1. Why no European Computer Science Department is in the World’s Top-10 Willy Zwaenepoel

2. Why no European Computer Science Department is in the World’s Top-10 Is it true?

3. Shanghai Jiao’Tong 2010 1Stanford 2MIT 3U of California - Berkeley 4Princeton 5CMU 6Cornell 7U of Southern California 8U of Texas - Austin 9Harvard 10Toronto

4. Shanghai Jiao’Tong 2010 1Stanford 2MIT 3U of California - Berkeley 4Princeton 5CMU 6Cornell 7U of Southern California 8U of Texas - Austin 9Harvard 10Toronto At best meaningless and at worst misleading. Relies on WoS for publications and citations.

5. 1CMU MIT Stanford U of California - Berkeley 5Cornell UIUC 7U of Washington - Seattle 8Princeton 9U of Texas - Austin 10Georgia Tech 11Cal Tech U of Wisconsin - Madison 13Michigan 14U of California – Los Angeles U of California – San Diego U of Maryland – College Park 17Columbia Harvard U of Pennsylvania 20Brown Purdue Rice U of Massachussets - Amherst U of North Carolina – Chapel Hill U of Southern California Yale US News and World Report 2010

6. 1CMU MIT Stanford U of California - Berkeley 5Cornell UIUC 7U of Washington - Seattle 8Princeton 9U of Texas - Austin 10Georgia Tech 11Cal Tech U of Wisconsin - Madison 13Michigan 14U of California – Los Angeles U of California – San Diego U of Maryland – College Park 17Columbia Harvard U of Pennsylvania 20Brown Purdue Rice U of Massachussets - Amherst U of North Carolina – Chapel Hill U of Southern California Yale US News and World Report 2010

7. 1CMU MIT Stanford U of California - Berkeley 5Cornell UIUC 7U of Washington - Seattle 8Princeton 9U of Texas - Austin 10Georgia Tech 11Cal Tech U of Wisconsin - Madison 13Michigan 14U of California – Los Angeles U of California – San Diego U of Maryland – College Park 17Columbia Harvard U of Pennsylvania 20Brown Purdue Rice U of Massachussets - Amherst U of North Carolina – Chapel Hill U of Southern California Yale US News and World Report 2010 Mostly makes sense, but restricted to U.S.

8. The Z-factor Z-factor = number of ACM Fellows

9. Consistency check: USNWR vs. Z No. of ACM Fellows USNWR

10. Where are the European departments? Top-10 No. of ACM Fellows European schools

11. Why no European Computer Science Department is in the World’s Top-10 Why is this so?

12. Ten Days in Amersfoort …

16. The Reasons 1.They are not departments. They are loose confederations of fiefdoms. 2.They do not do computer science. They do applications of computers.

17. Disclaimer All examples discussed next are from the Netherlands. Any resemblance to situations at EPFL, past or present, is purely coincidental.

18. Symptoms 1. They are not departments They do not call themselves departments Curriculum = ∑ professors’ pet topics Doctoral program = ∑ professors’ labs Over-representation in one or two areas Under-representation in others …

19. Symptoms 2. They do not do computer science Computer science has applications Computer science ≠ applications of computers

20. Symptoms 2. They do not do computer science Computer science has applications Computer science ≠ applications of computers in the sciences HPC, supercomputing, computational science, e- science, simulation-based science, …

21. 2009 HPC vs. IT Market

22. Symptoms 2. They do not do computer science Computer science has applications Computer science ≠ applications of computers in the sciences HPC, supercomputing, computational science, e- science, simulation-based science, … Why? – Press likes it – Administrators like it – Funding agencies like it

23. Why no European Computer Science Department is in the World’s Top-10 Why am I saying this?

24. Because I believe that at EPFL we have a unique chance to make it into the world’s top-10. If anywhere in Europe it is going to happen, it is here!

25. We are in Switzerland Switzerland Real World Map of the academic world, anno 2011, © Willy Zwaenepoel

26. The competition is not doing so well Switzerland Real World Map of the academic world, anno 2011, © Willy Zwaenepoel

27. Brain Gain

28. We may have problems, but we are lightyears ahead of others in Europe 1.They are not departments Tenure track, little inbreeding, attracting MS and PhD students, balance, etc. Main impediment: EPFL lab culture. 2.They do not computer science We are in good shape Stay the course !

29. We are doing well: ACM Fellows InstitutionActive ACM Fellows EPFL5 ETHZ4 Imperial3 5 institutions2 26 institutions1 InstitutionTotal ACM Fellows ETHZ8 Cambridge6 EPFL, Imperial5 5 institutions2 27 institutions1

30. We are doing well: ERCs InstitutionPE6 ERCs INRIA8 EPFL6 CNRS, Technion, Weizmann4 Bar-Ilan, Imperial, Oxford3 ETHZ, KUL, Roma, VU A’dam2 33 institutions1

31. The glass is half-full!

32. Even if you are on the right track, you are going to get run over if you just sit there