The mission of the Institute is to perform curiosity driven and use-inspired fundamental research in Computer Science. The research in the institute focuses on complex information systems at large and seems to self organize into two large themes: Computational Systems and Intelligent Systems, both with a strong interactive component. We prefer to select specific topics and pursue them from methods in informatics and engineering, rather than to make a choice for fundamental versus engineering science. As part of the research mission, the Institute maintains strategic multi-disciplinary research links both inside and outside the University of Amsterdam. From 2010 onwards the Informatics Institute will have six research chairs:
- CSA: Computer Systems Architecture (Prof. dr. C.R. Jesshope);
- IAS: Intelligent Autonomous Systems (Prof. dr. ir. F.C.A. Groen);
- ILPS: Information and Language Processing Systems (Prof. dr. M. de Rijke);
- ISIS: Intelligent Sensory Information Systems (Prof. dr. ir. A.W.M. Smeulders);
- SCS: Section Computational Science (Prof. dr. P.M.A. Sloot);
- TCS: Theory of Computer Science (Prof. dr. J.A. Bergstra).
In addition to that the institute has two profile chairs:
- FCN: Federated Collaborative Networks (Dr. H. Afsarmanesh);
- SNE: System and Network Engineering (Dr. ir. C.T.A.M. de Laat).