Research
The Biomine project presents the contents of biological databases as a network where the nodes represent concepts (e.g. gene, biological process), and the edges represent their relations. The aim of the project is to develop methods for finding previously unknown relationships, i.e. developing new biological hypotheses.
All research at the university was evaluated in 2005. An international panel evaluated the research carried out at the Department of Computer Science and its close partner, the Basic Research Unit of HIIT, and at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. The evaluation process started in spring, when a massive self-evaluation report of research at the department was produced for the panel, along with scientific publications. The panel visited the university in September, interviewing unit representatives and sketching out its own evaluation report during one week.
The research evaluation reports were published on 1 March 2006. Of the 75 units evaluated at the University of Helsinki , the highest grade (7) was given to 20 units, among them both the Department of Computer Science and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT). Since the Faculty of Science was the overwhelming winner in the faculty evaluation, it is undisputable that research at the department ranks among the cutting edge internationally.