| | | Annual Report 1998 | Contents | |
The mission of UNU/IIST is to assist developing countries in strengthening their capability in software technology.
UNU/IIST emphasises capacity building by training young scientists and engineers from developing countries. The training in UNU/IIST is done through its projects. Through its research, development and curriculum development projects, UNU/IIST assists developing countries build up their research, development and education capacities in the area of software technology.
With its limited resources, UNU/IIST needs to have a technical focus. The criteria for choosing the focal techniques are twofold. UNU/IIST, as a UN organisation, should not compete with but complement existing institutions that have similar missions. The selected technique should be useful for training rather than being product-oriented. Using these criteria, UNU/IIST has chosen formal methods as its focal technique at the present time. Although this technique is well-developed in industrialised countries, particularly in universities, it is not yet very widespread in developing countries. All UNU/IIST projects so far are built around the concepts of formal methods.
In 1998, UNU/IIST conducted 8 in-house research and development projects and 3 offshore projects. Together with the curriculum development project, UNU/IIST has trained 44 Fellows from 16 countries this year.
In order to provide training of the highest quality and to establish and maintain a reputation of high standing in the international academic community, academic excellence has been a priority in UNU/IIST projects. In 1998, 26 UNU/IIST reports have been presented at technical conferences in Australia, Europe, Japan and North America, and UNU/IIST staff are participating on 16 programme or steering committees of international technical conferences.
In 1998, UNU/IIST continues to develop its activities in Africa. UNU/IIST co-sponsored the 4th Workshop on Formal and Applied Computer Science in South Africa in July, supporting 9 participants from 5 African countries and 14 participants from historically disadvantaged regions of South Africa. It also supported MCSEAI'98 (Maghrebian Conference on Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence) and has begun the preparation for courses in the Maghreb region and in Egypt which are scheduled to take place in 1999. UNU/IIST has an understanding with Macau Foundation to establish a joint Fellowship Programme for the Lusophone African countries, and in April a meeting with Vice-Minister of Education of Angola and senior officials from other Portuguese-speaking African countries was organised in Macau in this regard.
UNU/IIST has been generously supported by Macau. In April 1998, work started on the renovation of the Casa Silva Mendes, UNU/IIST's permanent premises, and the move to the new premises is scheduled for April of 1999. UNU/IIST of course has a substantial commitment to serve the local community. Through its international achievements, UNU/IIST has represented Macau's contribution to the world as well as to the UN system. And, in the meantime, UNU/IIST has organised its Macau activities to promote the development of information technology in Macau. In 1998, the first stage of INCoM, a joint China-Macau-UNU/IIST project to set up an Information Network Centre in Macau, was successfully completed and the second phase has been started. A joint project with a local bus company, Transmac, to develop a Management Information System in connection with the application of IC cards in its business, was finished satisfactorily. UNU/IIST's involvement in local research and training initiatives with both the public and private sector has increased and UNU/IIST's activities are increasingly reported in the local press and TV.
UNU/IIST has enjoyed a successful 1998, and looks forward to a more challenging year in 1999, when it intends to widen its technical scope.
In August 1998, UNU/IIST recruited from Oxford University Prof. He Jifeng as a senior research staff of UNU/IIST in charge of the research project. One of his proposals is for the UNU/IIST research project to investigate how to combine formal methods with Verilog for the co-design of software and hardware, and to integrate DC with UML (Universal Modelling Language) for object-oriented programming. The development group will also pursue a project to combine RAISE with Duration Calculus. Integrating useful techniques for industrial applications will be a new feature of UNU/IIST research and development projects in 1999.
In 1999, the curriculum development project of UNU/IIST will be complemented by the university development project, which aims to strengthen computer science teaching (not necessarily on formal methods) in universities in developing countries. The university development project will provide short training to lecturers from developing countries in new courses at universities in industrialised countries. Due to our high standing in the international research and development community of software technology, UNU/IIST has received very positive replies from universities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. A first group of lecturers from Mongolia and Vietnam will be trained at the beginning of 1999.
In 1999, UNU/IIST will pursue its effort to further expand its activities in Africa. It is expected that our plan for the North African and Lusophone regions of Africa will be materialised. In 1999, UNU/IIST will further develop its good relations with Macau and China. In view of Macau's return to China in 1999, UNU/IIST is proposing to develop an information system for Macau on the "handover".
In line with the strategic plan of UNU, UNU/IIST will strengthen its linkages with UNU and other UN organisations. UNU/IIST's consultation for the Finance, Budget and Personnel Management System of UNU HQ has helped the project to complete its formal specification stage to schedule and it will continue to provide support to this project. UNU/IIST is also investigating with INRA how to assist in the development of a natural resource management system for INRA. Negotiations are progressing well with UNESCO Beijing Office and HQ in Paris to organise joint activities in China, Mongolia and DPR Korea and in Central Asia. UNESCO Macau Center will also be involved in these joint activities.
| | | Annual Report 1998 | Contents | |