Within the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science nine research groups have been assessed, over the period from 2002 thru 2008. The Committee assessed the research according to quality, productivity, relevance and feasibility. Jointly the Eindhoven groups attained a score of 4.5 on a scale ranging up to 5. The groups Architecture of Information Systems led by prof. dr. ir. Wil van der Aalst and Algorithms led by prof. dr. Mark de Berg attained the highest scores for all criteria. The group led by prof. dr. ir. Jack van Wijk (Visualization) ended half a point short of that. The Committee was quite pleased with the high quality level attained by all groups, although it does find that there is a great deal of attention in Eindhoven for research into formal methods. It hopes that in the future more attention will be devoted to experimental and technical research.

TU/e professor dr. ir. Jan Friso Groote is pleased with the results. As chairman of the national chamber for computer science education and research he was one of the initiators to arrange the evaluation. “At TU/e we have had all our groups evaluated, including younger groups that are still in the developmental stage. Although this may not be convenient strategically, it was not our intention to attain the highest possible score. We really want to know how our peers view our research and subsequently we will see what we recognize in their findings and what we can or cannot take on board.” For instance, the structure will be changed. Groote: “Shortly we aim to accommodate the nine existing chairs in four sections.”

The procedure also gives Groote satisfaction. “During the discussion of the results in the national chamber some protests were raised by individuals, but these were resolved within a matter of five minutes.” The Committee also concludes that the Netherlands ranks among the strongest nations worldwide in the area of computer science. “And we can really count ourselves lucky for that in the Netherlands”, Groote adds. (HK)/.