R-SOFT:Researcher school in large, software-based systems

Covering large parts of IDI’s IS, SU and SA-MMI research groups

Main proposers: Reidar Conradi, Letizia Jaccheri at IDI, 4 April 2008

General motivation on software and society: ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ICT-based products and services are everywhere in our societies, with software playing the leading role. Software is also the catalyst for bigger changes: innovation in software technology will lead directly to innovation in other business areas, public services and private life. A typical cell-phone now contains five million lines of software code; by 2012 it will likely have five times as many. The Norwegian software-intensive industry is expanding, with estimated annual revenues of 50 billion NOK. The whole ICT sector in Norway has annual revenues of 175 billion NOK and 75 000 employees in 2005. This represents 40% of industrial R&D and makes it Norway’s second largest production sector, next after petroleum.

On other hand, hardly a week passes withoutheadlines of software-related failures. That is, the combined challenges of lead time, size, complexity, heterogeneity, evolution and quality-of-service are straining our capacity to develop and maintain large ICT systems. Existing software technologies[1] need to be systematically studied in real-life settings in order to propose improved or new technologies, and to have these effectively adopted by industry and taught to our informatics graduates.

Goals:

G1(Indirectly:) Contribute to increased innovation in the Norwegian ICT sector by a tight relationship with major actors, e.g. Telenor, DnV, EDB Business Partner, many SMEs …

G2Obtain deeper, empirically-based insight on the utility of selected parts of software technology through realistic studies in advanced application areas, such as health informatics, eGovernment, art and games.

G3A set ofimproved technologies for software development, e.g. for open source software, model-based development, agile methods,machine-man interaction, and team cooperation.

G4Disseminate the knowledge gained, by published papers, seminars, workshops, courses.

Approach:

Make a virtual team (network) of PhD advisors in related topics in Norwegian academia, with main site at IDI.

Make 10-15 PhD courses on the topics in G2 and G3, and especially in research methods, available to all team members. A course in scientific writing is included.

Arrange four annual, one-week,alternatingPhD seminars to report progress and discuss plans among the participants.

All PhD students will have one main, local advisor and two, possibly remote two co-advisors.

There will be annual assessments of PhD student progress.

Most PhD students will investigate industrial casesn cooperating industrial partners.

Most PhD students will stay 6-8months at colleaguial, academic partners abroad.

Network:

  • IDI’s three research groups in Software Engineering (SU), Information Systems (IS), and System work & Human-Computer Interaction (SA-MMI). Totally 14 teachers. 5 postdocs, 15 PhD fellows.
  • SINTEF-ICT in Trondheim, Simula Research Lab. in Oslo – already long term research relationship.
  • Other academic partners in Norway: UiA/Grimstad: HiB, HiMo, HIST, HINT, HiBo, HiOf/Halden, HiHm/Rena, …??
  • ICT-intensive industry: Telenor, DnV, StatoilHydro, Acando, Skattedirektoratet, FriProg center for Open Source Software,
  • Foreign research sites: Fraunhofer IESE, Univ. Maryland, Politecnico di Totio, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, …

Qualifications of proposing host site:

  • Research excellence in 2000-2007:Ex. SU group has 250 published papers (25% in journals or as book chapters, 20% with foreign co-authors, 10% with industrial co-authors), IS has ?? papers, and SA-MMI has?? papers. Totally 8 edited books by all three groups.
  • PhD productionsince 1970:63 (25 in SU group, 28 in IS group, 10in SA-MMI group) and 25 in 2000-2007 - out of 137 PhDs from IDI’s total 10 groups.Alsomade templates for PhD process?? and PhD dissertations: w ?? w
  • PhD research courses in place: DT8108 Topics in IT (IDI-level), DT8111 Empirical Software Engineering,IT3010 Research Methods in Informatics.
  • Regular exchange of researchers at all levels: 2-3 guests at any time.
  • Functioning network: good starting point with most of the colleges in place.

Organization:

Manager: prof. Letizia Jaccheri, co-manager NN (50%).

Board: prof. Eric Monteiro, prof. John Krogstie, NN from otherNorwegian academia,

NN1 from large companies, NN2 from SMEs, possibly one foreign.

Annual budget and duration: 7.5 MNOK at IDI per year for 8 years.

R-SOFT, income: 3 MNOK each from NFR and probably NTNU.

1.5 MNOK from related projects e.g. at IDI.

R-SOFT, expenses: 1/2 co-manager, 3 PhD students and 4 Postdocs, 4 guests part-time,

1 MOK in meetings and travel.

From other sources: 15 PhD students paid from other sources at IDI and decentrally.

Naturalia: 20 advisors at IDI and elsewhere, 20? industrial contacts, 50 master students.

Contacts: Reidar (+47 918.97029), Letizia (+47 918.97028) et al.

Deltakere på kontaktmøte om Forskerskole med industri og kollegerhos IDI, mandag 7.april 10-16 i IT-454

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[1]By technology is meant any combination of concepts, formalisms, models, tools, techniques, methods, processes etc. to assist in engineering team work.