Department of Computer Science (University of Copenhagen)

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DIKU

Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (Danish: Datalogisk Institut, Københavns Universitet), commonly referred to by its acronym DIKU, handles research and education in computer science at the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. DIKU is located in Universitetsparken in Copenhagen, close to Fælledparken, occupying the former building of the Department of Anatomy.

DIKU offers both undergraduate, graduate and Ph. D.-programs. Students with a diploma equivalent of Danish secondary school diploma are accepted for the undergraduate program, from where they can proceed with graduate studies and eventually Ph. D.-studies.

Research at the department is handled by a number of research groups:

The Image Group - image processing, physics based animation, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Algorithmic and Optimisation Group - optimization algorithms inspired by practical problems in bioinformatics, electronic chip design and logistics.
Theory and Practice in Programming Languages (Danish acronym: TOPPS) Group - programming languages with a focus on automatic program optimization, analysis and transformation.
Distributed Systems Group - distributed peer to peer mobile applications, distributed databases, sensor networks and grid computing.
Human-Computer Interaction Group - empirically based research of how people with different backgrounds interact with systems.
Performance Engineering Group - improving the running time and space efficiency of programs.

In 2006, Professor Emeritus at DIKU, Peter Naur was awarded with ACMs Turing Award for his work on especially the ALGOL60 programming language and the Backus-Naur Form for describing programming languages.

1 History
2 Famous DIKU researchers
3 Student life
4 Miscellaneous
5 External links

[edit] History

DIKU was created in 1970, as an offshoot of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The first professor at DIKU was Peter Naur.

[edit] Famous DIKU researchers

Per Brinch Hansen was a professor at the institute between 1984 and 1987.
Peter Naur was a professor at the institute between 1969 and 1998.

[edit] Student life

An important social event is the DIKU revue, which is held each year in June. The DIKU revue is always in competition with the physics revue, and never misses an opportunity to computer-animate the complete and utter destruction of the physics institute at the H. C. Ørsted Institute.

As something unique among the institutes of Copenhagen University, the DIKU cantine is entirely student driven and open 24 hours. It is the natural hub for all social events on DIKU.

The two largest social events are the DIKU revue and the Julefrokost (Christmas lunch) of the cantine.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Though DIKU is currently located in Universitetsparken, side by side with the other departments of the Faculty of Science, there are plans to move the institute to Ørestad.

The popular DikuMUD codebase was developed here, and derives its name from the institution's.