Final report for the visit of  Serge MONCHAUD Visiting Professor 
hosted by  the Hungarian Centre of Excellence ( MTA SZTAKI Budapest ) 
July 12 th - August 28 th 2001 (EU contract ICAI-CT-2000-70025)
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Introduction : It is an honour for me to be chosen among the first EU visiting experts in the frames of the HUN-TING ( Technology and Science for the Information Technology )  recently signed with the EU . It seems to me that my traditional and ancient links with SZTAKI explain and justify this choice. It could be an opportunity to place them in the frames of  «confirming the international role of community research »  .
According to the previously accepted workplan, the CIM laboratory (Host) and me put our efforts on the following tasks :

1- Deep study of the scientific progress of the host:
With the help of the host institution library we selected more than 30 papers and references showing the recent direction of the research works in the host institution. Specially according to the WP 7 on Intelligent Manufacturing processes and Systems of the HUN-TING contract, big attention was paid to the previous works of Mr. Joe Hatvany at MTA SZTAKI, who was presented in the contract document as one of the world father of  IMS concepts .
 
2- Prospective implementation and birth of joint development ideas and projects:
After bilateral discussions with Prof. KOVACS - head of the CIM laboratory and Mr. Geza Haidegger - chairman of the HUN-TING project, we have selected 5 possible topics of joint works: a-Embedded Software, b-Web business and Web Telepresence, c- Bidding and Selling, d- Designing of  new CNC Machine Tools and e -Virtual Engineering .  

3- Preparation of new research proposals especially for submission to the EU. 
The recent past of the contracts subscript by the host laboratory showed - the weakness of the French partnership and /or the necessity to increase the number of Hungarian enterprises involved in such contracts. We have used my stay to propose some initiatives to change these facts in a positive way. Specially by some contacts with Hungarian firms with strong French implication, we selected two of them - one SME, specialised in the design and realisation of objects for show-rooms for multinational firms and one big size company, specialised in the production and distribution of energy ( heating and electricity co-generation ).
We agreed to submit again, in the near future, a research and technology development project to « increase safety and availability of electrical energy substations «  acronym ISISS » with the participation of a consortium of French companies specialised in this field.

4- Dissemination of the results, learn and understand the local/national solutions, requirements and special needs. MTA - SZTAKI decided to participate and support the project: UNESCO Regional Network Engineering for Development: acronym R.E.N.E.D. This network will work like a network of excellence with the objective of creating a virtual centre of excellence at the level of PECO-CEI institutions with a strong implication of EU institutions and firms. The main topic of activities will be «  Information Technology, Computer Science and Control « . The management of this network will be located in the UNESCO Chair at the Technical University of Sofia (Bg) under the project co-ordination of INSA - LATEA Rennes (France).
5- Development of educational material was on of the main goal of the co-operation between MTA SZTAKI - CIM Lab (Hu) and INSA-LATEA (F). Especially by the way of diplomas works of French students made in the CIM Lab on the topics of the present contract.
According to these past experiments we have decided to enlarge this type of exchanges to PhD students, financially supported by EU funding and also national funds ( Hungarian and French). We will pay a special attention to reach a joint recognition of the diploma level by fully using the existing regulations in France and Hungary for such possibilities. In fact France will accept to give automatically the French PhD diploma even for a defence made abroad ( in Hungary for example ), if some legal pre-conditions are fulfilled . It seems that this will be possible with Hungary. We decided to pay special attention and to make special efforts in this direction.
INSA- LATEA is involved in a French national project of  e-learning ( acronym P.A.R.I.M. ) on Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing . It seems that its goals are similar to the goals of this project: concerning development, use of joint infrastructures, adaptation of existing pieces of equipment for shared use and join management of the knowledge produced. So we decided to propose that MTA SZTAKI CIM Lab should become an associate member to the project PARIM .

6 - Delivering of scientific, technical presentations, lectures, courses, reports/deliverables both for the EU and for other organisations, in the same time take part in the preparation of referenced, cited publications.
During this stay we made all our best to fulfil these requirements. First by a lot of individual scientific and technical discussions with each of the 7 members of the MTA- SZTAKI Cim lab, Dr. George Kovacs (head), Dr. Istvan Mezgar, Dr. Sandor Kopacsi, Mr.Geza Haidegger, Mr. Janos Nacsa, Mr.Silveszter Drozdik and Mr.Ferenc Sarkozy, as well as exchange of many documents and drafts. We have selected two first targets:
-  joint publication on «  Using of Virtual Reality Tools for Remote Control of Flexible Manufacturing Systems by Internet »  
-  joint CD ( or book ) on «  Reality and Virtually =  The connections ? » 

As a conclusion of my stay we summarised all these proposals during a working seminar in front of the participants from MTA SZTAKI CIM Lab. 
My Power Point presentation will be accessible on the Web Site of MTA SZTAKI: http://www.sztaki.hu .
I hope that this stay will be a real beginning of CONTINUOUS and PERMANENT exchanges between MTA SZTAKI CIM Lab and INSA - LATEA . Preference should be given to long stay visits at the partner institutions.  
Our previous activity showed that each time this goal was fully accepted but very difficult to realise on a long period. 
Specially the financing of this «  flow » and  « joint programme of activities »  stays as the key and critical point. 
We accepted the challenge that the « Integration and Reinforcement of the European Space in Research », which is the main target of the EU  6th   Frame Work, will insure it .

Budapest August 28, 2001

Serge MONCHAUD  French State Doctor in Sciences ( 1986)
Full Professor of Universities (1988)
Chairholder UNESCO TU Sofia -Bg (1995)
France : email:serge.monchaud@insa-rennes.fr-Web site : http://www.insa-rennes.fr/l-latea
Bulgaria : email adress : smonch@vmei.acad.bg -Web site http://unesco.vmei.acad.bg