NEWS Umeå University, Baltics Donation Fund, and Umeå Municipality are investing SEK 28.5 million towards developing the research profile area Applied IT into one of Europe's premier IT innovation environments. Lars Mathiassen, one of the world's leading researchers in Applied IT, will be visiting professor of IT management at Umeå University.
Applied IT, or Applied Information Technology, is a strategic development area at Umeå University, which encompasses more than 150 researchers and 1500 students. The Board at Umeå University has decided to invest SEK 10 million by the year 2013 for the construction of UMIT Research Lab, a strategic focus on techniques, visual simulation and optimization within the area of industrial IT.
“Umeå University has impressive research in this field. It has now merged so that the sum will be greater than the parts. There is a growing need in the industry to work with modelling and simulation based on the expertise available at Umeå University,” says Ulf Edlund, Pro-Vice-Chancellor or external relations at Umeå University.
Researchers at Umeå University are particularly strong in three applicable areas - Industrial IT, health care and e-science, but are also well equipped in other areas. There are also interesting collaborative projects in Applied IT with Luleå University of Technology.
The Baltics Donation Foundation has supported this effort with nearly SEK 12.5 million, SEK 5 million to UMIT Research Lab and nearly SEK 2.5 million for the recruitment of Lars Mathiassen, and SEK 5 million to the area of interaction design that will be conducted in conjunction with the recently initiated Interactive Institute.
“It is incredibly satisfying that we managed to recruit Mathiassen, he is a world-leader in Applied IT research and he will be an extremely valuable addition. One of the reasons that he has chosen to come to Umeå is that our research is characterised by strong interaction with industry and that’s something Mathiassen considers an enhancement to his own research,” says Jonny Holmström, Professor of Informatics and Director of the research development area of Applied IT at Umeå University.
“With his experience, Mathiassen will also significantly contribute positively towards regional growth and innovation,” continues Holmström. Currently, there are about 75 active researchers and postgraduate students within Industrial IT at Umeå University. The main areas of research in Industrial IT are: - Interaction Design: research and design of IT-supported systems for people. - IT Management: research on leadership, organization and governance of IT, or change and development processes related to IT. - Computational science and engineering, signal processing and autonomous/intelligent systems.
- Flexible and scalable IT infrastructure: research focusing on methods, systems, and software development in a number of different areas of what is called grid computing.
“The vision is to develop Applied IT at Umeå University into Europe's leading IT-innovation environments, with strong regional ties," explains Ulf Edlund. UMIT Research Lab is the cornerstone for achieving this vision. Funding for UMIT Research Lab will include the recruitment of three research assistants, 6-10 doctoral students and the recruitment of a research leader in computer graphics and visualisation.
Umeå Municipality is contributing SEK 2 million per year over a three year period, totalling SEK 6 million.
Facts about Lars Mathiassen: Lars Mathiassen helped develop IT research and IT training at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, into the most successful in Scandinavia. The underlying vision of Aalborg is to work closely with the region's businesses in both research and education. In 2002, Mathiassen accepted an offer from the Georgia Research Alliance to build a similar research project in Atlanta, Georgia. Research Alliance is a non-profit organization that coordinates research efforts between Georgia's public and private sectors. Today, the Center for Process Innovation is one of the most successful organizations existing in Applied IT research.
Facts about Interaction Design:
Interaction design is a new, creative and highly application-oriented field of research that collects the disciplines that research into and design of information technology. Interaction design is the core design of IT-based products and services tailored to user needs, goals and intentions with a particular focus on methodology, aesthetics, usability and affective influence.
Contacts: Ulf Edlund, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of External Relations, Umeå University Mobile: +46 (0)70 - 320 46 46
E-mail:ulf.edlund@adm.umu.se
Jonny Holmström, Professor of Informatics, Umeå University Phone: +46 (0)90-786 97 66 Mobile: +46 (0)70-519 38 55
E-mail: jonny.holmstrom@informatik.umu.se
Photo of Prof. Jonny Holmström and Lars Mathiassen, Ph.D.
Photo credit: Mattias Pettersson