CITIciti.di.fct.unl.pt/index_contents/CITI-Report-Jan-08.pdfFMOODS, Coor dina, EALPS, IFIP WG1.3, WG 2.2) Ma in Achiev ements (2003-2006) Novel programming abstr actions and type systems

CITICentro de Informática e Tecnologia da Informação

Center for Informatics and Information Technology

External Review ReportJanuary 2008

CITI Overview

Context:

Founded 1997, hosted by Departamento de Informática, FCTUNL

Funded by FCT/MCTES, FCTUNL and projects contracts

Mission:

Research in key areas of Computer Science / Informatics

Breath of coverage w.r.t. both traditional and emerging CS topics

DIFCTUNL is a graduate school in CS (~60 PhD since the 80s)

Development:

CITI started off with 8 PhD back in 1997; currently 38 PhD

Our collaborative network keeps consolidating at the local, national, and international levels

We are now “cutting the edge” in some areas, while still doing high-quality research in many others

CITI Organization

Coordination Structure:

The Scientific Council (all PhD members)The DirectionThe Research Streams

Direction:

A director and two deputies (management and representation)Elected (3 year terms) by the scientific council

Research Streams:

Group researchers with common interests around scientific themes, with reasonably close research methods and techniquesResearch streams currently vary in dimension and breadth, and are clustered in three scientific areasEach research stream has a coordinator Research streams are also the units of funding (since 2003)

CITI Areas and Research Streams

Programming Languages Models (L. Monteiro)

Software Engineering(A. Moreira)

Distributed Systems(JL. Martins)

Interactive Multimedia(N. Correia)

Computer Graphics(MP. Santos)

Human Language Technology (GP. Lopes)

Parallel & Distributed Processing Systems (JC. Cunha)

Computing Systems

Software Foundations and Engineering

Graphics, Media, and Interaction

CITI DirectionL. Caires (Coordinator)A. Moreira, N. Correia

CITI Research Streams

Programming Languages and Models: (9 PhD)

Programming Language Design and Implementation

Models of Software Systems

Software Specification and Verification Frameworks

Algorithms and Data Structures

Community (ETAPS, EATCS, EAPLS, Concur, Global Computing, FMOODS, Coordina, EALPS, IFIP WG1.3, WG 2.2)

Main Achievements (2003-2006)

Novel programming abstractions and type systems, logics and models for reasoning about distributed systems, verification tools, foundations of software architecture, algorithms for metric databases


Software Engineering: (5 PhD)

Software Requirements Engineering

Empirical Software Engineering

Software Architecture and Design

Software Tools and Development Environments

Community (EarlyAspects, CS03/IPQ, ESERNET, RITOS, ECOOP, IEEE Quatic, IEEE CSMR, ACM AOSD, IEEE RE)


Pioneering research in Requirements Engineering, software architecture design, experimental software engineering and software visualization


Distributed Systems: (4 PhD)

Data Management for Mobile Computing

Event Dissemination Systems

Security Models and Mechanisms

Fault-Tolerant Database Support

Community (ACM SIGMobile, Usenix, ACM SIGGroup, ACM SIGSAC, EuroSys, ACM SIGOPS)


System support for groupware systems, data management for mobile computing, support for large-scale event dissemination, group-oriented access-control mechanisms


Parallel and Distributed Processing Systems: (6 PhD)

Parallel Programming Environments and Tools

Problem Solving Environments

Cluster and Grid Computing

Distributed Languages and Execution Models

Community (EuroPar, CoreGrid, IEEE-TCSC, ACM SIGCSE, EuroSys)


Distributed languages, execution models, tools and problem solving environments for parallel and distributed program development, parallel file systems


Interactive Multimedia: (7 PhD)

Augmented and Mixed Reality

Interactive Story Telling

Image and Video Processing

Geographical-based Representations

Community (SIG Multimedia, Eurographics MWG, IFIP TC 14, SIGIR, GPCG, ACM CHI)


Mobile storytelling applications, semantic processing of personal memories, geographic representations applied to natural phenomena, interfaces to improve learning processes


Human Language Technology: (3 PhD)

Human Language Processing

Translation and Retrieval

Community (ACL, EACL, COLING, ECAI, ICGI, TSD)


Translation and text alignment tools, automatic thesauri and classifier tools


Computer Graphics: (3 PhD)

Graphics Modeling and Visualization

Animation

Community (EuroGraphics, GPCG)


Identification of geographical entities in urban environments, hybrid isosurfacing algorithms, cloth simulation, landscape visualization for real-time navigation, automatic generation of geometric paths

Sample Local Collaboration Network

Programming Languages and Models

Software Engineering

Distributed Systems

Interactive Multimedia

Computer Graphics

Human Language Technology

Parallel & Distributed Processing Systems

Computing Systems

Software Foundations and Engineering

Graphics, Media, and Interaction

Live

Feed

s D

atab

rick

s

Am

ple

InStory

Sample funded projects involving different groups

within CITI

Byzantium

Patras

Sample National Collaboration Network

U Minho

U Porto

IST

U Lisboa

U Évora



Distributed Systems


Computer Graphics


Parallel & DistributedProcessing Systems

U N Lisboa

Collaborative activities involving CITI and other Portuguese research groups

U Coimbra

CMU SEI

Microsoft Research

Sample Global Collaboration Network



Distributed Systems


Computer Graphics


Parallel & Distributed Processing Systems

U Cardiff

GC2community

Imperial College

U Lancaster

U Leeds

UT Austin

Bologna

U Pisa

INRIA

SUNYstonybrook

MITMediaLab

U Paris VI

CMU CS

CMU Cylab

U Linz

UFRS, Br

Max Planck

U TwenteAOSD

community

U Zheijiang

INPGGrenoble

U Tsinghua

INRIA

Research Highlights 03-07


• Data Management for Mobile Computing Systems

• Languages and Types for Service-Based Software

• Spatial Logics for Distributed Systems and Resources

• Early Aspects

• Environments and Tools for Grid and Service Computing

• Augmented Reality

• Interactive Storytelling

• Selected Contributions from Human Language Tech

• Selected Contributions from Computer Graphics

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COMMIT (80,l_price);

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END;

id type table column condition value

45-

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45-

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Distributed Systems

Data Management for Mobile Computing Systems 9am room A

or9am room B

9am room A

9am room Bor

9am room C

9am room Aor

9am room B

9am room A

9am room Bor

9am room

9am room Aor

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Data management is fundamental for

most mobile computing applications

However, mobile computing poses new

challenges to data management

• conflict avoidance

• conflict resolution

• groupware applications

Partners:

Microsoft Research Cambridge

Mobisnap (Conflict Avoidance)

SqlIceCube (Conflict Resolution)

Doors

(Groupware

applications)

Key idea:

Reconciliation as optimization [Preguiça&Shapiro&Martins]

Top papers receive > 60 (period) + 150 Scholar citations2 PhD thesis concluded


Languages and Types for Service Based Software

Contract Types for Distributed Services

Session Types [Honda&Vasconcelos]

Top papers receive > 140 Scholar citations

2 PhD thesis concluded

Programming Models forServices and Components

IP IST Sensoria (2005-2009)

Objects

Configurators

define

Components

Instantiate

modify

compose

compose

Verifying Deadlock and Race Freedom in Mobile Systems

Checking Choreography Conformance in Web Services

Tool Support (Model-Checking)


Spatial Logics for Distributed Systems and Resources

System

Threads

Scopes

defproc

System = new talk1, talk2, switch1, switch2, give1, give2, alert1, alert2 in ( Mobile(talk1, switch1) | BaseStation(talk1,switch1,give1,alert1) |

A modal logic to talk about the spatial structure and resource usage of systems [Caires&Cardelli]

Invited lectures and keynotes at several intl conferences

Top 5 papers get > 70 ISI cites and > 350 Scholar cites

2 PhD thesis concluded

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Global Computing:

New models needed to reason about distributed systems

Spatial Logics:

sGlobalDescription =

maxfix X.(

hidden session.

buyerSellerInteraction(session,

X

or

sellerShipperInteraction(

sSeller2Buyer(session)

and []X)));

check System |= sGlobalDescription;


Early Aspects

Born in Lisbon (2001)[Rashid&Moreira&Araújo]

Early Aspects focuses on managing

crosscutting properties at the early

development stages of requirements

engineering and architecture design.

Improved modularization and composition

Support separation of crosscutting properties

Handle conflicts establishing critical trade-offs

Identify mappings & influence to later

development stages

Top papers receive > 400 Scholar citationsSeveral tutorials at intl conferences

STREP Ample

(2005-2009)

Tool Support (AORE)

Regular Workshop

(15 editions)

Parallel and Distributed Processing Systems

Design Patterns and Operators for Grid

Environments

Distills common structures and behavior

Integrate them in software environments

Patterns as first-class entities during all

phases of the application life-cycle:

development

execution

reconfiguration

2 PhD thesis concluded in 2007 + 4 PhD thesis in the period

Grid Computing: Software Env. and Tools: Cunha & Rana, editors, Springer, 2006

Collaboration

with U Cardiff

The Mob Programming Environment

A programming language and runtime system

Strong mobility on top of the JVM

Protocols for reliable communication in the

presence of strong mobility

Collaboration

with U Porto


Augmented Environments

Traditional artificial reality systems combine,

in real time, synthetic and real images.

We contribute hypermedia models and tools

for augmented environments.

Hypermedia model

Provides additional contextual info about physical structures and natural elements in the real world

Top papers receive > 50 Scholar citations1 PhD thesis concluded

Ongoing project to exploit our technology in museums


Interactive Storytelling

Mobile storytelling provides a way to explore

physical and virtual spaces via mobile devices

Integrate user contributions and extensions to

communities

Collaborations withMIT Media Lab (Glorianna Davenport)Kunstuniversität Linz (Ars Electronica 2007)

Keynote at CCG’2006APMP Portuguese Multimedia Award 2006New project funded by CulturSintra

InStory Project

A cultural heritage application

A new form of narratives, navigable in space, via PDA, mobile phone, and Web interfaces

Devices with location and multimedia caps

Selected Contributions fromHuman Language Technology

Parallel Text Alignmentin Language Translation

Word Sense Desambiguation

Statistical, context-based text translation techniques New techniques to acquire word sense without grammatical knowledge

4 PhD thesis delivered on related topics

Selected Contributions fromComputer Graphics

Dynamic Cloth ModellingHybrid Isosurfacing

Collaborations with University of Leeds

IEEE TVCG paper receive > 49 Scholar citations1 PhD thesis concluded in 2007

New algorithms

combining polygon

rendering and

surface rendering

New mathematics for speeding model

evaluation without loosing stability


• Data Management for Mobile Computing Systems

• Languages and Types for Service-Based Software

• Spatial Logics for Distributed Systems and Resources

• Early Aspects

• Environments and Tools for Grid and Service Computing

• Augmented Reality

• Interactive Storytelling

• Selected Contributions from Human Language Tech

• Selected Contributions from Computer Graphics

Activity Indicators

• The 7th International Conference on the Unified Modeling Language 2004

• The 32nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming 2005

• The 11th European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Programming 2005

• The 10th International Conference on Innovation and Technology in CS Education 2005

• The 6th International Conference on the Quality of ICT 2007

• The 5th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Programming in Java 2007

• The 18th International Conference on Concurrency Theory 2007

• ...

Organization of Scientific Events

Scientific Collaborations (selected)

Program Committees

Regular participations in Program Committees (> 200 since 2003)

PC Chairs (Quatic’04, Fase’05, ACM/ITICSE’05, Concur’07, AOSD’09)

Lectures in Summer Schools

(GLOBAN’06, Jyvaskula Summer School on CS)

Editorial Boards and Steering Committees

Parallel Computing Journal, Transactions on AOSD, EuroPar, ACM/IEEE Models

Some of Ongoing International Projects

IP Sensoria (LMU, Leicester, DTU, Pisa, Firenze, Edinburgh, Telecom Italia,...)

STREP Ample (INRIA, Lancaster, SAP, Siemens, Malaga, Darmsdadt, Twente,...)

CMU-Portugal

( Logical Frameworks for Distributed Systems )

UTAustin-Portugal (Digital Media [CITI Direction] and Advanced Computing)

Asia-Link EU Programme

Visitors to CITI (selected few)

We have hosted around 45 visitors from abroadsince 2003, for research stays, project meetings,and graduation examinationsBertrand Meyer, ETH ZurichLuca Cardelli, Microsoft Research CambridgeMarc Shapiro, INRIA

Rocco de Nicola, U FirenzeSophia Drossopolou, Imperial College LondonGloriana Davenport, MIT Media LabPaul Clemens, SEI CMUOmer Rana, U CardiffCraig Lee, Aerospace Corp / OpenGridForum

Miguel Castro, Microsoft Research Cambridge

Regularly organized, community building~120 Seminars since 2002Talks by members, students and visitors

CITI Seminar Series

Portugal 64

UK 14

USA 12

Spain 5

Germany 4

Brazil 4

Switzerland 4

Canada 3

France 1

Italy 1

Serbia and Montenegro 1

China 1

Poland 1

Israel 1

...

Other Outreach Activites

Godel Centenary

SWERC Programming Contests (ACM)

Open Day onGrid Computing

Open Day CS@DI

InStory on TV

The CITI web site

ElsevierTCS 30th

Anniversary PrizeJ.Y. Girard

Productivity and Resources

0

17.5

35.0

52.5

70.0

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 after 06

Publications (conf. + journals)

# journ+conf# journal#ext coauthor

Increased number of publications

Increased number of papers with

external co-authors

0

125

250

375

500

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Projects with external funding

int proj funding total proj funding

# int. proj # total projs

Steadily increase in the funding from projects

Several international projects with FP6, ESA, ESRPC

Some FP7 proposals are under review

Increase in the number of projects when compared

with the previous period

99-02 03-06 07-…

# journal / yr 5,0 12,8 17

# conf / yr 23,5 38,3 44

# edited / yr 2,5 3,5 5

# chap.bk / yr 2,8 3,8 2

# other / yr 5,8 9,8 8

Graduation

Small increase in the number of PhDs

concluded in the period

Launching in 2008

joint degree programs:

Dual Degree PhD in CS CMU-UNL

U. Texas, Austin

New Local Phd CS program (3th cycle)

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

on-going

0 7.5 15.0 22.5 30.0

Concluded Phd thesis

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

on-going

0 17.5 35.0 52.5 70.0

Supervised MSc thesis

The Bologna model is now leading to an

impressive increase in the number of MSc

thesis supervision

In the old model (5 yr. Bsc + 2 yr. Msc),

attractiveness MSc degree was poor

Future Plans

Future Plans

Organization of Management Processes

In 2003 we have adopted some internal performance evaluation procedures, with some influence on internal research stream funding

Currently, the academic management is moving towards more effective processes, to increase accountability and responsibility of stake holders

We would like to approach an improved, more effective, management structure, enforcing a series of steering and quality control procedures

• Adopt uniform performance indicators

• Promote goal directed management of research groups

• Enforce accountability of individuals and groups against agreed goals

Future Plans

Sustain Advanced Education and Research

We have attained high levels of quality in research and recognition in the international communities (in many areas)

We are contributing to advance the field (in some topics)

We want to strengthen our position as a graduate research school

This is critical to attract strong PhD students by taking advantage of the Bologna process and of collaborations in which we are involved

Promote Internationalization and Networking

Further develop and extend our participation in national and international research networks and projects

We expect joint local PhD programs to emerge in the near future

Further develop and extend our participation in ongoing international educational actions (CMU-Portugal, UT Austin, ... )

CITIciti.di.fct.unl.pt/index_contents/CITI-Report-Jan-08.pdfFMOODS, Coor dina, EALPS, IFIP WG1.3, WG 2.2) Ma in Achiev ements (2003-2006) Novel programming abstr actions and type systems

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