Ralph-Johan Back

TUCS 10 Years:A personal perspective

Prehistory

Visiting professor at Caltech, Passadena 1991-92

• Caltech number 1 Graduate School in ”world” (Times Magazine)

• Strong research center, some 20 Nobel prize winners

• Focus on Ph.D. education

• Strong international enrollment of Ph.D. students

• Well-organized administration to back up graduate school1992

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TUCS kick-off meeting 1993

Meeting with IT professors at TY, ÅA and TuKKK in September 1993 (in ”gamla bibban”)

• Decided to start planning for a Joint International Graduate School in Computer Science (IT) in Turku

• TUCS guarantee was taken as basic principle for funding

• International reqruitment, no preferential treatment for own students

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Planning TUCS 1993

Autumn 1993:

• Committee to plan TUCS working principles• Ralph Back, Timo Järvi, Tapio Reponen, Arto Salomaa

• TUCS was to be just a graduate school

• Participting departments: • TY (CS & Mat), ÅA (CS), TuKKK (IS)• ÅA (IS) joined later (1995)

• Graduate school formed in November 1993• Formal agreement between participating

departments• Name was TGSCS1992

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Second TUCS agreement 1994

March 1994:

• New agreement, now between faculties

• Name changed to TUCS

• Faculties of Math & Natural Sciences in TY and ÅA, and TuKKK

Started international enrollment of Ph.D. studentsPilot funding from Ministry of Education (500 kmk)Administration:

• Ralph Back (director), Timo Järvi (vice director)

• Arto Salomaa (chairman of board), Tapio Reponen (vice chairman)

• Eeva Reijonen, TUCS secretary1992

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TUCS start for real 1994

First 24 students accepted in autumn 1994• 5 students with grants• 6 students with salaries• 13 students with guaranteesStudents from• Finland, China, Russia and LithuaniaEach student assigned supervisor• Supervisor sometimes changed later

within reserch groupsEventually, 19 students finished with a Ph.D.

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TUCS 1994 students with Ph.D

Grants:• Cungshen Ding (China, supevisor A. Salomaa, Ph.D

1997)• Linas Laibinis (Lithuania, R. Back, 2000)• Jianming Liang (China, T. Järvi, 2001)• Leonid Mikhailov (Russia, R. Back, 1999)• Anna Sosyura (Russia, R. Back, 1999)

Salaries• Jouni Järvinen (Finland, M. Nurminen, 1999)• Arto Lepistö (Finland, J. Karhumäki, 2002)• Janne Näppi (Finland, O. Nevalainen, 2000)• Tomi Pasanen (Finland, J. Teuhola, 1999)• Vesa Torvinen (Finland, M. Nurminen, 1999)1992

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TUCS 1994 students, cont.

Guarantees (older students with project funding):

• Timo Auer (Finland, supervisor T. Reponen, Ph.D. 1995)

• Jukka Hekanaho (Finland, R. Back, 1999)

• Timo Käkölä (Finland, M. Nurminen, I. Eriksson, 1996)

• Marjo Lipponen (Finland, A. Salomaa, 1996)

• Thomas Långbacka (Finland, R. Back, 1997)

• Juha Pärnistö (Finland, T. Reponen, 1997)

• Rimvydas Ruksenas (Lithuania, R. Back, 2004)

• Jukka Viitanen (Finland, Tapio Reponen, 1998)

• Marina Walden (Finland, R. Back, K. Sere, 1998)1992

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A busy summer 1994

Summer 1994• National graduate school applications • Center of excellence applications • We decided to also make TUCS into

research center (on request from the Academy of Finland)

Starting 1995:• National Graduate school funding (Ph.D.

student positions)• Center of Excellence in Research status

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TUCS status changes 1997

• New TUCS agreement, now between universities consolidates TUCS status

• TUCS a separate institute, belonging jointly to TY, ÅA and TuKKK

• TUCS get responsibility to coordinate all IT research and education in the three participating universities

• TUCS get responsibility to coordinate university education in IT expansion in Turku

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TUCS achivements -1

International graduate school• Enrollment, supervision, funding, follow up,

travelling, publications, • TUCS affiliations for all students• Appr. 200 Ph.D. students have been accepted• Some 70 Ph.D.s have been produced• Presently 100 Ph.D. studentsJoint M.Sc. Education in English• Some 60 M.Sc. courses given in English each yearExtensive cooperation between IT professors in Turku• TUCS board for planning and discussions• Joint initiatives on national level

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Achievements - 2

TUCS publication series• TUCS technical reports start in 1996 • Now more than 600 TR published• TUCS publishes also Ph.D. thesis, conference

publications, lecture notes, etc.TUCS publication database• Keeps track of all TUCS research publications• More than 3000 publications recorded since 1996

(2000 in international, refereed publications)International cooperation in Ph.D. education • TUCS founding member of European Educational

Forum • TUCS has organized large number of summer

schools and conferences1992

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Achievements - 3

First CS education expansion started in 1996

• M. Engineering in CS started in ÅASecond CS education expansion started 1998

• Almost doubled IT education volume in TY, ÅA, TuKKK

• New areas, new professorships, new curriculum

• A large and demanding taskMaster of Engineering degree at TY

• Joint M.Eng. Education with ÅA/TY started in 1998

• TY receives own M. Eng. Degree in 2004

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TUCS achievements - 4

TUCS laboratory structure introduced in 2000• Now 16 research laboratories, in different areas• Encourage starting new laboratories, new research

fieldsInternational masters program in IT started in 2001• Precursor to Bologna agreement• Volume still growing, some 60 students were

accepted in 2004, but drop out rate is still highNew ICT building • Next to Data City, some 25 000 m2 floor space• Will contain IT departments in ÅA, TY, and Turku

Polytechnic • Ready in summer 2006

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Challenges, barriers

Language barriers

• Finnish, Swedish, English

• Not always easy to combine usage of different languages

• Overall, TUCS has been successful in meeting this challenge

Research area barriers

• Not as big a problem as expected

• Interest for interdisciplinary research

• But not always easy to organize 1992

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Challenges, barriers -2

Administrative barriers

• Barriers between universities, faculties, departments

• These have been the really tough ones

• Still very much to do to get smooth cooperation

• Todays result based financing makes cooperation even more difficult than it was before

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TUCS 2004

CS expansion phase is over in TUCS• External funding from Ministry of Education and

municipalities in Turku region is drying up• This funding is being replaced by result based

funding and by external research funding• The overall funding may not be decreasing, but a

much smaller part will be channeled through TUCS• Basic funding remains (universities, graduate school)

TUCS faces new realities, needs to refocus

TUCS needs to get its own money streams, or then shrink to become a cooperation organization only

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TUCS future 2005 --

4 scenarios

• Educational TUCS

• Research TUCS

• Political TUCS

• Industrial TUCS

May realize one, two or more scenarios (or none)

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Educational TUCS

Develope TUCS into a national and international IT education center

• Continued emphasis on Ph.D. studies• International M.Sc. students program

expanded, with external financing• Adult education, retraining• Focused courses and training for the industry• Conferences, workshops and summer schools• TUCS has head start with Bologna process

• Bachelor and M.Sc. Level studies separated from the beginning

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Research TUCS

Develope TUCS into an international research center focused on some specific IT areas

• Start large, EU wide research programs in these areas

• Only capacity for 1-3 focus areas, where high competence can be achieved

• International reqruitment of researchers• Requires combined efforts of two or more

TUCS research labs• Industrial cooperation • Extensive international research

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Example focus areas

• Bioinformatics

• Health/medical IT

• Software processes and reliability

• Security and communication

• IT in business processes

• Etc.

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Political TUCS

Use TUCS as an instrument for coordinating joint initiatives

• TUCS has good PR, considered nationally as a big player in CS

• Departments individually are small players, do not have strong profile nationally or internationally

• TUCS has proved its usefulness earlier in coordinating and getting funding for joint initiatives

• Larger intiatives require credibility, volume and cooperation

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Industrial TUCS

Expand TUCS into a national player in IT industry

• Make TUCS into an independent center that is affiliated with the universities, but manages its own finances

• Could be jointly (partly?) owned by the universities

• Should make profit in one way or the other, to finance its activities

• Financing need not all come from industry, could also come from government and EU sources.

• Focus activities on areas where there is strong competence and demand for service

• Responsive to industry demands (VTT model?)1992

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Turku Centre for Computer Science

Turun tietotekniikantutkimus- ja koulutuskeskus

Åbo datatekniska forsknings-och utbildningscentrum

DataCityLemminkäisenkatu 14 A20520 Turku

Presentation

1. TUCS mission and organization

2. TUCS Master’s School3. TUCS Graduate School4. TUCS Research Laboratories

5 Departments from 3 Universities

University of Turku• Department of Information Technology• Department of Mathematics

Åbo Akademi University• Department of Computer Science• Department of Information Systems (and the Institute

for Advanced Management Systems Research)Turku School of Economics and Business

Administration• Institute of Information Systems Science

The size of TUCS 2004

• 38 Professors

• 50 Doctors

• 90 Ph.D. Students

• Administrative Staff (25)

TUCS’ mission● to conduct high level research and education within the area of Information Technology

● to develop cooperation between universities and companies

Goal: better utilization of present resourses

Organization

The Director of TUCS

The board Administrative workgroup

(the department heads)

Advisory Committee (23 representatives , mostly outside representatives from companies)

Master’s School (advanced level studies ) Master’s School

workgroup 3 educational

workgro ups

Graduate School Graduate

School Committee

Research Laboratories 16

independent laboratories

TUCSLaboratories

TUCSGrad.School

TY2 dep.

ÅA2 dep.

TuKKK1 dep.

16 Research Laboratories

TUCSOrganization

EducationPath

Level ofCooperation

TUCSMast.School

Advanced level courses at 5

departments

Activities are carried out in...

• TUCS Master’s School

• TUCS Graduate School

• TUCS Research Laboratories

TUCS Master’s School (1)

• Established in the autumn of 2002• 4 Master’s programmes (2 years)

• Information Technology (University of Turku)• Software Engineering (Åbo Akademi University) • Electronic and Mobile Commerce (Åbo Akademi University) • Global IT Management (Turku School of Economics and

Business Administration)

• No tuition fees• Compulsory student union membership, about 85

euros/year

TUCS Master’s School (2)

• Open for students from everywhere• Prerequisites

• University degree equivalent to a Bachelor's degree awarded by a Finnish university

• Knowledge of English

• Finnish Master’s Degree• Advanced level courses instructed in English• Master’s thesis, supervisor from one of the TUCS research

laboratories

TUCS Graduate School (1)

• Established in 1994

• First Graduate School in Finland

• In Finland there are alltogether 6 Graduate Schools within the area of Computer Science

• TUCS Graduate School 2004• 90 Ph.D. students• 35% foreign students (representing around 15

nationalities)

TUCS Graduate School (2)

• 4 years, open for students from everywhere

• Offering doctoral studies in the following areas:• Computer Science• Mathematics• Information Systems • Computer Engineering• Communication Systems• Microelectronics

TUCS Graduate School (3)

The studies consist of:

Advanced level studies •at the 5 departments

•offered in English•coordinated by the

educational workgroups

40 study weeks

Doctoral DissertationSupervisor from one of the

research laboratories

120 study weeks

Research at TUCS

• Over 3000 international publications since 1994• 16 Research Laboratories within the following research areas:

• Algorithmics • Bioinformatics • Communication Systems • Discrete Mathematics • Embedded Systems • Information Systems • Mathematical Modelling • Microelectronics • Software Engineering

TUCS Research Laboratories (1)

1. Algorithmics 2. Bioinformatics 3. Biomathematics 4. Communication Systems5. Data Mining and Knowledge Management6. Discrete Mathematics for Information

Technology7. Distributed Systems Design

TUCS Research Laboratories (2)

8. Embedded Systems9. Health and Medical Informatics10. High Performance Computing and

Communication11. Laboris Information Systems12. Learning and Reasoning13. Microelectronics

TUCS Research Laboratories (3)

14. Mobile Commerce15. Networks Economics Institute16. Software Construction