Annual Report 2010 - Fachgruppe Informatik an der RWTH Aachen ...

Overview
Today, the field of Information Systems includes not just structured databases, but at least
equally important the semi-structured and unstructured data in the World Wide Web. The
Chair Informatik 5 addresses both domains, with the management of so-called metadata (data
about data) in the kernel of its research interests. Current major themes include mobile web
services and applications, metadata model management, and technology enhanced learning.
In the academic year 2009-2010, the group enjoyed once again a significant growth of thirdparty
funding. The total grew to well above 2 m€ for 2009 and is expected close to 3 m€ in
2010. The largest growth in additional projects was in the sector of technology-enhanced
learning where several new EU-funded projects and networks of excellence started, but also
new projects in cooperation systems and life science informatics with BMBF funding were
added; the application domain for mobile communication pursued in our Excellence Cluster
UMIC was extended to the field of Car-to-X communication. Prof. Jarke was invited to
present an overview talk on UMIC at the German national computer conference, Informatik
2010, which drew over 1.100 participants to Leipzig in September 2010.
Members of the group took leading roles in the organization and program chairing of
international conferences, including the IEEE UbiMedia 2010 Conference in Shanghai and
the 12th International Conference on Electronic Commerce (ICEC 2010) in Honolulu,
several workshops on multimedia metadata and storytelling/ educational gaming, and once
again the Joint European Summer School on Technology-Enhanced Learning.
The total personnel at Informatik 5 grew to over 40 researchers and administrative personnel,
plus over 25 student assistants. The team represents by now almost 20 different nationalities.
In personnel development, a major step was the habilitation of Dr. Ralf Klamma which was
completed in July 2010 and formally approved by the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics,
and Natural Sciences after the summer break. In addition, doctoral theses were defended by
Andreas Lorenz, Dominik Lübbers, Amine Chatti, and David Kensche. To assist guidance of
the growing number of doctoral student and management of the many projects, several new
postdocs were hired, including Dr. Sukeshini Grandhi (from NJIT, USA), Dr. Milos Kravcik
(Open University Netherlands), Dr. Andreas Lorenz (Fraunhofer FIT), and Dr. Karl-Heinz
Krempels (until summer 2010 member of Informatik 4). Dr. Amine Chatti joined the CiL
eLearning Center of RWTH Aachen University after completing his doctorate in our group,
whereas Dr. Dominik Lübbers joined the HaCon train research center in Hannover.
The cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT
continued in 2010, in research through an increasing number of joint projects and personnel
exchanges, in teaching through the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information
Technology (B-IT) and the new B-IT Research School for Doctoral Training. In B-IT, a
major effort was preparing and conducting the materials and audit for the re-accreditation of
our international master programs in Media Informatics and Life Science Informatics, also
for the RWTH master degree on Software Systems Engineering. For the first time, the new
European accreditation agency EQANIE was active in Germany as part of this process, so
that these programs will be the first computer science programs in Germany accredited both
nationally and Europe-wide. In the B-IT Research School, again a huge number of
applications for doctoral scholarships were received, making it a hard work to select the last
of our now 27 scholarships. A former RWTH library is currently remodeled to improve the
B-IT research training facilities.
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