DANIT Denmark's Representative in ERCIM
by Fritz Henglein
DANIT is a Danish Consortium for Information Technology consisting of
five research groups/institutions. The five partners include more than
100 members covering all six Danish universities and computer science departments
and reaching major parts of the Danish electronics, information technology
and manufacturing industries.
Denmark has a long and, given its size, quite remarkable tradition within
information technology. This tradition spans from theoretical research
at universities to practical development, in particular in electronic industries.
Over the last thirty years Denmark has built up strong research groups
within, amongst others, mathematical foundations of computer science, programming
languages, software engineering, embedded systems, mathematical systems
and simulation. All of these groups are represented as partners in DANIT.
They are introduced individually below.
BRICS - Basic Research in Computer Science
The aim of BRICS is to establish and reinforce important areas of basic
research in the mathematical foundations of computer science. The areas
are:
- logic: constructive and categorical logic, logic and automata, logic
and complexity
- algorithms and complexity: lower bounds, algorithms, data security
and cryptography
- semantics: foundations, concurrency, programme verification.
BRICS organises about a dozen major activities a year ranging from mini-courses
to summer schools, workshops and conferences and conducts a large number
of weekly seminars. BRICS activities are reported in a newsletter published
twice yearly. Furthermore, all information on its activities is made public
electronically on the World Wide Web (http://www.brics.dk), including announcements
of seminars and lecture courses, profiles of researchers, and full versions
of all BRICS reports.
Organisationally, BRICS consists of the BRICS Research Centre and the
BRICS International PhD School. The BRICS Research Centre is based at the
Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, in association with
the Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University. Organisationally,
The Research Centre is an autonomous centre with its own management, and
yet with its activities strongly integrated with the existing infrastructure
and student environments at the two universities.
The recently established BRICS International PhD School is based at
Aarhus University. It aims to strengthen and serve as a model for PhD education
in Denmark. It offers a programme of courses and project work of high scientific
quality and seeks to attract both Danish and foreign PhD students of high
international standards.
The board of the Research Centre consists of: Glynn Winskel, Professor
(Aarhus), Scientific Director Mogens Nielsen, Associate Professor (Aarhus),
Co-director Erik Meineche Schmidt, Associate Professor (Aarhus), Co-director
Uffe Engberg (Aarhus), Project Manager Kim Guldstrand Larsen (representing
DANIT in ERCIM's Executive Committee), Professor (Aalborg), Peter D. Mosses,
Associate Professor (Aarhus), Michael Schwartzbach, Associate Professor
(Aarhus) Arne Skou, Associate Professor (Aalborg), Sven Skyum, Associate
Professor, Reader (Aarhus).
The board of the PhD School consists of: Mogens Nielsen, Associate Professor,
Director Glynn Winskel, Professor, Erik Meineche Schmidt, Associate Professor,
Brian H. Mayoh, Professor, Ivan Damgaard, Associate Professor, Olivier
Danvy, Associate Professor, Peter Bro Miltersen, Associate Professor.
Beyond the board members, BRICS involves some 15 post-doctoral and associated
researchers as well as over 20 PhD students, and it hosts about 80 short-term
visitors and summer students annually.
CIT Danish National Centre for Information Technology
CIT is an institution under the Ministry of Research. It was established
during the spring of 1996 and has an appropriation of DKK 130 millions
with a lifetime running up to the end of 1999. The overall purpose of CIT
is to promote Danish research within the information technology area. This
work is carried out in close cooperation with Denmark's foremost research
environments and the Danish business community. More specifically, the
purposes of CIT are to: support joint projects between public research
institutes and private companies; enhance the exchange of knowledge and
experience between IT research bodies and the business community; improve
the quality of university education, specifically for PhD students; promote
on-the-job training; and facilitate Danish participation in international
projects.
The main tools and resources are directed towards joint state/private
projects an innovative area of cooperation in Denmark. CIT funds
the participation of publicly employed researchers in such joint projects,
with the relevant private companies funding their own participation. By
now approximately 15 projects have been initiated with CIT funding, ranging
from DKK 200,000 to DKK 1,800,000 annually.
CIT is a lightweight, distributed organization with branch offices associated
with university research environments in Aarhus, Aalborg and Lyngby/Copenhagen.
CIT management is headed by Morten Kyng (director, Aarhus, representing
DANIT on ERCIM's Board of Directors), Jørgen Bansler (director of
research, Lyngby/Copenhagen), Ole Lehmann Madsen (director of research,
Aarhus), Lars Mathiassen (director of research, Aalborg), and Niels Damgaard
Hansen (administrative director, Aarhus). CIT answers to to a board of
management appointed by the Danish Research Ministry.
Computer Systems Section at the Technical University of Denmark
The Computer Systems Section at the Technical University of Denmark
is part of the Department of Information Technology. Its teaching and research
activities cover design, development, analysis, and modeling of hardware
and software, specifically for embedded applications.
The Section offers introductory computer science courses, intermediate
courses on algorithms, parallel computing, distributed systems, computer
architecture and design of integrated circuits. At the advanced level,
the Section is responsible for the Computer Systems profile covering topics
such as real-time applications, verification, high-level design of integrated
circuits, and software tools.
The Section's research covers design, development, analysis, and modelling
of hardware and software specifically for embedded applications. The theoretical
work in these areas is supplemented with experiments and construction of
innovative prototypes based on new technologies and design methods. Currently
the following subjects are emphasized: Real-time and embedded systems,
asynchronous circuit design, high-speed circuit design, hardware-software
codesign, formal verification.
The treatment of these subjects is based on experiments or development
of innovative prototypes, eg in the application of new design techniques
or specialised integrated circuits.
The faculty currently consists of the Assistent Professors: Anne Haxthaussen
and Henrik Hulgaard, Associate Professors: Steen Pedersen, Jan Madsen,
Jens Sparsø, Flemming Stassen, Robin Sharp, Anders Ravn, Hans Rischel,
Michael R. Hansen, Jørgen Stensgaard-Madsen, and Ole Olesen. The
Section is headed by Professor Jørgen Staunstrup.
DART Design, Analysis and Reasoning concerning Tools
The DART consortium includes researchers from 4 Danish Computer Science
departments: DIKU at the University of Copenhagen; KVL and RUC in the Copenhagen
area; and DAIMI at Aarhus University (disjoint from the BRICS part of DANIT).
DART is funded by the Danish Science Research Council.
Since 1991 the DART project has carried out semantics-related research
addressing key problem areas within programming languages and associated
software for program manipulation. Currently the following subjects are
emphasized: Region inference for memory management in functional programs;
global type-based program analysis for optimization; modules for Moscow
ML (a system developed with DART collaboration); interoperability of ML
and Java; partial evaluation for program speedups; practical applications
of partial evaluation; more powerful automatic program transformation technologies;
metaprogramming; complexity issues related to programming languages; lambda
calculus; analysis of concurrent and object-oriented languages; principles
of program analysis.
The research is characterised by having strong theoretical foundations
and by being supplemented by realistic experimentation to assess the viability
of theoretical developments for practical applications.
The DART researchers currently consist of Assistant Professors: Torben
Amtoft, Jesper Jørgensen and Morten H. Sørensen; and Associate
Professors: Nils Andersen, Henning Christiansen, Robert Glueck, Fritz Henglein,
Niels Jørgensen, Torben Mogensen, Flemming Nielson, Hanne Riis Nielson,
Mads Rosendahl, Peter Sestoft, and Mads Tofte. The DART project is headed
by Professor Neil Jones. In addition, there are varying numbers of postdoctoral
guests, and PhD and MSc students.
LCAM Lindo Centre for Applied Mathematics
LCAM is part of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute for Production
Technology at Odense University, founded as a result of a gift of DKK 75,000,000
from the A.P. Moller Foundation. The Institute is responsible for the degree
programmes in Computer Systems Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Odense
University. The main research projects of the Institute involve the design
and construction of complex manufacturing systems, integrating marketing,
design and production in a single CWIS.
An example of a completed project is AMROSE, a collaboration with Odense
Steel Shipyard, whose aim was an automatic programming system for welding
robots. This system, which is currently welding the curved sections in
a series of 15 Post-Panamax container ships, has been encapsulated in a
limited company AMROSE A/S. Examples of current projects are: robotic systems
capable of automatically generating robot programs for painting robots
and controlling them; robot systems for automatically performing pick and
place operations for heavy industrial products; software tools supporting
interactive design; distributed real time for control; vision systems for
inspection and production. The corresponding research activities are mechatronics,
sensor technology, software engineering and man-machine interfaces.
The permanent staff of the Institute is currently expanding from the
present members to a permanent staff of 15. Current members are: Assistant
Professor Peder Thusgaard Ruhoff (Applied Mathematics), Associate Professor
Henrik Gordon Petersen (Applied Mathematics), Associate Professor Ivar
Balslev (Image Processing), Associate Professor Laila Dybkjaer (Natural
Interactive Systems), Professor Niels Ole Bernsen (Natural Interactive
Systems), Professor John W. Perram (Applied Mathematics), Professor Wouter
Joosen (Software Engineering, from 1/8/97), Professor Bent Bruun Kristensen
(Software Engineering, from 1/8/97). Major research equipment includes
a 24 processor SGI Power Onyx supercomputer and a number of robots and
vision systems.
For more information on DANIT see http://www.cit.dk/ERCIM/
on the World-Wide Web.
Please contact:
Kim Guldstrand Larsen DANIT
Tel: +45 96 35 88 93
E-mail: kgl@cs.auc.dk
