The Dicode consortium is made up of 8 partners. A short description of their status and past experience is given below.
Computer Technology Institute & Press "Diophantus", Greece
Computer Technology Institute & Press "Diophantus" is an academic, non-profit R&D organization, financially and scientifically independent, supervised by the Greek Ministry of Education. Established in 1985 and hosted in two cities, Patras and Athens, CTI has a staff of about 250 people (which includes senior researchers, University faculty members, computer and software engineers, postgraduate students) and conducts basic and applied research targeting specific areas of computer science and technology. At an operational level, it functions according to the regulations governing the private sector. CTI has gone from strength to strength by coordinating and participating in hundreds of R&D, technology related, European projects, emphasizing equally on basic and applied research. CTI also acts as a Consultant of the Greek State for Information Society operational programmes and has extended experience in strategic design, management and implementation of large scale IS projects. The Sector of Further Education & Training of CTI has a large experience in designing and implementing innovative software for interdisciplinary subjects, including web 2.0 applications for communities and collaborative work, educational games, and educational software. The Sector consists of researchers that have permanent collaboration with CTI, skilled software engineers, and other technical and managerial staff. The sector has designed and implemented several R&D projects funded by the EC, such as: IST Palette - Integrated services for Communities of Practice, IST Remath, Minerva ieus, eLearning muse and e3, etc., and several others funded by national research funds and the private sector. Its most recent innovative product copeit, adopts a multidisciplinary approach to argumentative collaboration, and exploits state of the art web 2.0 technologies to support diverse collaboration types among communities. The sector is also a technical and scientific consultant of the Ministry of Education, having a key role in design and implementation of nation-wide programmes for teacher training in pedagogical exploitation of ICT. Related longstanding expertise includes software development for knowledge assessment and certification and Information Systems for monitoring of large-scale training programmes.
Key people: Prof. Nikos Karacapilidis, Dr. Manolis Tzagarakis, Spyros Christodoulou, Nena Karagianni, Dora Nousia, Prof. Charalampos Zagouras.
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
The University of Leeds (UOL) is amongst the top 10 research-intensive universities in the UK, with an income of €500M. It has 3,000 research staff and an annual research income of more than £120 million (2007/08), 8.25% of which being from EU awards. In the current Framework the University is currently successfully coordinating 23 FP7 projects and is a partner in a further 37, with a share of research income from the FP7 programme being >€18.4M. Under the previous (6th) Framework, Leeds was involved in more than 200 funded projects, with an awarded research income of >€60M. The 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise confirmed that Leeds is one of the most research intensive Universities in the UK, with Leeds coming 8th in the country for ‘research’ power, a measure of quality and volume. 61 % of the University’s research is ‘world-leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent,’ (3*) and a further 32.5 % is ‘recognised internationally’. The University of Leeds School of Computing is a leading international centre for computing research, in the top-10 of UK computer science departments, as confirmed by the recent 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and which rated an 80% of staff as internationally excellent or World leading (3* or 4*). Two research institutes contribute to Dicode: Institute for Computational and Systems Science, and, Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Biological Systems
Key people: Dr. Lydia Lau, Dr. Vania Dimitrova, Dr. Ahmad Ammari, Dr. Dhavalkumar Thakker, Dr. Fan Yang-Turner
Fraunhofer-Institut für Intelligente Analyse- und Informationssysteme, Germany
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research (FHG)) is Germany’s leading organization of research institutions for applied research. Fraunhofer’s 60 research institutes are co-ordinating and/or contributing to large national and international industrial applied research projects, as well as to research projects targeting the service sector, national and regional governments and the EU. A staff of 12 500, the majority of whom are scientists and engineers (with university degree), generate the annual research budget of more than €900 million. The Knowledge Discovery Department (KD) at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) in Sankt Augustin, Germany, is a research group (50 scientists) located in the field Machine Learning and Data Mining. Professional experience and expertise in this group include Data Mining, Statistical Relational Learning, Bayesian Statistics, Geographic Information Systems, and Distributed Computing. The group has extensive experiences with EU projects, having coordinating in the last 5 years five ICT projects and participated in more than 15. While half of the budget of the group comes from research projects, the other half comes from direct collaboration with industry, and the group is also currently involved in numerous industrial projects on machine learning and data mining.
Key people: Dr. Stefan Rüping, Dr. Gerhard Paaß, Dr. Michael May.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Spain Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is the oldest and largest Spanish technical university, with more than 4.000 faculty members, around 38.000 undergraduate students and 6.000 postgraduates in 21 Schools of study. UPM, as a top quality academic establishment, has a strong commitment to R&D and Innovation. The presence of UPM in the international R&D arena is ensured by its consistent participation in various EU schemes. As UPM participation in the 6th Framework Programme is concerned, the University has taken part in 149 European R&D projects with more than 25 M€ of funding received from the European Commission. After the first year of duration of 7th Framework Programme the UPM was recognized as the Spanish University with the highest numbers of projects approved. The Biomedical Informatics Group (BIG) of the Artificial Intelligent Laboratory at the School of Computer Science was established in 1993. Its R&D activities focus on distributed databases, data mining, genetic workstation, guidelines and protocols, artificial intelligence in medicine, and image processing. The staff at the group includes one full professor, two associate professors, one assistant professor, ten external professors and researchers collaborating with the lab and around 15 graduate and undergraduate students. Collaborations include exchanges with foreign institutions, such as Harvard University (where six members of the lab have worked during the past years for mid-term and long-term stays), Georgia Tech and Rutgers University, USA, and research agreements with hospitals and health institutions in Spain. Contracts in biomedical informatics have included the Ministry of Defence, Spain, and industry, including funding from computer companies (e.g., HP), and from Spanish software companies. The BIG group has obtained various awards for excellence in research from the Spanish Society for Health Informatics and other institutions.
Key people: Prof. Victor Maojo, Dr. Jose Crespo, Dr. Miguel García-Remesal, Guillermo de la Calle Velasco.
Neofonie GmbH, Germany
Neofonie GmbH (NEO), a leading supplier of innovative technologies and convergent applications, specializes in the areas of search, social media and mobile applications. As a full-service IT company, neofonie accompanies clients from project conception to realization, and offers an integrated and efficient production and quality management process, as well as tailor-made technology and communications solutions from a single service provider. neofonie’s service portfolio is composed of a broad spectrum of services, ranging from strategic consulting and conception to web and interface design, software development and black-box testing to highly available and scalable hosting and 24/7 support. An integral part of neofonie’s portfolio is applied research and the further development of intelligent search technologies which allow clients to harness the ever-growing volume of data on the Internet or in companies’ databases. The focus of neofonie’s internal R&D department is the areas of information retrieval, natural language processing, machine learning, web page classification and clustering, and technologies applicable to the Semantic Web. Founded in 1998, the owner-operated company currently employs 170 people in Berlin-Mitte. The commitment to bleeding-edge research has played a crucial role in the overall success of neofonie and its customers. The 30 dedicated workers in R&D are currently working on diverse topics from the automatic generation of ontologies to the identification and extraction of experts from the blogosphere. neofonie has many years of experience in successfully completing publicly-funded research projects. For example, neofonie has recently taken over Lycos’s role as the lead for the application scenario ALEXANDRIA in one of Germany’s largest current research projects, THESEUS.
Key people: Holger Düwiger, Doris Maassen, Max Jakob, Dimitri Goldin.
Image Analysis Ltd, United Kingdom
Image Analysis Limited (IMA) combines leading expertise in medical imaging and advanced computer science to bring practical innovation to the computer-aided diagnosis market. The company is a small spin out company from the University of Leeds, UK using the published research of Dr Olga Kubassova in image processing for dynamic MRI. The company’s main product DYNAMIKA™ has been using in clinical studies for research into rheumatoid arthritis and breast cancer treatment. The company also provides expert consulting on image processing, project management, service-based computing and transformation of software from research to commerce. DYNAMIKA™, a state of the art MRI Computer Aided Diagnostic system, can be integrated into clinical practices to increase the accuracy of diagnostic decisions, improve patient experience by reducing the scan to diagnose time, and enhance productivity by providing fast and repeatable data reading. DYNAMIKA™ -- the first computer - aided detection (CAD) software for automated dynamic MRI data analysis and diagnostic decision support dedicated to rheumatoid arthritis. This innovative software for analysis and interpretation of dynamic contrast-enhanced data incorporates the latest scientific thinking and state-of-the-art technology. The software allows eliminating motion artefacts, constructing diagnostic parametric maps and providing statistical analysis of patient condition, disease progress, or effect of treatment. It can eliminate human bias and therefore possible errors from data analysis and results interpretation.
Key people: Mark Hinton, Dr. Olga Kubassova.
Biomedical Research Foundation, Greece
The Biomedical Research Foundation (BRF) of the Academy of Athens is a non-profit institute dedicated to understanding, treating, and preventing human ailments through biomedical research. BRF seeks to serve science and medicine, and to participate fully in global innovation through its commitment to the true integration of biology, medicine, and informatics. Established by the Academy of Athens, BRF accommodates state-of-the-art facilities, over a 25.000 square meter area, for conducting internationally competitive biomedical research. It is equipped with a rich variety of highly specialized scientific equipment, some of which represent the only models available in Greece or even Europe. Within its full operation from 2004, the rigorous research, the rigorous research performed at BRF is already receiving international recognition, with over 100 publications to high impact international scientific journals, invited presentations to international conferences, collaborations with Universities in Europe, US and Australia, and most importantly the successful attraction of over 16.000.000 euro of competitive research grants from national, European and international funding organization. In addition to these grants, the Greek government and the EU are also providing their support in this ambitious yet most promising endeavor of establishing an institute of academic excellence where basic research and clinical application will come together to better serve human life.
Key people: Georgia Tsiliki, Vasiliki Koumandou, Anastasia Kastania, Sophia Kossida.
Publicis Frankfurt GmbH, Germany
Publicis Frankfurt GmbH (PUB) is part of Publicis Groupe S.A., one of the world’s largest communication networks, offering integrated communication solutions around the globe. Publicis Groupe S.A. is headquartered in Paris, France. Established in 1959 as the first Publicis agency in Germany, Publicis Frankfurt GmbH offers one-stop communication services; beyond classical advertising services, this includes special services, so called excellences, in dialog and digital, public communication, retail/digital signage as well as brand consulting. Our Connected Agency principle links Publicis Frankfurt with specialists in their respective area of expertise to offer our clients and the market the most modern talked about communication devices. Publicis Frankfurt functions as the international and national hub within our international network. More than 160 employees in Brand Consulting, Creation, Client Services and Services Departments operate in our recently built House of Communication. At Publicis Frankfurt we are committed to deliver more than up to date communication solutions to the benefit of our clients, markets and customers. The Conversation Reader is an answer to the constantly changing communication paradigms. We want to understand what it really is that people talk about – to understand their actual needs and hence to develop relevant products and solutions according to the individual necessities. As this is an ongoing process, it is our desire to break new grounds in communication and brand consulting. We offer a new form of dialogue and generate new and valuable insights for the benefit of clients, producers, markets and consumers. The Conversation Reader is developed in co-operation with our network partners in the UK, France, the United States and Korea.
Key people: Volker Selle, Ralf Löffler, Jan Pleser.