Below are several prospective documents from INRIA or elsewhere that
try to shed some light on the evolution of the scientific fields in
which the Institute is working.
Databases, Knowledge Bases, Cognitive Systems
• The December 1996 issue of ACM Computing Surveys contains several
futurology articles on artificial intelligence, in particular Strategic Directions in Artifical
Intelligence (Jon Doyle, Thomas Dean, editors).
Vision, Image Processing and Computer Images
• INRIA Report, May 1997.
Modeling and Scientific Computing
• Mathematical Challenges
from Theoretical/Computational Chemistry, 1995, a report of the
American Academy of Science, Academy of Engineering and Academy of Medicine.
This very scholarly report includes prospects on numercical methods
as well as computational geometry and graph theory.
Semantics and Programming
• The December 1996 issue of the ACM Computing Surveys (volume 28
no 4) contains articles that display different points of view concerning
the evolution of the field:
- Strategic
directions in research on programming languages (Chris Hankin, Hanne
Riis Nielson and Jens Palsberg),
- Strategic
directions in object-oriented programming (Rachid Guerraoui),
- Strategic
directions in constraint programming (Pascal Van Hentenryck and
Vijay Saraswat),
- Strategic
directions in software engineering and programming languages (Carl
Gunter, John Mitchell and David Notkin),
- Strategic
directions in software quality (Leon Osterweil),
- Formal
methods: state of the art and future directions (Edmund M. Clarke
and Jeannette M. Wing).
The individual point of view of a certain number of researchers can
also be found on the electronic
version of the journal.
Algorithmics and Symbolic Computing
• Application Challenges to Computational Geometry, April 96, under the direction
of Bernard Chazelle (Princeton) with the participation of J.-D. Boissonnat,
gives a very thorough analysis of numerous possible applications of
computational geometry and concludes on the challenge posed by the transfer
of very beautiful and concrete results to practical applications.
• Report of the Working
Group on Cryptology and Coding Theory, April 1997, is a document
from the division of mathematical sciences of the NSF, which is both
a predictive report and a tutorial. The report emphasizes the natural
links between cryptology and coding theory. It laments the fact that
discrete mathematics are not receiving more attention on the part of
mathematicians and stresses the elegance, depth and practical interests
of a discipline that is now living in symbiosis with computer science.
Automatic Control, Robotics and Signal
• INRIA Report, November 1997.
• Mathematics and Biology:
the interface ; Challenges and opportunities.
This 1996 report discusses very thoroughly the rich links between mathematics
and biology, taking into account the computing and numerical modeling
aspects. A certain number of major scientific challenges are discussed:
genomics, global change, understanding biological evolution, the relationship
between structure and function in living beings, the hierarchical organization
of complex biological systems, structural biology and the underlying
mathematics. Methodological proposals are made to improve the collaboration
between biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists.
General Documents
• Science and engineering research in a
changing world, 1997.
A report by the American Academy of Science reasserting the economic,
military and intellectual importance of first class research worldwide.
• Endless Frontier, limited resources,
April 96.
This report by the American government examines the R&D trends in
6 key industrial sectors: aeronautics, automobile, chemistry, electronics, information technology
and pharmaceutics.
For further information on this subject or to inform us on recent events,
please contact:
Françoise Weber, Assistant to the Scientific Director
Tel.: +33 1 39 63 52 19 - email: Francoise.Weber@inria.fr
