ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 16 – systems science
6. Computer Science
6.1 Opening remarks regarding the grain for the evaluation
This department is the result of a sophisticated split-and-merge. Essentially,
it aimed at gathering activities related to software and other activities
related to computer science in general. This move was completed in 2007.
Several activities were launched, among them computer graphics and
natural language processing (not reviewed here). Today, the department
still has several mostly independent tracks. Therefore, the panel has
decided to assess this department on a per group basis.
In several areas, the department still lacks critical mass. We therefore
advise strengthening the on-going activities rather than engaging in
completely new fields of research.
6.2 Research infrastructure and organization
The Department of Computer Science is a joint department of the Faculty
of Engineering and the Faculty of Science and in 2007 when the IET
Department was formed the research group on Software Engineering
joined CS and this move is reported to have been smooth and mutually
beneficial. It is noted that the Faculty of Science recently decided to close
down its Computer Science activity over the next three years, principally
as a result of the decline in student numbers for this option in that faculty.
The full implications of this decision are not described in the documentation
with respect to any consequential changes in the research coverage.
The research activity in this Department is now mostly software based
with only modest laboratory requirements such as the robotics laboratory
shared with Mechanical Engineering and Automatic Control. As a
result the Department’s research is not limited by the lack of appropriate
infrastructure.
6.3 Research activity and teaching
The research impact on teaching is rather visible in the evaluation report.
In fact, the research areas of the different groups are well represented
at the level of teaching. While this has the advantage of clearly linking
teaching to research, it also has the drawback that teaching on computer
science at EIT has no “unique color” that would make it the place to learn
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