Final Report Summary - BIS-21++ (Bulgarian IST Center of Competence in 21 century)
The BIS21++ project was set to further strengthen the human potential and the infrastructure capacity of a leading scientific organisation the Institute for Parallel Processing (IPP) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). The project activities improved the excellence in education, science and technology as a leader in the research information and communication technologies sector in Bulgaria. The BIS21++ project supported the training of talented young specialists, involved in qualified scientific tasks in key information society technologies (IST) areas, actively supported work with leading European centres and with leading Bulgarian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), organised important international workshops and conferences and improved the advanced technological environment for the above mentioned research activities.
The results from the project have matched the objectives improving the research capacity and reinforcing the scientific potential of a highest quality centre. All activities were performed within the budget and all deliverables have been produced as planned.
High quality training of 20 PhD students and young researchers in key IST areas has been carried out. In order to achieve high quality and visible results in the training process the steering committee of the project, from its beginning, adopted strict procedures for planning their individual career development activities with clear description of the expected final results, supervising and evaluating the progress of their training. This resulted in 13 PhD students successfully defending their theses during their work on the project, while the target of the project was ten young researchers to do that. Another result of the training process was that 37 scientific papers of those young researchers were published and another 11 - submitted and accepted for publication. Five training materials were prepared and published and three postdoc researchers were trained.
The main objectives of the networking tasks of the project were fully achieved. During it 98 short scientific visits were organised to and from IPP networking partners. Their purpose was to plan, report, and exchange scientific results. At the same time-period 23 young researchers (PhD students and postdocs) visited IPP-BAS for the period of total 24 man-months. All visitors from the partner institutions gave high quality lectures and talks on contemporary research and technological topics. They also gave consultations to young researchers and participated in discussions, thus improving the quality of training of PhD students and the young researchers in the host institution.
Increasing the links to the economical and social environment has been organised as four tasks, each dealing with knowledge transfer and research training from IPP to one Bulgarian SME that is active in the domain of information and communication technologies (ICT). Even though the efforts were relatively modest, all initiatives were performed by young people, whose research work was closely related to the topics treated by the respective SMEs. For the first task there has been knowledge transferred to the SME about basic language technologies in order to support the development of modern language engineering applications at the Bulgarian software market. The second was focused on in-house training about methods, enabling optimisation of the lifetime performance of the nano-structured water filters. It also supported research training about advanced computer simulation tools.
The third task enhanced the SME's knowledge and skills regarding ways how to integrate the theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning within prototypical software, which provides knowledge management and cooperative experts' decision-making in complex situations. The last task raised the awareness about the potential of the deployment of grid technologies into bio-informatics data storage and processing with focus on the security and privacy issues related to grid infrastructures. The dissemination activities of the project included improving the visibility of the young researchers in BIS21++ by organising five cycles of information days, promoting on regular basis the achievements of the young scientists. Another important activity was the organisation of nine conferences and workshops.
In the first year of the project a procurement of new equipment for grid cluster was carried out, following delivery and instalment of the equipment. During the process of installation and for the rest of the project period nine young researchers were trained in grid technologies, distributed systems and computer networking. Regular upgrades and enhancements of the software and middleware of the cluster have been carried out until the end of the project. The new cluster allowed hands-on training process of young scientists in the area of modern information and communication technologies and contributed to the building of the national grid infrastructure and dissemination of the respective experience and knowledge among the scientists in the country. On the grid cluster, numerous scientific tasks were run, including work of visiting young researchers visiting IPP within the BIS21++ project.
The review and assessment of the results of the project, including the approval and adoption of research plans and progress of the PhD students and young researchers were carried out by an advisory board, in which renowned Bulgarian scientists participated.
The results from the project have matched the objectives improving the research capacity and reinforcing the scientific potential of a highest quality centre. All activities were performed within the budget and all deliverables have been produced as planned.
High quality training of 20 PhD students and young researchers in key IST areas has been carried out. In order to achieve high quality and visible results in the training process the steering committee of the project, from its beginning, adopted strict procedures for planning their individual career development activities with clear description of the expected final results, supervising and evaluating the progress of their training. This resulted in 13 PhD students successfully defending their theses during their work on the project, while the target of the project was ten young researchers to do that. Another result of the training process was that 37 scientific papers of those young researchers were published and another 11 - submitted and accepted for publication. Five training materials were prepared and published and three postdoc researchers were trained.
The main objectives of the networking tasks of the project were fully achieved. During it 98 short scientific visits were organised to and from IPP networking partners. Their purpose was to plan, report, and exchange scientific results. At the same time-period 23 young researchers (PhD students and postdocs) visited IPP-BAS for the period of total 24 man-months. All visitors from the partner institutions gave high quality lectures and talks on contemporary research and technological topics. They also gave consultations to young researchers and participated in discussions, thus improving the quality of training of PhD students and the young researchers in the host institution.
Increasing the links to the economical and social environment has been organised as four tasks, each dealing with knowledge transfer and research training from IPP to one Bulgarian SME that is active in the domain of information and communication technologies (ICT). Even though the efforts were relatively modest, all initiatives were performed by young people, whose research work was closely related to the topics treated by the respective SMEs. For the first task there has been knowledge transferred to the SME about basic language technologies in order to support the development of modern language engineering applications at the Bulgarian software market. The second was focused on in-house training about methods, enabling optimisation of the lifetime performance of the nano-structured water filters. It also supported research training about advanced computer simulation tools.
The third task enhanced the SME's knowledge and skills regarding ways how to integrate the theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning within prototypical software, which provides knowledge management and cooperative experts' decision-making in complex situations. The last task raised the awareness about the potential of the deployment of grid technologies into bio-informatics data storage and processing with focus on the security and privacy issues related to grid infrastructures. The dissemination activities of the project included improving the visibility of the young researchers in BIS21++ by organising five cycles of information days, promoting on regular basis the achievements of the young scientists. Another important activity was the organisation of nine conferences and workshops.
In the first year of the project a procurement of new equipment for grid cluster was carried out, following delivery and instalment of the equipment. During the process of installation and for the rest of the project period nine young researchers were trained in grid technologies, distributed systems and computer networking. Regular upgrades and enhancements of the software and middleware of the cluster have been carried out until the end of the project. The new cluster allowed hands-on training process of young scientists in the area of modern information and communication technologies and contributed to the building of the national grid infrastructure and dissemination of the respective experience and knowledge among the scientists in the country. On the grid cluster, numerous scientific tasks were run, including work of visiting young researchers visiting IPP within the BIS21++ project.
The review and assessment of the results of the project, including the approval and adoption of research plans and progress of the PhD students and young researchers were carried out by an advisory board, in which renowned Bulgarian scientists participated.