Annual Report 1997

1 Introduction

UNU/IIST celebrated its fifth anniversary in July 1997.

In 1997, a 5-year evaluation of UNU/IIST was conducted by an external panel appointed by the Rector. In 1997, a new director was appointed at UNU/IIST. The founding director, Prof. Dines Bjørner, completed his term of office on 1 July 1997 and returned to his position as Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. The new director, Prof. Zhou Chaochen, took up office on 1 August 1997.

It is appropriate here to pay tribute to the immense contribution of Prof. Dines Bjørner in creating and developing the institute. UNU/IIST looks forward to its continuing development and improvement under the leadership of Prof. Zhou Chaochen.

1. In 1997, UNU/IIST continued its success in capacity building for developing countries in the area of software technology.

   • UNU/IIST conducted 10 projects in 1997. With these projects, UNU/IIST trained 47 Fellows from 15 countries of four continents. Among them, 7 are PhD students, doing PhD study under the supervision of UNU/IIST staff. In 1997, UNU/IIST published 35 technical reports, of which 29 were co-authored by UNU/IIST Fellows. 10 papers were published in international journals and conferences. 3 Fellows were supported by UNU/IIST to present their papers in international scientific conferences.

   • UNU/IIST organised 15 off-shore and in-house courses in 1997. In the past five years, UNU/IIST staff have regularly given MSc courses for University of Macau, and in 1997 two 3-month courses were given. 350 participants attended UNU/IIST courses in 1997. Nine out of the fourteen courses were funded, wholly or in part, by the host institutions. UNU/IIST continued to expand its curriculum development projects to Africa and Latin America, and provided Fellowships in 1997 to 7 university lecturers who received training at UNU/IIST. Upon return to their home institutions, these researchers have assisted UNU/IIST staff in organising and teaching off-shore courses in Gabon, Cameroon and China.

   • UNU/IIST initiated its off-shore research and development projects. The contracts of two projects have been signed. Through its off-shore research and development projects, UNU/IIST is assisting developing countries to establish their own R&D groups on software technology.

2. In 1997, UNU/IIST strengthened its cooperation with UNU and other organisations.

   • UNU/IIST has cooperated with Tata Consultancy Services in the development of the Financial Management System for UNU HQ. The design phase of the project has been completed, and the implementation phase should start soon. In this cooperative effort, UNU/IIST is assisting TCS in adopting formal methods, a high-level software development technology.

   • INRA and UNU/IIST have identified an activity of common interest and are jointly organising a course on software technology in Ghana. HQ has offered to co-fund the course.

   • IAS and UNU/IIST are exploring the possibility of cooperating on the Universal Networking Language Project.

   • UNU/IIST has initiated joint Macau/China projects in 1997. Agreements relating to two joint projects have been signed respectively with State Science and Technology Commission of China (SSTCC) and Macau Foundation, and with Macau Sino-Latin Foundation. These projects concern the establishment of INCoM (Information Network Center of Macau) and Sino-Latin Net. UNU/IIST has organised the technical teams to carry out the projects, one objective of which is to assist Macau to develop its IT industry. UNU/IIST has also signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with SSTCC, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and with the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Through these MoUs, UNU/IIST hopes to make its efforts for China more effective and also to strengthen scientific and technological links between Macau, China and UNU/IIST, for the mutual benefit of all three parties in the period leading up to the transition of Macau to China in 1999.

   • UNU/IIST has also engaged in south-to-south cooperation by recommending SSTCC to donate a Chinese-made parallel computer to a university in Cameroon.

   • In November, 1997, the cooperation project with the European Union, KIT 010, officially ended. Through this project, UNU/IIST supported 8 Fellows to attend conferences and to make academic visits in Europe, and also invited 6 short-term visitors from Europe to work with UNU/IIST staff and Fellows in Macau. Travel of UNU/IIST staff to conferences in Europe has also been partly funded by this project.

3. After 5 years' work and effort, UNU/IIST has established an excellent R&D team on the subject of Formal Techniques of Programming, and has trained 99 Fellows in these techniques. UNU/IIST has become an acknowledged centre of Formal Techniques in the world. UNU/IIST will continue to expand and develop its work on Formal Techniques.

   • In the past years, UNU/IIST has concentrated mainly on the design stage of software systems, such as domain modelling, requirements capture, system architecture, etc. In order to develop its achievement, UNU/IIST will place more emphasis on the importance of the prototyping and implementation stages of software systems.

   • UNU/IIST can design and implement software systems for developing countries which can contribute significantly towards solving some of the more pressing economic and environmental problems. In this activity, cooperation with other RTC/Ps as well as with HQ will be sought.

   • Implementation usually consumes huge resources and generally cannot be done by UNU/IIST alone. However, UNU/IIST can provide its expertise as a consultant, cooperating with IT industry and institutions of developing/industrial countries or international organisations. The Financial Management System for UNU HQ is an example of such cooperation.

4. UNU/IIST will continue to assist Macau in strengthening its software technology industry.

   • UNU/IIST will continue to support University of Macau in developing its Software Engineering Programme.

   • UNU/IIST will conduct IT projects for Macau, such as the INCoM and Sino-Latin Net projects. All these projects must have cooperation with and funding from IT industry and institutions in Macau or elsewhere. A good example is a project, currently under discussion, about design of a database for "Macau citizens overseas"; the project is planned to be implemented with INESC-Macau and co-funded by Macau Foundation.

   • UNU/IIST has submitted to Macau a proposal for a Fellowship programme which will enable scientists from developing Lusophone African countries to receive training at UNU/IIST. This will also help enhance Macau's international reputation.

   • UNU/IIST will seek partners from China in its cooperation with Macau.

5. Research will be continued in UNU/IIST.

   • UNU/IIST's research achievement has been very impressive. It has helped UNU/IIST establish an excellent reputation in the international software technology community.

   • Most developing countries tend to be more concerned with more pressing short-term targets. Research tends to be neglected, despite an awareness of its importance for educational and economic development in the long term. UNU/IIST's assistance to developing countries in their transition period in software technology research has been greatly appreciated.

   • UNU/IIST will apply its research results to its development projects. The research on the Duration Calculus approach for the design of real-time systems can complement the RAISE approach used in the development projects. UNU/IIST will investigate the feasibility of establishing a research project to aim at combining these two approaches.

6. UNU/IIST has been very successful in training Fellows. In order to make developing countries benefit more from UNU/IIST's Fellowship Programme:

   • UNU/IIST will expand its curriculum development projects to train trainers. The UNU/IIST-trained trainers can disseminate very effectively the knowledge learnt.

   • UNU/IIST will assist more universities/institutes in developing countries to establish R&D groups on software technology by training their group leaders/members in UNU/IIST and providing support within the framework of the UNU/IIST Off-shore R&D Projects.

7. UNU/IIST proposes to organize a symposium to which developing country policy-makers, software industry managers and developers would be invited. The aim of the symposium would be to gain a better understanding of how to promote and develop the software industry in developing countries. Discussions on the organization of this activity have been initiated with industry partners in India, given the success of the software industry in that country.

Annual Report 1997