The Division of
Informatics sprang from the
notion a couple of years ago that the
Department of Computer Science and the
Department of Artificial Intelligence would probably be cheaper to
administer if they were
amalgamated. Hence we ended up, here at the end of the year 2000
CE, with a group of
disparate departments that actually aren't departments any more, still not fully
integrated and unlikely ever to be.
The Department of Artificial Intelligence, for instance, is now the `School of Artificial Intelligence', but my email address there still says "@dai". Also, I've heard a (malicious?) rumour that the new nomenclature is actually going to be Informatics South for the old DAI, and similar names for the other departments that aren't actually departments.
One of the main problems with this idea -- spearheaded by Professor Alan Bundy, Head of Division -- is that no one seems to know exactly what Informatics is. The Division website (although it's not actually the website, it's the Department of Computer Science website, even though that department doesn't actually exist) states that: "Informatics is the study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions
of both natural and artificial computational systems." Well, I'm enlightened now.
Oh, and BTW: if Alan Bundy reads this, I'm someone else.