Foundations of Computer Science are not redundant

Foundations of Computer Science are the foundations of today's applications. Research done today will have long lasting effects in the fields the university wants to keep as foundations of computer science are the most important part. If you stop researching this, you might as well stop researching everything

Full Professor in Software Engineering and Automotive Informatics - Foundational Research in Formal Methods and Applications to Industrial Practice

Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Gothenburg and University of Leicester

Assistant Professor at Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin

The reasoning behind this kind of managerial decision is wrong for all stakeholders (students, staff, granting agencies). Let us just take one example: machine learning vs verification. There is a growing line of research at this intersection to ensure robustness, lack of bias, etc of statistical models. This line of enquiry is key to AI in the real world and rests on solid FOCO methodologies (eg programming semantics, static analysis). It also brings novel FOCO questions. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Other examples of valuable FOCO interfaces: quantum applications, blockchain consensus protocols, languages for financial contracts.

Full professor, Aix-Marseille Université

Leicester has a strong reputation for the world-class research undertaken by staff working in the area of Foundations of Computer Science. University management should recognise the importance of foundational work and rethink their reshaping plan.

Mathematics, Cardiff University

This is a very myopic view of Computer Science.

Professor of Computer Science, former head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Università di Bologna, Italy. Focussing on AI out of its proper context is shortsighted. The context if the broad area of computer science and engineering, which includes the Foundations of Computer Science (FoCo) where the "highly theoretical research" informs and stimulates innovation and applications.

They are called Foundations for a reason. Without them you cannot build anything substantial.

Associate Professor at Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Bologna, Italy

I got my M.S. during the 2nd wave of machine learning in the 1980s (my advisor was Tom Mitchell, later founding chair of the Department of Machine Learning at CMU). We are now in the 3rd AI/ML wave. Whether there'll be yet another ML/AI-winter, as with the previous 2, who knows. Progress in science and society, -- including AI/ML and data science -- rests on computer science fundamentals that are critical, very hard to come by und maintain at the high level of Leicester FOCO, but easy to dismantle. A university's prime mission is to complement market pressures (and opportunities) that companies are exposed to by retaining and building long-term knowledge -- to the very benefit of those companies. It is sad to learn that U. Leicester apparently feels compelled to move into the domain of yoyo-ing market trends, and it is mind-boggling that they seemingly believe that secure, safe, correct, scalable and performant IT systems and applications, which nowadays permeating every aspect of modern life, can be built without cutting-edge research expertise in algorithms, logic, formal methods, programming language technology, concurrent system and verification; it's hard enough with them.

Professor of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, working both in theoretical subjects and in very applied areas of data science and AI. The decision by the Leicester VC betrays an utter lack of ambition and foresight. Whatever perceived gains there might be in the short term will be dwarfed in magnitude by the woes experienced when the university loses not only its current highly regarded reputation, but also its ability to produce software developers and data scientists with sufficient theoretical and practical underpinnings to create novel, safe, and efficient solutions in those very fields that the VC wishes U. of Leicester to focus on.

Lecturer at UoM

This kind of decision is what I call an academic suicide!

This decision is shortsighted to say the least. Foundational research should be among the core missions of any academic institution.

This is a very short-sighted decision... Q: Which technological collapse do you prefer? A: We do not care, as we are not interested in Pure Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science.

Theoretical Computer Science is fundamental to the CS field.

It is incredibly shortsighted to consider that a university (of all places) should focus solely on AI and data science. Breakthroughs, such as AI, are enabled by research on theoretical foundations, the likes of which the University of Leicester wants to terminate.