SEVENTH  SIX-MONTHLY PERIODIC REPORT
  
Front page
•	Full name of the Centre of Excellence  
Számítástechnikai és Automatizálási Kutató Intézet MTA SZTAKI
Computer and Automation Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
(Address: Budapest, Kende utca 13-17. Hungary H-1111,)
Telephone:+36-1-2796224  fax:+36-1-4667503 email: haidegger@sztaki.hu 
•	Report title: The  seventh six-monthly periodic report  
•	Reporting period:  • from 01.  March, 2004 to 31. August 2004
•	Reporting due for submission: up to  October, 2004     
•	Report’s present version issued on:   27. Oct.  2004    
•	Contract number:  ICA1-CT-2000-70025
•	Project start date and duration: 1. March, 2001 for 3 years +10 months
•	EU funding:  600 000 Euros
•	Project title: Technology and Science for the Information Society,  Institute SZTAKI as a Centre of Excellence 
•	Acronym:  HUN-TING
•	Keywords: Computer Science & Control, Information & Communication Technology,  Intelligent Automation
•	Name of the Co-ordinator:  Dr. Géza  Haidegger 

Activity progress report 

MTA SZTAKI was fulfilling its scientific tasks, basically, as much as possible, according to the submitted plans and to the accepted contract version. We invited, selected and hosted foreign research experts to work with our colleagues on various themes related to our activities. We had the chance to visit other institutions and deepen our co-operation with international scientific partners. We have been very active in international co-operation, and thanks to the prestigious title of Centre of Excellence, we had achieved nice results in research and in forming joint activities, preparing joint 6th Framework proposals, etc.  
In this reporting period, ( period  #7,)  we had 3 professors/scientists, one in overlap/continuation with period #6  to work with us, 
 Prof. Geroge Paun,  Dr. Radu Gramatovici and Renaud Peteri
  as “returning fellows”, and as a new ERCIM  related Ph.D. fellow, we are hosting  Alexander Anufriev   from mid July.

We have planned, organised, prepared and conducted several workshops and conferences. They were successful both for us, organisers, and also for all participants. The national and international appreciation of our Institute has been raised by these actions. We are proud to have organised them. 
We participated at the EU-FP6-related  information events in Budapest, mostly as delivering the presentations on the new features  for the promotion of the 6th Framework program.  Priority 2 and Priority 3 are our main  focus, but as it will be demonstrated, also Life sciences, and energy, etc, will be  involved in our joint, widening scope.   
During the 7th period, one of our greatest actions was the organization of the IEEE  Conference series, :

CNNA, 2004 – 22-24 July, 2004,
IEEE Joint Conference on Neural Networks, and
IEEE Int. Conference on Fuzzy Systems.

(CNNA was a HISTORIC event, because FIRST TIME in science, was the come-together of the world’s experts in retina-prostheses. This will show, how the “CROSSROAD OF PRIO1 and PRIO2, i.e. the crossroads of ITC and Life Sciences will DELIVER  so many good  items for man-kind!!!)

But we are proud also to have hosted the 37th CIRP International Seminar, together with the  IWES 04, the 5th International Workshop on Emergent Synthesis. (May 19-21  and May 24-25). The importance of these meeting are well-known to many:  topics focus on the  future of Europe’s and the world’s  manufacturing ability, how to produce wealth for mankind without ruining others and the nature?!.
Conference on WP 5 was a great step ahead, too, as detailed  later on. 

 All details are available on the web, and in the appendices. 
www.sztaki.hu/conferences   www.lpds.sztaki.hu   www.sztaki.hu  

According to the plans, our Laboratories utilised the previously purchased durable equipment (hardware and software) in order to meet the requirements of research co-operation envisaged.

Just to list some key areas briefly for the 2003-2004 year statistics, while we know, that these numbers are all to increase during the last part of 2004 too: 
7 significant science books were published by authors from our Institute, on Cellular Neural Networks, Visual Computing, Process Modelling and Model Analysis, Intelligent Control Systems, On Non-linear Systems with Varying Structures.
12 books have been edited by SZTAKI researchers, and the long list of    publications is given in the attachment. 
Out of this number, 57 papers were published in international journals, 69 in international co-operation. Almost 120 oral conference presentations were held.  7 new Ph.D. degrees were granted and 2 titles of Doctor of Academy were granted.  53 scientists had taken part in lecturing at university courses.  
Almost 30 projects had been contracted and being worked on within the 5th Framework Programme of the EU.  List of EU 5th Framework projects are listed below. 
By the midterm of the 6th Framework Programme, our Institute can draw a statistics on the start. We had submitted around 55 proposals till October 2004, (and about 6 proposals were  submitted  during the time of the present reporting )  and the plans are also very impressive, to keep up with this rate.  Regarding the success rate of the 6th Framework proposals, we are falling behind the previous figures, but still, can be proud to have contracted several ones rather soon. (at the very start of the HUN-TING project,  CITRO and BEATRICE could be submitted and was successful). A full list of submitted and accepted proposals is available, but is not shown in public domain documents. 
Our Institute, due to its devoted scientific area of Automation and Computer Sciences, has a special role and value: MTA SZTAKI is the Hungarian key institute in the ERCIM Society. (European Research Consortium for Information and Mathematics) (www.ercim.org). This membership in the consortium offers MTA SZTAKI the opportunity to find the best  scientific partners in Europe, and through an active participation in the actions of ERCIM,  MTA SZTAKI  can better disseminate its scientific results, while opens the doors also to attract young scientists from abroad. This channel had proven to be very valuable to recruit the professors, scientists and Ph.D. fellows who promoted the lot of joint work and proposals we could develop.
The participation of the key researchers and of the directors of MTA SZTAKI within the Directors’ Meeting and the Executive Committee meetings plus at the Working Group meetings is very essential. Several of the CoE scientific progress results are related to the ERCIM actions. The director and the deputy director of MTA SZTAKI regularly take part in the ERCIM top-level meetings, and several key researchers are working in special ERCIM scientific working groups. Our ERCIM membership is providing a stable channel for scientific relations, for visiting European key institutions, and for inviting experts. In this segment,   director  P.Inzelt and Dr. Csuhaj  E, attended the meetings in  Crete, Heraklion to meet   the ERCIM directors’ meeting in May 26-30 and 22-29.
The travels and visits from MTA SZTAKI to other European research entities are financed mostly from separate sources, and just a few are managed through the CoE programme. As it can be seen from the yearly reports, around 300 travels are managed yearly for the scientific cooperation among the European partners and our Institute. 
During the past periods, we had the following visits to European partners, based on the CoE:
The 4th Yearly meeting of the Centres of Excellences. 
In the beginning of June, the EUREKA meeting was held in  Oslo. A harmonization is underway to integrate the EUREKA nad EU PRIO3 (NaMatProd)  efforts in Europe, to have better proposlas with higher impact on industry.- including SMEs.  We have subitted the IPMMAN proposal under  this working groiup, but it was not selected for funding, (Thresholds were met positively.)
The Europe-wide work on MANUFUTURE is also  based partially on the EUREAK Factory group. 
We maintain our close cooperation  through the   OSACA Network of “Open systems in Controls”,  with  Stuttgart University, Germany. Though we had no direct exchange of scientists in this reporting time, we had met face-to-face at other international events, and kept on preparing a joint proposal on Open and real-time control systems.  The proposal  with acronym REACT was submitted  last week. 
  
Virtual laboratories are to be very essential for the future, and MTA SZTAKI is working on extending its present ties. The most developed Virtual Laboratory had been developed by the (WP6-7) Manufacturing Automation entities of MTA SZTAKI, built around the former cooperation with the Stuttgart Fraunhofer Institute (FhG IPA). 
A continuous cooperation is maintained within this  channel.
Further virtual Laboratory developments are underway with: several universities in France, UK, Germany, Austria, Rumania and Italy. We also initiated a closer cooperation framework with other Centres of Excellences, and by the end of the project, we will be pleased to report on many plans reached as success.  

Workpackage progress report for Workpackage No.: A
Project Management and co-ordination 
•	Objectives and planned actions:
The objectives were to direct and co-ordinate all activities to successfully meet the goals of the Centre. From the beginning, all our actions have been influenced by the general and specific aims of the EU, through the Centre of Excellence programme. “These goals are: increased networking between Centres; increased scope in respect to regional coverage, subjects, and activities; attraction of young researchers; support for economic and social needs of the region; increased linkage with economic and social environment; and enhanced participation in other areas of the 5th (6th) FWP. To define and realise measures which contribute to the success of the Centre.”
•	Problems  encountered:
Some visiting scientists, who agreed to join our institute, had to postpone or had to cancel their visits. The 11th of September had a very strong negative effect on business travels, and research topics and priorities were altered.  
The coordinator had some personal problems, and thus, the reporting to the Project Officer had been delayed significantly. The functioning and operation of the  Centre of Excellence  has been kept running continuously. 
We had seen, that time is running out, so we asked for the continuation of the CoE project for some more months.  Our Contract had been extended for + 10 months, so it will  close in December 2004.   We are already preparing the huge  joint integrated report and final evaluation  document for the total time of the HUN-TING project. The mid-term reportings   did not contain   all the referenced  events,  publications, etc,. 
•	Results: 
We have defined and established the specific financial processes and their handling mechanism for all foreseen CoE activities.  We have achieved a stead flow of visiting scientists, also as long-term visitors. (Short –term visitors come and go by dozens a week, so their management within the CoE project is not necessary. Nevertheless, the visits are important, this is the way, how our scientific influence is kept open, but also for the foreigners, short term visits are manageable by easier and less bourocratic ways.  

•	Publications and papers:
We have participated, actively organized and delivered training courses and workshops for promoting EU 5th + EU 6th Framework actions, and on preparing proposals. Seminars were organized for in-house briefing of researchers and for partner companies as well. 

•	 Deliverables:
•	D.A.1 Increased  networking among centres
There is a significant increase in networking and cooperation. A detailed list of cooperation channels for each thematic group or laboratory is given in the appended sections.  Cooperation and networking with other EU Centres of Excellence has been achieved.  (Klagenfurt Univ., Vienna Univ., Stuttgart Univ,  Sofia Univ, Bucharest Univ. Of Technology.  Institutes in Prague, in Warszawa, in Vienna had been showing great willingness, to join our virtual laboratory  initiative in   Manufacturing Automation. Topics.
New partners and laboratories are willing  and eager to join and work together with us. In Hungary, the RENYI CoE  mathematical research institute is our biggest partner for joint projects and scientific programs. 

•	D.A.2 Increased, enhanced FP participation
There was a significant increase in the FP5 participation, and a list of the submitted/ successful FP5/FP6 projects is detailed in the appended section. 

•	D.A.3.   Periodic report  +12 months
has been given after the Second Six-month period.

•	D.A.4.. Periodic reports  

As Yearly reports of MTA SZTAKI –CoE  is appended for 2003,. Separate sections are created for the list of yearly publications and for the citations. 

•	D.A.5.-6.. Periodic reports   #7 period report
The yearly report  for 2004 will contain  the present lists and the September-December  achievements in an accumulated form

•	D.A.6+  Final Report is planned by December 2004.

Workpackage progress report for Workpackage No.: B

Exploitation and dissemination, twinning, advanced multimedia system architectures and educational and training courseware applications for infrastructure, adoption of video-conferencing infrastructure to support enhanced co-operation means

•	Objectives and planned actions:
The educational multimedia courseware is an important application in the European Programmes. The advances in interactive simulations and virtual learning environments led to a new generation of educational applications based on multimedia tools.
The main objective of this WP is to help and accelerate our joining the network of the leading European institutions in this field. The activities in the WP are oriented towards experimentation of distributed teaching and learning facilities for co-operation between institutions. This will allow them to share teachers and students on all the possible levels as well as resources (e.g. courses, laboratories, etc.) and to apply common solutions for generic distributed learning services. 
Video-conferencing is by now a well-known technology used also by the Commission and by many research facilities, but industrial entities are also catching up fast with this technique. 
The objective is to accelerate our capability to use video-conferencing tools in our co-operation activities to spare travel-time, and spare resources. Our presently available pilot video-conferencing facilities need a harmonised upgrade to match the present and future needs. The upgraded environment will also allow tests to be performed for Community declared key actions, such as investigating tele-work, distance learning, virtual enterprise   functions.
Additional objectives are to identify distribution policies and channels, planning and implementation of dissemination and exploitation actions throughout the project; technology transfer for SMEs 
.
•	Problems encountered:
Video-conferencing has not been accepted yet by many partners from industry, due to the relatively un-sharp motion pictures and noisy sound effects. 
By the replacement of equipment to new, high-bandwidth systems, the situation has changed, and now we are having more and more conferences that we can stream – distribute via the internet. The IP-based communication facilities had been enhanced to allow high-bandwidth connections. 

•	Results: 
We have implemented a video-conferencing environment for accessing international channels also with high bandwidth. We organised and participated in several video-conferencing events, and invited industrial partners to join us within those events. (High-speed Cutting International video-conference series was organized among Austrian, German and Hungarian end-nodes in 3 early-Summer events. Important and major international conferences are offering streaming video broadcasts, and our implemented systems can also be part of such services.
 
We are constantly documenting our scientific events on digital media, and the slides, photos and video-recordings are archived.
We have prepared posters and slide-shows for demonstrating our Centre of Excellence at numerous exhibitions, at universities when trying to attract young undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates for research employment. At each year on the last week of October, but also in the mid Spring, an exhibition for offering jobs to graduates means a good source for recruiting young engineers for scientific career.

Several of our scientists have devoted their work to develop and implement multi-media based tutorials, e-learning and tele-teaching services. A Twinning with the Klagenfurt Univesity/ Austria is aimed at cooperating with in the Multimedia progress and in the e-learning standardization process. 

In the Fall of 2004, we can already report on the success of running the joint SZTAKI - Klagenfurt-  university virtual department,  because the  first classes  are underway.  The result is promising. New Ph.D.  candidates and   research-oriented  undergraduates are  keen to take up the subject courses.

The impressive and great achievement was performed, when the large international conference programs could be  broadcasted on the internet. Our video-conferencing systems had a good start, by offering this new facility to in-house and guest experts, scientist. 

•	Publications and papers:

The results are displayed on the web by each Laboratory and Department carrying out the tasks. In the attachment, the full list of our publications is included.

There are separate research and management issues related to the Multimedia actions. We have been developing and working on new multi-user multimedia communication systems, as a special research task, in which we closely cooperate with the standardization bodies responsible for the telecommunications, and implementing a joint – virtual laboratory. ( University of Klagenfurt, Austria.) 
Several actions, visiting scientists, twinning steps are listed in the appended documents. 

Deliverables:

•	D.B.1 Requirement analysis for a pilot implementation
During the first two reporting periods, we had been evaluating the use of an ISDN-2 channel based videoconferencing system. Having received the comments from the industrial participants visiting the first SZTAKI-participating HSC video-conference, we raised the requirement level to obtain better sound and sometimes better picture/video resolution. 

•	D.B.2  (D.B.3 ) Detailed plans, preliminary exploitation and dissemination plans. –Statistics.
From the end of 2002 we have planned for a new generation of video-conferencing tool. The Directors Board of SZTAKI decided to allocate two special rooms for the new v-conference systems. We ordered and installed 2 up-to-date- level video-conferencing establishments in two of our building sites: 
One set at our Lágymányosi street building (next building to Kende street ) , while the other  at Victor Hugo street building.  
From 2003, both sites are fully operational.  The IP-based service runs on a high bandwidth networking environment, thus provides a good, acceptable motion and sound effect.
Within another initiative, we are running experiments on new structures of video-conferencing among several or several dozens of “virtual conference participants”.   
The exploitation level of the Video-conferencing system is continuously increasing. More and more researchers are getting familiar with the usage, and plan to set up  short sessions. Larger conferences also offer now continuous streaming broadcasting. 
The availability of the Windows Opsystem based NetMEEITNG or SeeYouSeeMee (CuCMe) software gives fairly acceptable video-communication features among PC users. 

By 2004, about 50 scientists are using or has been using video-conferences, (video-connections) at their PC or workstation environment. About 8 projects had been applying the installed video-conferencing rooms. Several major international conferences had been broadcasting streaming videos.

•	D.B.4 Contribution to capacity building through attracting young researchers
Young researchers are already used to work with video-connections. 

•	D.B.5 Increased linkage with economic and social environment
For industrial partners, this technology is presently becoming an available service to use. But they usually lack the partnering situation. Multinational company’s managers use rather often video-communications, but mainly for overseas partners.

•	D.B.6 Increased, enhanced  participation in the 5th, 6th Framework Programs
The topic of multi-media development, standardization and MM based enhances services, like tele-teaching, e-learning, etc. gives several opportunities for our researchers to  develop good project proposals, while the topics are also very relevant for  introduction to under and post-graduates as well. Our institute has developed a virtual laboratory and virtual university department for multimedia technology to promote e-learning standards and other MM-related developments. (University of Klagenfurt)

Many of the generated FP5 and FP6 FW proposals have a strong relation to use  new multimedia research elements. 

Our long-term ERCIM based visiting scientist, Renaud Peteri performed  his research work on multimedia picture and texture processing. His work is very valuable. He will continue his research topic at a partner institute,  in the Netherlands.
  
Many of our project proposals are  emphasizing the  beneficial use of video-conferencing. 

Workpackage progress report for Workpackage No.: C

Foreign visitors at SZTAKI, virtual laboratories

•	Objectives and planned actions:

“To gain internationally respected experts to carry out specific research work and management of research activities, by devoting significant time and effort at SZTAKI.
The result of their undertaken work will directly influence the local expert teams, will help young researchers to get highly motivated for their carrier, will influence the local research community and related industrial partnership to drive for increased participation in all areas of the 5th FWP. 
By the establishment of virtual laboratories, the twinning and co-operation among other research sites will also enable increased efficiency of international joint research actions.”

The objectives are to invite foreign experts, and make their visits useful both for them and for the hosting partners.  
There were around 430 foreign visitors at MTA SZTAKI since the starting of the Centre of Excellence programme. Some key persons, professors are listed among the special partners, detailed in the reports of the individual laboratories and WP leaders. Some of them spent only a single day or few days with us, and around 35 of them could stay with us for a longer period. Those visitors’ travel costs were financed from other sources, not from the CoE contract.

Here we list only the long-term visitors, who won the award from MTA SZTAKI – Centre of Excellence, after a selection process for the submitted applications:  

Long-term Visitor’s name	Time of visit	Related thematic WP
	
Dr. Roland Tetzlaff, Frankfurt	May-Aug-2001	WP3	
Prof. Serge Monchaud, Paris 	July-Aug.-2001	WP7+8	
Dr. Ronald Anton Scheidl, Vienna	July-Sept.2001	WP 10	
Dr. Dragan Stokits, Bremen	Aug.-Oct.-2001	WP 7	
Prof. Hakan Hjalmarsson, Sweden	Aug.-Oct.-2001	WP 6	
Dr. Ulrich Meyer, Saarbrucken	Jan.-Febr.-2002	WP6	
Ph.D. Alexandru Popa,  Bucharest	Jan.-Febr.-2002	WP8-C	
Dr. Daniel Dochev, Sofia 	Febr.-April-2002	WP 2, C	
Dr.  Radoslav Pavlov, Sofia	Febr.-April-2002	WP 2, C	
Dr. Markus Holzer, Germany	March-April-2002	WP 5	
Prof. Nick Bottka, U.K.	May-July-2002	WP3	
Dr, Marco Gilli, Italy	July-Aug.-2002	WP3	
Ph.D. Mauric ter Beek	March-Dec. 2002	WP5	
Prof. Victor Mitrana, Spain	Sept.-Oct.-2002	WP5	
Dr. Zsofia Ruttkay, Amsterdam	Sept.-Nov.-2002	WP3	
CarlosManuel Dom.Matas, Seville	Oct.-Dec.-2002	WP3	
Ph.D. Christian Mönch, 	Jan.-Nov.-2003	WP10	
Prof. Laurence Carassus, Paris	June-July, 2003	WP9	
Ph.D. DavidLopez Villarino, Spain	June-Aug. 2003	WP3	

 New visitors
			
Dr. Patrick Goverts, Belguim	Nov.-Jan.2004	WP	
Dr. Sandi Ferret, Paris	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP6	
Dr. Miklos Santha	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP6	
Dr. Daniel Dochev, Sofia	Nov. 03-Febr.2004	 WP 11	
Dr. Radoslav Pavlov, Sofia	Nov. 03-Febr.2004	 WP 11	
Ph.D. DavidLopez Villarino, Spain	Sept-Dec. 2003	WP3	
Ph.D. Arpad Harangozo, Bucharest	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP2	
Ph.D. Costin Cosouis, Bucharest	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP2	
Ph.D. Renaud Peteri, Paris, Nizza	Jan.-Febr,(-Sept)	WP2-11	

•	Problems encountered: 
At the very beginning, when the launching of the CoE project was postponed, the re-inviting of visiting scientists was a problem. It takes a rather long time (perhaps a year) for persons to schedule a long research visit at any place, not just at SZTAKI.  

•	Results: 
We have launched (and then extended) the invitation and advertised it to many partner institutions. We clarified the workplan with those we had selected for acceptance.
At the beginning and the end of the visits we organised open seminars, inviting our academic and industrial partners as well, to take part in the meetings.
We have prepared posters and slide-shows for demonstrating our Centre of Excellence at several exhibitions, universities when trying to attract young undergraduates and postgraduates for research employment. 

Regarding the development of virtual laboratories, the RENED initiative was established by MTA SZTAKI (HU), INSA Rennes(F), TU Sofia (BG), ICMET and TU Craiova (RO), TU Kharkiv and Tavrichestiy National University (Ukr) in the filed of IT.  Regular contacts are made, mostly via  phone, video-conference and e-mails. During this period, no direct face-to-face meeting was organized.

The Klagenfurt University and our IT Department established a virtual Lab/Department for teaching at post-graduate levels, and involving young scientists to get involved in research of multimedia topic.  Regular meetings are  taking place at either location.  
Our CIM Laboratory and the University of Vienna, Robotics Department agreed to establish a joint curricula, while  a virtual laboratory project is underway between MTA SZTAKi and ICIM in Switzerland, between MTA SZTAKI and  Karlsruhe University.
A cooperation agreement to run joint projects and prepare joint FP6 proposals  (Dependable-Dairy  and IPMMAN) has been  achieved also with the  Research and Development Centre of Seibelsdorf, Austria.

The visiting scientists have their reports appended to this periodic report,
while those are also publicly available to download/read at:
www.sztaki.hu   clicking on the Centre of Excellence logo, or directly at:
http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/coe/ 

•	Publications and papers:
There is a large number of publications and presentation slides. Not all papers can be attached or appended to this report, but most of them are downloadable from the web site: 
http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/coe/ 

•	Deliverables:
D.C.1.: Increased networking among centres
There is a significant increase in the networking among centres.  The large number of submitted proposals is a good example/proof of the activities of the researchers at MTA SZTAKI. 

D.C.2 Increased scope of the centre
The importance of the Institute has also been increased, by the involvement of the foreign invited scientists, since new ideas and topics for research emerged.  The most relevant increase in scope has been achieved by Prof. Tamas Roska, WP3, by introducing a BIONICS interdisciplinary scientific field.  MTA SZTAKI plays the leading and key role in the establishment of this new, cross-Hungarian action.

D.C.3 Enhanced participation in 5th, 6th FW Programmes
 The attached list of FP6 submitted and accepted projects show the result of our efforts.

 D.C.4 Periodic Progress Report   +12 months
The VIMINS virtual Laboratory establishment had been developed to a promising level.  7 long-term visiting scientists could be invited to joint the work with MTA SZTAKI. 
(see first 7 visitors in the table)

D.C.5 Periodic Progress Report   +24 months
The number of long-term visiting scientists has raised to 17.  The RENED network based virtual lab developed among French, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Russian scientific institutes.

D.C.6 Periodic Progress Report   +36 months
The number of long-term visiting scientists has raised to 28. Swiss (ICIM-SupsiManno), Austrian (Seibersborf, Univ. Of Vienna,) and German (Stuttgart Univ.) laboratories agreed to combine efforts in the direction to establish virtual laboratories.

D C.7.: Final Report, statistics,          +36+10 months
As foreseen at the time of reporting, till the end of the project ( December 2004) altogether 31 long-term scientists will have had the opportunity to work with MTA SZTAKI’s laboratories.

Workpackage progress report for Workpackage No.: D

Organising Workshops, Conferences and Scientific Meetings

•	Objectives and planned actions:
The driving force for this workpackage is to make the widespread dissemination of the ideas, theories, methods and technologies possible. We had planned a large number of activities in most technical workpackages. 
“The driving force for this workpackage is to enable a widespread dissemination for ideas, theories, methods and technologies among experts of devoted research  fields, to give opportunities for foreign scientists and experts to see and hear other colleagues from the same field. The face-to-face meetings are just as important as the remote or tele-conferencing, and each conferencing method has its own importance and benefits compared to the others. Workshops, with limited number of attendees can inspire more effective debates and discussions, while Conferences and Congresses attract attendees from a wider base. Exhibitions, open days, tutorials, SME-targeted technology-transfer and technology-demonstration days, etc. are also planned under this workpackage.”

•	Problems encountered:

The conferences and workshops we listed in the original proposal were already organized and run by the time we received the signed contract. 
The Conferences had suffered from the effects of 11. September, as many participants had cancelled their business travels. By 2004 we could witness a positive change, and conferencing with personal attendance (not via video-conferencing) might again be booming. 
  
•	Results: 

There were many conferences and workshops, seminars that MTA SZTAKI had organized from the beginning of the CoE project. The full list is constantly updated on the web (www.conferences.hu; www.sztaki.hu ), and here we refer to the main events only, that had been managed through the CoE and the Thematic workpackages involved. 
 
In 2004, MTA SZTAKI was again in the top for arranging and hosting World-class conferences:

The CIRP 2004 (Production Engineers World Forum) had its main event in Budapest, being hosted  by us, while 
The conference series of IEEE:
Started by IEEE 8th International Workshop on Cellular Neural Networks and their Applications (22-24 July) , (WP 7+8)
IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, with the 
International Conference on Fuzzy Systems altogether involved 580 participants  

WP5 managed workshop delivered a good bases for launching several high-level research projects.  The Grammar Systems Week was hosted  by our CoE . in July 5-9 

 WP6  prepared a conference for early October ( was  successfully managed with  good feedback). (#8)

Young PhD. Yearly Conference was again prepared (Run in September (#8).

The DAPSYS 2004 large international conference on distributed and parallel systems was prepared to be  organized  in September 19-22. Budapest, in conjunction with the 11th EuroPVM/MPI conference (September 19-22, also #8)

We had been  running an exposition, in  Eisenstadt, Austria in “Best Practice in e-commerce and job Role Qualification “  28-29 April.
  
For our thematic workpackages, such as WP3,- WP12,   the details of achievements are  shown at the MTA SZTAKI introduction, appended to this report.

•	Publications and papers:
Books, preprints, proceedings, and other documents related to our scientific events are available. Most of the events are stored on videotapes as well, and there were many pictures taken for electronic, multimedia reuse. The presentations are done in Microsoft PowerPoint slides, and these files are stored. 

•	Deliverables:

In the appended part of the report, we added only the selected, main references to the conferences and seminars, etc. we organized. Many papers are available for downloading from the web address. We have also appended a list of scientific posts, where scientists from SZTAKI are shown with their international scientific commitments. This shows, how our Centre of Excellence has increased in reputation.  

D.D.1.: Increased networking among Centres 	

	Other Centres were invited to participate, with many other in the same research domain. An excellent cooperation has been built up between the RENYI Centre of Excellence and HUN-TING MA SZTAKI. Joint workshops and seminars are planned and maintained, and decision was made to plan for a joint larger international workshop too. The scientists from the 2 CoE-s have also joint publications and work together to prepare joint national and international (EU 6th FW) proposals.

D.D.2.: Increased scope of the Centre	

	New scientific areas were introduced in the Centre, due to the large influence of external scientists visiting us and influencing our work areas.
Also due to a larger   flow of visitors to and from the Institute, new areas are emerging to widen the scope of our centre. 
One key topic is the NEURO-INFORMATICS, BIO-INFORMATICS, with leads to the “crossroads of ITC life sciences” and also the Nano-technologies’ special fields, to combine with intelligent sensor techniques.

	Also within this reporting period, was the decision made, to enforce experts  in the filed of sound recognition, synthesis, speech-to-text technologies. Also a new working team was allocated to wireless communication application-specific research topics. 

D.D.3.: Contribution to capacity building through attracting young researchers
	Young scientists must have several opportunities to deliver lectures and make presentations at international Conferences.  By organizing such events, most of our young employees are pushed to experience presenting their work and results. 
Since local under and postgraduates can often visit our conferences at a very reduces price or free of charge, they are happy to come and listen to new technology achievements.
Our OPEN DAYs, exhibitions and demonstrations on our research results + other FP6  topics invite  and challenge young graduates to join our laboratories.  MTA SZTAKI organizes and participates twice each year at  “Labour-burse” events.
The diverse topics  shown in our EU6th Framework proposals  is a proof of  enlargement.
 
D.D.4.: Support for economic and social needs of the region	

    Our industrial partners are continuously seeking with us the  new technology  developments and they are eager to launch  industrial projects with our  scientific  input.	

D.D.5.: Increased linkage with economic and social environment

All our conferences had defined their targeted topics to support the needs of the region, and to have links with economic and social environment.

D.D.6.: Enhanced participation of the Centre in other areas of the 5th  (+6th) Framework Programme.	

Many project proposals are showing this effort. The efforts of Acad. Tamás Roska has become a reality; the BIONICS-engineering topics became emerging scientific fields at Hungarian and Other countries’ universities. Also , the EU 6th Framework’s  announced research topics were influenced by Acad. Roska’s  preparatory actions. 

D D.6:  Evaluation report on each event 
Each main event has been evaluated by the directorate of our Institute.

Workpackage progress report for Workpackage No.: E
Visits to another research centre

•	Objectives and planned actions:
The objective was to share the ideas and research results with colleagues from Europe. For deeper and longer consultations, it is not enough to apply video-conferencing, but personal visits are needed.
The director and deputy-director (plus occasionally 1 or 2 other experts) of the SZTAKI took part in the ERCIM top-level Conferences. ERCIM is the European Research Forum for our several, prioritised scientific main interests, and hence our institute must establish strong working relations with other ERCIM members.  
•	Many colleagues had chance to visit conferences, or EU universities and research places for shorter or longer periods, but their financing was not based on the Centre of Excellence funds.
•	The following visits – relevant to the CoE project – had been managed:
•	
Name of visited  place	Name of visitor	Time	
Stockholm,Nizza, Vienna,Luxemburg, ERCIM Institutes	Dr. Peter Inzelt director
Prof. L. Monostori ddir.	 6 monthly	
Klagenfurt University	O.Hutter, Zs.Keul, F. Sarkozy, G. Haidegger, Sarvary	several occasions: July 2002, July2003,    Oct.2003, 2004 	
Univ. of Edinburgh EUREKA FACTORY 
PLANET Networking	G.Haidegger

Kiss Tams in Ulm	October 2001

Febr. 2003	
Prague, E-2002EUROPE	Keul-Haidegger	October 2002	
University of Thessaloniki 	Haidegger	October 2002	
Munchen TU. Twinning	G.Ivanyos, Nagy	May 2003	
 			
Krakow Univ. 	10+6 persons form the CNN Department of WP3, Prof. Roska	Aug.31.-Sept.4. 2003	
CIMSI  Supsimanno	G.Haidegger	Nov. 2003	
TU Eindhoven, TU Paris	L.Ronyai, G.Ivanyos	Oct.2003. 	
EUREKA Factory-Technology Transfer, Oslo, Norway	G. Haidegger	June 5-8.  2004	

•	Problems encountered:
Several long-term visits were planned, but till now not all have been realised, due to changes in the starting time. Short visits are very often taken for most of the Laboratories, to widen the co-operation and run joint projects, but the needs for the trips come up very rapidly, and thus they cannot be planned long ahead.  

•	Results: 

Cooperation in the fields has dynamically increased.
Some members of our Laboratories are often invited by foreign partners to join for preparing new project proposals.

Even if we have not enough time to visit many places, we  keep up contacts  efficiently, by  meeting via vide-conferencing, exchanging emails, etc.  To support the running of  contacts, we are paying membership fee to the RENED Network, because  its submitted proposal was NOT funded, but we still prefer to go on with  harmonising the educational thematic among our network partners. 
We had also paid membership fee to the OSACA  group, and  paid membership fee to CIRP, because our very important 2004-Spring CIRP was  organized by us, in Budapest, our Institute hosting the event.

 A list of approx. yearly 300 visits to foreign laboratories by MTA SZTAKI scientists is available on demand.

Annexes

Appended to the Periodic Report for HUN-TING

Most of the Annexes are also downloadable from the web:
http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/coe/

A0. FP5 and FP6  proposals
A1. Final reports of visiting scientists. See list on following sheet
A2. Research Tasks undertaken 
A3. Memberships in international scientific committees
A4. Publications  will be fully listed in the end-of-year report.

These parts are:
Publications –of visiting scientists, joint publications, etc.  
Reports of Conferences, Workshops organized.

Annexes not appended, but accessible from the web at:
http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/coe/    

A1.   Visiting Scientists in the #1-#7 Period 

Long-term Visitor’s name	Time of visit	Related thematic WP
	
Dr. Roland Tetzlaff, Frankfurt	May-Aug-2001	WP3	
Prof. Serge Monchaud, Paris 	July-Aug.-2001	WP7+8	
Dr. Ronald Anton Scheidl, Vienna	July-Sept.2001	WP 10	
Dr. Dragan Stokits, Bremen	Aug.-Oct.-2001	WP 7	
Prof. Hakan Hjalmarsson, Sweden	Aug.-Oct.-2001	WP 6	
Dr. Ulrich Meyer, Saarbrucken	Jan.-Febr.-2002	WP6	
Ph.D. Alexandru Popa,  Bucharest	Jan.-Febr.-2002	WP8-C	
Dr. Daniel Dochev, Sofia 	Febr.-April-2002	WP 2, C	
Dr.  Radoslav Pavlov, Sofia	Febr.-April-2002	WP 2, C	
Dr. Markus Holzer, Germany	March-April-2002	WP 5	
Prof. Nick Bottka, U.K.	May-July-2002	WP3	
Dr, Marco Gilli, Italy	July-Aug.-2002	WP3	
Ph.D. Mauric ter Beek	March-Dec. 2002	WP5	
Prof. Victor Mitrana, Spain	Sept.-Oct.-2002	WP5	
Dr. Zsofia Ruttkay, Amsterdam	Sept.-Nov.-2002	WP3	
CarlosManuel Dom.Matas, Seville	Oct.-Dec.-2002	WP3	
Ph.D. Christian Mönch, 	Jan.-Nov.-2003	WP10	
Prof. Laurence Carassus, Paris	June-July, 2003	WP9	
Ph.D. DavidLopez Villarino, Spain	June-Aug. 2003	WP3	
Dr. Patrick Goverts, Belguim	Nov.-Jan.2004	WP	
Dr. Sandi Ferret, Paris	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP6	
Dr. Miklos Santha	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP6	
Dr. Daniel Dochev, Sofia	Nov. 03-Febr.2004	 WP 11	
Dr. Radoslav Pavlov, Sofia	Nov. 03-Febr.2004	 WP 11	
Ph.D. DavidLopez Villarino, Spain	Sept-Dec. 2003	WP3	
Ph.D. Arpad Harangozo, Bucharest	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP2	
Ph.D. Costin Cosouis, Bucharest	Oct.-Dec.2003	WP2	
Ph.D. Renaud Peteri, Paris, Nizza	Jan.-Febr,(-Sept)	WP2-11	

 New visitors
			
Cont.: Renaud Peteri	-September	ERCIM, WP 2	
Prof. George Paun	Jun. 27.-Aug.5	WP5	
Dr. Radu Gramatovici	Aug.30-	WP5	
Alexander Anufriev	July 15-	WP7-8