| 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.
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