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EECS subjects advances on ShanghaiRanking

Published Aug 23, 2018

When the ShanghaiRanking announced their ranking by subject for 2018 KTH placed top 50 in eight subjects, five of which have strong connections to the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). According to professor Jens Zander, Head of School at EECS, the school’s high placements are a result of successful and strategic recruitment.

Jens Zander

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the ShanghaiRanking, is one of the leading international rankings of universities. It is produced by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy and based on primarily on bibliometric. Eight subjects at KTH placed in the top 50, and those with strong connection to EECS placed:

  • Automation & Control: 15th 
  • Transport Science & Technology: 18th  
  • Telecommunication Engineering: 19th 
  • Energy Science & Engineering: 48th
  • Electrical & Electronic Engineering: 50th
Bo Wahlberg

Jens Zander, Head of School, sees the high placements as proof of the school’s successful recruitments over the past years.

”The school’s three most important strategies are: recruitment, recruitment and recruitment. Our long-term efforts to attract new talent and skilled researchers have paid off and given us a good reputation”, says Jens Zander.

“We have several strong, unique research environments which flourish and grow when the “right” people are recruited. And having excellent research environments in turn attract even more researchers to our school. Those factors go hand in hand and support each other”.

KTH’s best placement is in the area of Automation & Control, ranking as number 15 in the world. The school’s departments of Robotics and Automatic Control contribute heavily in that field. Bo Wahlberg, Head of Department at Automatic Control, agrees with Zander and believes that the subject’s high placement depends heavily on great members of staff.

 “The secret is having excellent colleagues and a positive, creative working environment where we cooperative internally and are visible externally”, says Bo Wahlberg. “For 25 years we have worked hard, both actively and strategically, to recruit the best researchers to our department. That makes it easier to attract talented doctoral students, postdocs and new colleagues. This becomes a positive loop where we continuously become better and better”.

In the near future the department will focus on WASP and ICT-TNG, two major research projects where Automatic Control is part of the management. 

“Right now it is all about artificial intelligence and machine learning, but the biggest challenge for the future will be getting complex systems, such as smart transport systems, to work”, Wahlberg says.

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About ARWU

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003, making it the first global university ranking with multifarious indicators.

ARWU is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed university rankings, alongside QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is often praised for the objectivity, stability and transparency of its methodology, but draws some criticism for heavily focusing on scientific research and downplaying the quality of instruction; it also does not adequately adjust for the size of the institution, so that larger institutions would tend to rank above smaller ones.

Read more about ARWU

Belongs to: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Last changed: Aug 23, 2018