Professor Maxime Crochemore conferred Doctor Honoris Causa

Professor Maxime Crochemore received the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of University of Helsinki in a conferment ceremony of the Faculty of Philosophy in 23 May 2014.

Professor Maxime Crochemore conferred Doctor Honoris Causa

Professor Maxime Crochemore received the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of University of Helsinki in a conferment ceremony of the Faculty of Philosophy in 23 May 2014. Professor Crochemore is one of the founders and leading figures of the international research area of string algorithmics. His research interests include pattern matching, text indexing, coding, and text compression. He also works on the combinatorial background of these subjects and on their applications to bioinformatics. He has published more than 200 original research articles and has written several influential scientific monographs in the area. He is also the initiator of the annual symposium Combinatorial Pattern Matching.

Maxime Crochemore received his PhD in 1978 and Doctorat d'état (DSc) in 1983, Université de Rouen. His first professorship was at Université Paris-Nord in 1985 where acted as the President of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He became professor at Université Paris 7 in 1989 and was involved in the creation of Université Paris Est (Marne-la-Vallée). He was professor at Université Paris Est for 16 years and research laboratory director for 12 years. Then followed a position as Deputy Scientific Director of the Information and Communication Department of CNRS, 2004-2006. From 2007 he is Professor of Computer Science at King's College London.

The string algorithmics group of the Department of Computer Science has a long-standing contact with professor Crochemore that dates back to the 1980's. On the occasion of the conferment, the Department organized a special seminar in 22 May, talks given by Juha Kärkkäinen, Simon Puglisi, Dominik Kempa, Emanuele Giaquinta, Daniel Valenzuela, Jouni Siren, Travis Gagie, Djamal Belazzougui, Fabio Cunial, Leena Salmela, Jarkko Toivonen, Teppo Ahonen, and Antti Laaksonen.

Picture: Professor Maxime Crochemore together with the string algorithmics researchers at the UH.

Created date

02.06.2014 - 16:41

Cold Aisle Containment in our server room

On Thursday 10 March 2011, we installed a so-called Cold Aisle Containment in the server room shared by the Department of Computer Science and HIIT. This is a rustic contraption made from transparent PE plastic, air-conditioning tubes, and a great deal of duct tape. It cuts back on the need to cool the server room very efficiently, as the air-tight plastic stops the intake and exhaust air from the servers from mixing.

HIIT study: Servers run well around zero degrees

Lots of energy can be saved by using outside air directly for cooling in data centers in the north. In a study by researchers of Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT and the University of Helsinki, computers functioned correctly over extended periods of time when run in harsh winter temperatures. Commercial, off-the-shelf computers ran well even when the outside temperature was -22C (-8F).

Master's degree studies in computer science popular among international applicants

Master's degree programmes in computer science at the University of Helsinki were very popular among international applicants in spring 2010. This academic year the department of computer science at the University of Helsinki decided to offer two of its Master's degree sub-programmes, namely the programme on Algorithms and Machine Learning and the programme on Networking and Services, completely in English from the beginning of Autumn term 2010.

Esko Ukkonen’s birthday coffee

The head of the department, Esko Ukkonen, celebrated his 60th birthday. The celebration was held in Exactum at the end of January. The party was attended by employees of the Department of Computer Science and invited guests. The programme included both congratulatory speeches and songs, with a quartet from Wiipurilaisen Osakunnan Laulajat (the Viipuri students’ association singers) singing a song for a former active member. Esko was inspector in Kymenlaakson Osakunta (the Kymenlaakso students’ association) for over ten years.