| | | Annual Report 1997 | |
The following Memoranda of Understanding have been signed by UNU/IIST in 1997:
China + Macau 4.06.97
High-Tech R&D Centre of State Science & Technology
Commission for China and Macau Foundation
Macau 19.06.97
The Macau Sino-Latin Foundation
China 6.97
National Natural Science Foundation of China
China 6.97
Chinese Academy of Sciences
China 6.97
The High-Tech Research & Development Center, SSTCC
China 26.08.97
Department of Computer Science and Technology,
Nanjing University
India 12.97
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, TIFR
As UNU/IIST has trained many Fellows and since some of the seconding institutions in developing countries have taken up UNU/IIST's research agenda, UNU/IIST intends to conduct off-shore research. That is, UNU/IIST will support former Fellows to organise research groups in their home countries to undertake research in UNU/IIST's areas. UNU/IIST subsidises their research resources, up to a maximum of USD2,500 annually for a group of 2-5 persons. In this way, UNU/IIST is able to provide further training for its former Fellows, and also conduct technical dissemination to a wider number of scientists through its trained Fellows.
In 1997, UNU/IIST signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Computer Science and Technology in Nanjing University to undertake an off-shore R&D project on model-checking for real-time and hybrid systems in the framework of Duration Calculus. The project will improve and/or develop algorithms for checking a real-time property written as a Duration Calculus formula for a real-time system in the form of a timed automaton, and to develop a model-checking tool based on the algorithms. This project is carried out by a team in the Department of Computer Science and Technology led by Dr. Li Xuan Dong, a former UNU/IIST Fellow, over the next two academic years, and is monitored by the DeTfoRS group of UNU/IIST. Two other members of the team have been or are being trained at UNU/IIST, Mr Zheng Tao and Mr Zhao Jianhua. The seed money provided by UNU/IIST has enabled the research group to apply for a larger research grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC). The project started in September 1997 and is very promising.
Another Memorandum of Understanding for off-shore research, entitled "Semantics and Verification of Real-Time Programs using Duration Calculus: Theory and Practice" has been signed with the Theoretical Computer Science Group in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, India. The project is aimed at developing effective methods for reasoning about real-time programs with accompanying tools to support the methods. The project team is led by Dr Paritosh K. Pandya, who has been collaborating with the DeTfoRS group over several years and has visited UNU/IIST several times. The project proposal has been approved and the MoU signed by both parties. The project will start at beginning of 1998.
Dissemination is one of the important activities of UNU/IIST. Even though many developing countries have increasing access to international literature, copying facilities, computers and the Internet, such access is still, by and large, expensive, and many institutions and/or countries are still lagging behind. Therefore, there is still a need to provide easy and cheap access to literature (reports, papers) and free software.
UNU/IIST's dissemination aims to provide reasonable amounts of copies of literature and free software to institutions in developing countries world-wide. However, because of its limited budget, dissemination should be as cost-effective as possible.
UNU/IIST has therefore decided to provide regularly (every three months) to institutions in developing countries a selection of up-to-date information on international literature, free software, and technical reports, both from UNU/IIST itself and from partner institutions, together with instructions on how to procure such publications/software. Based on the information provided, recipients of the service will be able to request a limited number of copies of journal articles and copies of UNU/IIST publications.
UNU/IIST has drawn up a list of 50 selected institutions for this dissemination activity, including institutions in China, other Asian countries, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. Each of these institutions was sent in September 1997:
All reasonable requests from subscribers will be satisfied within 3 months.
| | | Annual Report 1997 | |