2 numbers in the calculator and the magic happens! Innovation is key in any field and it happens for more than being really good at A; it happens because you know about B, and C, and D, and they may all not be that related, to begin with, but someone will see that relation in the future, and bingo! Creativity is not fostered in a single box, but in many different boxes. Pretty sure there is much "theoretical" research happening in other departments and 'leaking' of resources, but nobody paying attention because if it isn't hype, it isn't accessible, it's not money...

Foundations are very important. Moreover, no area is 'pure', it is just waiting to be applied.

PhD student, University of Pretoria

All major advances in applications come from reformulating the foundations.

This is antithetical to creating a workforce which is prepared for the future. Foundations are all that should be being taught at undergraduate level. "AI" is to computing what carbon nanotubes are to chemistry - just hyped "new fields" underpinned with a century of hard "foundational" work to get there.

Just as the pandemic has show to everyone how essential computing has become for the functioning of modern societies, public health, and the global economy, reducing research power and expertise on the foundations of computing is - obviously - very short sighed. Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

I signed the similar position about pure maths. I have nothing more to say, other than the whole idea is ridiculous

Foundational research is important and usually finds its way into practice indirectly.

I work in formal verification in a commercial setting. Without a strong theoretical grounding I wouldn't have stood a chance. ML is a useful tool but cannot be well understood without proper foundations.

Not acceptable

This is an almost incredible example of myopic stupidity.

Let's hope that the University of Leicester has, in "shaping for excellence", quantified their decisions in numbers rather than mere whims.. "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science." Lord Kelvin

To "shape Leicester for excellence" in AI, data science, computational modelling and digitalisation, it is essential that work on foundations of computer science be continued there! One cannot continue to make bread if one stops planting wheat. Not for long, anyway.

Verification researcher in industry and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex. I find students without a firm grounding in foundations unhirable. Computer science is arguable the fastest moving research field of all. The only thing that remains constant are the formal foundations.

What a short-sighted plan! Theoretical foundations are essential for the success in AI, Data Science and applications.