Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Following a number of technological and theoretical breakthroughs in the 1930s, researchers in the nascent field of automatic computing started to develop a disciplinary identity independent from computing’s progenitor fields, mainly electrical engineering and mathematical logic. As the technology matured in the next four decades, computing emerged as a field of great value to all of science and engineering. Computing’s identity as an academic discipline was the subject of many spirited debates about areas of study, methods, curricula, and relations with other fields. Debates over the name of the field and its relations with older academic departments occupied many hours and journal pages. Yet, over time computing revolutionized practices, then principles, of science and engineering. Almost every field—not just science and engineering, but also humanities—embraced computing and developed its own computational branch. Computing triumphed over all the doubts and became the most important player in science today.

Big science is bringing unprecedented progress in many fundamental fields, such as biology and medicine. While progress cannot be questioned, when looking at the foundations and models of big science one wonders if such new approach is in contrast with critical thinking and model-driven scientific methods—which has shaped for decades higher education in science, including computer science. In this paper, after a discussion on how big science is shaping drug discovery and modern biology, I trace the start of this new interest on data science as outcome of the “fourth paradigm” and I discuss how CS education is changing due to the impact of big science, and question where/how it will be hosted within universities and if Academia is a good fit for data scientists.

This chapter reflects upon Information and Communication Technologies (ICT, including informatics) research and education in the light of current technology trends. My key messages are that (1) ICT has become ubiquitous and therefore runs a risk of becoming understated and worse, underappreciated. (2) because of its widespread use ICT is evolving to be more involved in interdisciplinary research. I argue that interdisciplinarity itself is inherently a team effort, requiring an individual to consider team-work in a fundamentally different way. The conclusion which emerges from the previous statements is that researchers and engineers in ICT should be better prepared for working in interdisciplinary teams and understand that continuous, deliberate effort is required for successful team building.

In this chapter, robotics is given as an example of interdisciplinary research area, heavily relying on ICT expertise but also progressively on far interdisciplinarity (e.g. with biology, social sciences, law, etc.). Using the metaphor of T-shaped competences, a possible profile of an expert in this field is described and as a case-study, the development of Centre for Biorobotics, is analysed. I conclude with some personal experiences from working in and building interdisciplinary teams.

Leadership and balance are challenges relevant for scientific work as well as in business, politics and also in daily activities of individuals. Here we share our reflections based on the experience of building and leading a research group of over 40 people at a national research institute. Our first observation is that leadership of a research group towards success requires clear philosophical alignment, fundamentals shared between all the members. This includes maintaining a common vision and high enthusiasm towards achieving results (no nonsense rule). In order be sustainable on the longer run, we have to maintain the flow of: (a) knowledge/experience, (b) social network of partners, and (c) constant funding. Organization of the team should be preferably flat (but not too flat) with well-defined roles, but also as fluid as possible (no rigidness rule) facilitating personal and group progress. One of the fundamentals is to develop trust between people and maintain good human relationships within the team (no fighting rule).

An effort, originating from an invited talk on “ethics and computers”, to re-found ethics on the rules of logical reasoning, from three concrete principles (Goodness, Truth, Fairness) and two meta-principles (Restraint and Importance).

In the middle of the twentieth century scholars in the social sciences and humanities have reflected on how the telegraph, the telephone and TV have shaped our societies (A good example is the work of Ithiel de Sola Pool in the mid twentieth century. See for example , Transaction Publishers, London/New York.). In the last 30 years, researchers in a variety of disciplines such as technology assessment, computer ethics, information and library science, science and technology studies and cultural and media studies have conducted research into the way new media, computers and mobile phones have turned a wired society into a full-fledged digital society. In the last 10 years we have entered a new phase of the digital shaping of society. We are trying to come to grips with artificial intelligence, big data, social media, smart phones, robotics, the Internet of Things, apps and bots, self-driving cars, deep learning and brain interfaces. New digital technologies have now given rise to a hyper-connected society. IT is not only getting in between people, but it is also getting under our skin and into our heads—often literally. Our standard ways of keeping tabs on technology by means of information technology assessment, tech policy and regulation, soft law, ethical codes for IT professionals, ethical review boards (ERBs) for computer science research, standards and software maturity models and combinations thereof, are no longer sufficient to lead us to a responsible digital future. Our attempts to shape our technologies are often too late and too slow (e.g. by means of black letter law) or too little or too weak (e.g. codes of conduct). The field of privacy and data protection is an example of both. Data protection lawyers are constantly trying to catch up with the latest in big data analysis, the Internet of things, deep learning and sensor and cloud technology. On any given day, we often find ourselves trying to regulate the technology of tomorrow with legal regimes of yesterday. This gives rise to the question ‘How should we make our ethics bear upon high impact and dynamical digital phenomena?’

With the Digital Single Market and the supporting programs H2020, CEF, ISA2 and other instruments Europe is making a big effort to shape up its ICT. This is also supported by legislation where IT-security plays an excelling role. Not only is the eIDaS regulation as an example offering a seamless legal framework for all 28 member states also it is a unique chance for Europe to show its ICT-strength with its open and innovative approach to attract European industry as a provider and businesses as major enablers. IT-security and data protection need to enable digital sovereignty and at the same time are fields where Europe has developed renowned expertise in the past and could develop further strength in the future.

The paper first shows how early programming was highly shaped by women, and who these were. It further shows when and why computing moved into the hands of men. Then it will deal with the culturally most differentiated participation of women in informatics studies. It turns out that low female participation is mainly a problem of the western, and north-western countries in the world. A lot of reasons are given, also only suspected ones, but there are so many diversities and influences, both in space and in time, that it is difficult to put them together into a consistent and stable picture. This also makes strategies to invite more women into (western) computing a contingent task and it requires steady accompanying measures.

This text will describe the libretto for a one person opera about Ada, countess of Lovelace, its development, and with it Ada’s life and work. There was a big challenge to make audible and visible her abstract mathematical abilities and her insights into the capabilities of computers at the early time of the nineteenth century, as well as her (first) programming, of e.g. the Bernoulli-numbers. In particular logistic problems of the staging arising from a one-person opera are described. The solution is found with the intertwining of an oratorium-like form with stage imaging and projections, electronic devices and tuning.