SICS - The Hewlett-Packard Internet Research Institute (IRI) was founded in May 1997 to establish cooperation between SICS and HP in promoting public domain Internet research as well as carry on the research cooperation already established over the years between the two organizations. Projects between SICS and HP have also been defined that encompass wireless computing and communication, integrated Internet services, IP next-generation protocols, and high speed switching. In 1997, there were a number of HP sponsored projects at SICS on the topics above and SICS researchers were involved in the IRI Seminar Series that took place at HP Labs in Palo Alto, CA, as well as at other HP installations in Bristol, UK, in Cupertino and Roseville, CA. The IRI continues its work in its second of three years during its first phase and welcomes suggestions for Fellows and projects from all members of the Internet research community. See also http://fog.hpl.external.hp.com/news/bristol_sweden.html
GMD - Carl Adam Petri, former Director of GMD's Institute for Foundations of Information Technology, was awarded the Werner von Siemens Ring in the presence of the German President, Roman Herzog, patron of the Werner von Siemens Ring Foundation. Ernst O. Göbel, chairman of the Foundations's advisory board and president of the Federal Institute of Physics and Metrology presented the ring of honour to Carl Adam Petri for his achievements in computer science and the design of complex systems during a ceremony gathering many guests of honour at Schloß Birlinghoven, the headquarters of GMD. Carl Adam Petri who retired in July 1991 after 23 years' research work at GMD introduced the domain of Petri Nets which was named after him and in which more than 5000 publications are now available worldwide. Petri also holds the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic and the Konrad Zuse Medal of the Gesellschaft für Informatik.
CLRC - CLRC will be holding a series of Open Days at its Rutherford Appleton Laboratory site (UK) between Friday 26 June and Wednesday 1 July this year. We hope that many of you will be able to call in to see some of the work of the Central Laboratory. There will be a Public Open Day on Saturday 27th and an Industry Day on Monday 29th , together with other special events for schools and colleges. For information on what will be happening please take a look at http://www.cclrc.ac.uk/Opendays98/.
SZTAKI - New Laboratories joined the Autonomous Research Division - In 1997 a consolidation programme was initiated by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the aim of concentrating the research teams working in fields closely related to each other and of actualizing the support of the different scientific areas following their present weight in the country and in the international cooperation. In this process, since January 1998, the SZTAKI and the Research Institute for Measurement and Computer Techniques (MSZKI) have been merged. Two new laboratories were formed from the researchers of the MSZKI having joined the SZTAKI. The Communication Protocol Laboratory (head: Prof. Dr. Katalin Tarnay) deals with the theory and practice of protocol engineering. The theoretical work focuses on the analysis of test sequences, first of all on the methods of test case selection and the theory of test execution. The goal of the practical work is to develop a set of engineering tools based on SDL, MSC, ASN.1 and TTCN editor and compilers. These loosely coupled software components form PROCONSUL (PROtocol CONSULting system) widely used for different protocols. The Laboratory of Parallel and Distributed Systems (head: Prof. Dr. Péter Kacsuk) is engaged in three main research fields of high performance computing: parallel software engineering, investigation of implementing logic programming languages on parallel computers and organization and programming of massively parallel multithreaded architectures. Members of the Laboratory have developed the GRADE graphical parallel programming environment and the LOGFLOW parallel Prolog system. The Laboratory is involved in several international projects (COPERNICUS, ESPRIT and TEMPUS). Detailed information on the activities of the Laboratory can be found at http://www.lpds.sztaki.hu/.
CWI - The Telematics Institute - a national institute bringing together knowledge institutions and companies in the field of telematics was officially opened 11 February 1998. The importance of this event was emphasized by the presence of cabinet ministers Ritzen (Education, Culture and Science) and Wijers (Economic Affairs), whereas Agriculture minister Aartsen, due to illness at the last moment, had himself replaced by one of his officials. The Telematics Institute, the first of four technological top institutes to be created, results from a joint effort of the above three ministries. The Institute's nucleus is formed by the former Telematics Research Centre, based in Enschede, The Netherlands. The participating knowledge institutions are the Dutch organization of applied research TNO, Delft Technological University, Twente University, and CWI. Seventeen companies are involved, including IBM, KPN, Lucent Technologies, ING and Rabofacet as participants. Out of several submitted proposals, two CWI projects have been granted so far: Quality in Future Networks, and Second Generation Search Engines.