AIS Welcomes a New Swiss Chapter of AIS

Partly due to early seminal contributions to computer science, Switzerland was among the first countries to establish information systems (IS) programs and chairs. IS research groups are today active at the Universities of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Neuchatel, St. Gallen and Zürich as well as at the Federal Technical Universities of Lausanne and Zürich, at the IMD and at many universities of applied sciences. Due to this strong and longstanding involvement with the field, Swiss IS researchers have also been engaged in AIS activities since the association's inception, and were among the charter members of AIS back in 1994.  Swiss AIS members have also organized leading IS conferences, among them the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2007 in St. Gallen), as well as the two main IS conferences for the French- and German-speaking communities (AIM’2007 in Lausanne and Wirtschaftsinformatik 2011 in Zürich).

The Swiss chapter of the AIS (CHAIS) was established at ECIS 2012 and approved by the AIS Council in December 2012. Membership will be open to all AIS members in good standing who either live or work in Switzerland, or who have a special relationship to Swiss IS researchers or IS research institutions.

The first official CHAIS activity will be a one-day symposium which corresponds with the 30th anniversary of the Swiss Computer Science Society (SI) on June 25th, 2013 in Fribourg. We plan not only to discuss and approve bylaws at this occasion, but also to elect CHAIS officers. In the meantime, a temporary committee responsible for initial activities has been formed by:

Prof. Dr. Robert Winter (Chair) University of St. Gallen	Prof. Dr. Christine Legner  University of Lausanne	Prof. Dr. Jean-Henry Morin University of Geneva	Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schwabe University of Zürich

In addition to side events at AIS conferences, we plan an annual CHAIS symposium from 2014 on. The Swiss AIS chapter also intends to represent Swiss IS researchers in national organizations and to be a primary point of contact for national research funding organizations like the Swiss National Fund. Currently no additional CHAIS membership fees are planned.  

If you have any questions about this chapter, please contact Robert Winter (robert.winter@unisg.ch).

For more information about AIS SIGs and Chapters, please visit the "Get Involved" page on the AIS website, or email sigchapters@aisnet.org.