Slovak Consortium joins ERCIM
by Gabriela Andrejkova and Branislav Rovan
The Slovak Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics,
SRCIM, consists of four major Slovak R&D institutes active in
informatics and mathematics; comprised of three universities and
of one research institute from the Academy of Sciences of the
Slovak Republic. The university institutions involved are the
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the Comenius University
in Bratislava, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information
Technology at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava,
and the Faculty of Science at the Safarik University in Kosice.
The institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is the Mathematical
Institute (with its Institute for Informatics) in Bratislava.
By establishing SRCIM from these four partners, it has been possible
to create a partner for ERCIM which is strong enough to represent
the Slovak R&D community in informatics and mathematics. The final
agreement on SRCIM joining ERCIM was signed on the occasion of
the ERCIM meetings in Sankt Augustin on 29 May 1998 (see ERCIM
News No. 34, page 3).
The SRCIM institutes have been involved, sometimes jointly, in
a number of international projects. The EU funded many of these
projects. Below we will give a short description of the profile
of each SRCIM institute, ordered according to the age of the institute.
Comenius University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Founded in 1919, Comenius University is the oldest university
in Slovakia. The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics came into
existence in 1980 by splitting from the Natural Science Faculty.
The faculty consists of 22 departments, 3 institutes, the computer
center, and experimental workshops. More than 1500 full-time students
and almost 200 PhD students are registered at the faculty. The
faculty employs over 300 teachers and researchers. The faculty
is divided into three schools: the School of Mathematics, School
of Physics and School of Informatics. The School of Mathematics
consists of the departments of Algebra and Number Theory, Didactic
of Mathematics, Calculus, Geometry, Numerical Mathematics and
Optimization, Probability and Mathematical Statistics, Institute
of Applied Mathematics. The School of Informatics was established
in 1990 after several departments split off the Department of
Computer Science that was founded in 1974. At present it consists
of the following departments: Department of Computer Graphics
and Image Processing, Department of Computer Science, Department
of Computer Science Education, Institute of Computer Science.
The research activities of the School of Informatics involve models
of computation, complexity, algorithms, parallel and distributed
computing, combinatorics, computer graphics, information systems,
security, distributed systems, software engineering, and computer
science education. The School of Informatics has been involved
in co-organizing the international conferences Mathematical Foundations
of Computer Science (MFCS) and Theory and Practice of Informatics
(SOFSEM) since 1973.
Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Information Technology
The Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava was founded
in 1941 and it is the oldest and largest technical university
in Slovakia. Information Technology has been added to the name
of one of its six faculties, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Information Technology, in 1994. This faculty consists of
18 departments. About 2800 full-time students and 150 PhD students
are registered at the faculty. The faculty employs about 400 teachers
and researchers. There are 3 departments in the area of information
technology: Department of Computer Science and Technology, Department
of Mathematics, and Department of Telecommunications.
The research activities within the information technology area
involve formal methods and tools for the design of hardware and
software systems, software engineering, artificial inteligence,
distributed and parallel systems, telecommunication networks and
services, optocommunication systems, cryptosystems, and combinatorics.
The Department of Computer Science and Technology has been involved
in co-organizing several international conferences, eg, Artificial
Intelligence and Control Systems of Robots and most recently Knowledge
Based Software Engineering.
Pavol Jozef Safarik University, Kosice, Faculty of Science
The founding of the Pavol Jozef Safarik University in 1959 was
an important event in the development of the educational and research
activities in the city of Kosice - a continuation of the tradition
dating back to 1657 when the first university in Kosice was established.
The present University is named after an outstanding personality
of the Slovak history, Pavol Jozef Safarik (1795-1861), who was
scientist, poet, linguist, etnographer, archaelogist and educator.
Faculty of Science of the P. J. Safarik University was establihed
in 1963. During its 35 year history it has become an important
institution of higher education and research activities which
are realized on the basis of an intensive international collaboration
with many relevant institutions all over the world.
The faculty consists of 16 departments and of a computer center.
More than 1250 full-time students and almost 80 PhD students are
registered at the faculty. The faculty employs over 140 teachers
and 40 researchers. The faculty is divided into four schools:
the School of Mathematics and Informatics, School of Physics,
School of Chemistry and School of Biology and Geography. The School
of Mathematics and Informatics consists of three departments:
Calculus and Didactics, Geometry and Algebra, and Informatics.
The department of informatics coordinates education and prepares
curriculum design and it is responsible for the content and organization
of the programme in informatics for one subject Magister’s and
Bachelor’s study and for the two subject study in combination
with mathematics and physics.
Current research activities of the department are Logical Programming,
Formal Languages, Structural Complexity, Neural Network, Information
Systems, Logic, Set Theory and Topology.
The Department of Informatics has many international collaborations,
for example with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University
(Israel), Charles University in Prague and Czech Academy of Sciences,
University of Florence (Italy), Technical University of Berlin.
Mathematical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
The activity of the Mathematical Institute of Slovak Academy of
Sciences is oriented mainly on the basic research in various areas
of mathematics and informatics. The main fields the Mathematical
Institute deals with are: logic, set theory, real functions theory,
algebra, convergence structures and topology, quantuum logic,
measure and integration, probability theory and statistics, fuzzy
logic, fuzzy mathematics, many-valued logic, number theory, combinatorics,
computability, and complexity theory.
Institute for Informatics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
The Institute for Informatics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
was founded in 1992. Since 1994 it has been a part of the Institute
of Mathematics. At present it employs 11 researchers. Since 1994
the Institute has been a part of the Institute of Mathematics
at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The institute was founded with the goals:
- to develop theoretical informatics as a fundamental discipline
- to create conceptional research and an experimental and educational
basis for applications of modern methods and results in software
development.
The research activity of the Institute for Informatics is oriented
at:
- parallel numerical and nonnumerical algorithms
- parallel (optical) architectures
- graph-theoretic models for parallel
- computational processes
- communication complexity
- cooperating grammatical systems
- computational and descriptional complexity, combinatorial optimization.
The Institute organizes the Conferences Graph-Theoretic Concepts
in Computer Science (WG’98) and coordinates two projects on parallel
computing (supported by grants from the Slovak Grant Agency) and
the subproject Parallel Numerics of the CEI (Central Europen Initiative)
project PACT (Programming Environments, Algorithms, Applications,
Compilers and Tools for Parallel Computation).
The Institute also takes part in European Union projects. The
Institute is a partner in:
- ALTEC-KIT project, Algorithms for Future Technologies - Keep-in-Touch
(INCO-COP96-0195)
- STABLE project, Study of Stability of Physical Systems Using Parallel
Computers (INCO-COP96-0237)
In the recent past the Institute was a partner in: the pilot project
ALTEC (Action 1000), Algorithms for Future Technologies (aimed
at parallel and didstributed computing and combinatorial optimization)
and the PORTRAIT project (COP 94 01862), Parallel Computation
of Spectral Portraits of Matrices.
Please contact:
Grabriela Andrejkova - SRCIM, Safarik University
Tel.: 62 211 28, 62 219 26, 62 229 71
E-mail: andrejk@kosice.upjs.sk
Branislav Rovan - SRCIM, Comenius University
Tel: +421 7 65426635
E-mail: rovan@fmph.uniba.sk
