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ANNUAL REPORT 2006 EDITOR: MANAGING DIRECTOR ASLAK TVEITO, SIMULA RESEARCH LABORATORY PROJECT COORDINATOR: ADVISOR KRISTIN BØRTE, SIMULA RESEARCH LABORATORY ISBN: 978-82-92593-05-9 TRANSLATIONS AND PROOFREADING: LINDA SIVESIND AND CHRIS WRIGHT PHOTO. IMAGE COMMUNICATION DESIGN: LENA W NYSTRØM, VIRTUALENA.COM PRINTED BY: PRINTHOUSE CONTENTS MANAGING DIRECTOR 4 DIRECTORS REPORT 5 FINANCIAL STATEMENT 8 NOTES 10 AUDIT REPORT 12 RESEARCH THE NETWORKS AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT 14 THE SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING DEPARTMENT 16 THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 18 INNOVATION SIMULA INNOVATION AS 20 KALKULO AS 22 INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATION 24 EDUCATION SIMULA SCHOOL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION 25 DOCTORATES AND MASTERS DEGREES 26 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 28 Managing Director New challenges in the wake of our research will be carried out by international best year researchers visiting Simula. Our ambition is to involve international researchers in all parts of the CoE, and in particular, we would like their 2006 was undoubtedly our best year so far. We participation in supervising graduate students produced more journal papers than ever; more and postdoctoral researchers. It is a major chal- PhD students have graduated; we received a lenge to organize this smoothly and also make considerable new grant from the Ministry of sure that the research presents a cohesive Transport and Communication to fund our whole and aggregates to provide further in- research on communication infrastructures; we sights. established and received funding for a partner- ship with companies and organizations in order In 2009, an international committee will again to establish Simula School of Research and evaluate Simula. Based on our experience with Innovation (see page 25); and we received a the former evaluation, and based on the mid- huge ten-year grant to establish a Centre of term evaluations2 of the CoEs, it is evident that Excellence1 (CoE) that will focus on software the number of scientific papers in ANNUAL REPORT 2006 components for biomedical flows (see page 17). reputable journals will be of key In addition, Hydro increased their cooperation interest for the committee. The with Simula, and we established Kalkulo, which number of journal papers per is already attracting other large projects. All senior staff member is increasing these events will lead to considerable growth at at Simula, and this positive trend Simula during the next couple of years. And is necessary in order to ensure an growth means substantial challenges for all excellent evaluation in employees at Simula. 2009. We have argued strongly that there is a need to In 2006, the Board of build a new type of school at the PhD level in Directors completed Informatics. Many companies, organizations their work with a new and Bærum municipality have joined us in our strategy for Simula campaign. We have received unusually strong for the period 2007- support from many politicians and, most impor- 2015. tantly, we have convinced the Minister of In the Foundation of the Education and Research, Øystein Djupedal, to Strategy, it is stated that provide substantial financial support for this Simula should, in this period, 4 school. In 2007, the establishment of the school create at least one scientific will be a major challenge for Simula. Our ambition breakthrough and one major is to set up a school that is very efficient, where research-based commercial the students have real and strong interaction success. These goals are with industry, and where all the PhD students extremely challenging; to and postdoctoral researchers really feel that meet them, we will have to they are able to focus entirely on their most focus our resources continu- demanding assignments. The result, we hope, ally towards the fields in which will be that candidates will be produced who such achievements are most have in-depth knowledge of fields that are likely. deemed to be of importance both in the indus- try and academia. A particular challenge is to A highly motivated crew at Simula include innovation in the PhD curriculum. will address all the challenges list- ed above. Our ambition is to nur- As an independent research institution, Simula ture a healthy and energetic culture participated this year in the national competi- of research and innovation as a tion among the leading research groups in foundation for a strong and perma- Norway for a Centre of Excellence. Professor nent institution that provides new Hans Petter Langtangen applied for such a insight, new commercial opportuni- centre to focus on Software Components for ties, and excellent candidates for Biomedical Flows. Initially, the Research Norwegian industry. Council received 98 applications, and after a thorough selection process, eight centres were chosen and Langtangen was one of the win- ners. It is, of course, a great honour for Simula Professor Aslak Tveito, Managing Director to host such a centre; but it is also a major chal- lenge. The CoE will broach a completely new 1. A Centre of Excellence is funded by a ten-year grant field; addressing the complexities of simulating provided by the Research Council of Norway; flows in the human body. Moreover, the organi- see www.forskningsradet.no. 2. The mid-term evaluation is available at zational model will be different from the rest of www.forskningsradet.no Simula, in that a much larger part of the Directors Report A successful year for Simula Outstanding research In December, the Research Council of Norway Simula Research Laboratory (Simula) reached (RCN) announced that Simula was assigned new heights regarding the number of scientific status as a Centre of Excellence. The new articles and books published, and doctorates Centre of Excellence: Software Components for awarded, in the anniversary year of 2006. It also Bio-medical Flows, will be rooted in Simula’s became clear that Simula will be setting up a Scientific Computing Department. The CoE School of Research and Innovation, a Centre of allocation of a total of MNOK 75 over a 10-year Excellence, and a large-scale basic research period will be used to perform world-class project on resilient networks. research in computing and simulating fluid flows, focusing especially on blood flow Strategy for 2007-2015 through the aorta. In October 2006, Simula`s Board adopted a new strategy for 2007 to 2015. The strategy The Board observes that the allocation is asso- rests on a platform of basic research in three ciated with considerable prestige. The Board departments: Networks and Distributed Systems, extends its gratitude to the CoE Director Scientific Computing and Software Engineering. Professor Hans Petter Langtangen and his co- ANNUAL REPORT 2006 Simula will promote the application of research workers for their tremendous efforts in connec- in these fields in the public and private sectors tion with the CoE application and wishes them alike, and will educate students in collaboration the very best of luck in a vital new field of with Norwegian universities. More specifically, research. by 2010 Simula aims to be among the world Resilient networks leaders in its research fields, and by 2015 the The Ministry of Transport and Communications aim is to create at least one scientific break- allocated a total of MNOK 27 for the period through and one major research-based com- 2006-2010 to the basic research project entitled mercial success. The Board considers this to be ‘Resilient Networks’. The project’s primary a sound strategy for the years ahead scientific goal is to develop and demonstrate Meeting expectations protocols and methods that can make commu- Simula’s employees and invited guests cele- nications infrastructure resilient against faulty brated Simula’s 5th anniversary on 14 components, wrong configurations, sabotage December 2006, when Minister of Education and other factors that can cause aberrations or and Research Øystein Djupedal stated in his collapse. keynote speech that the institution has largely Scientific advances met all expectations already. The Board sin- The establishment of a CoE, a School for 5 cerely appreciates the signals provided by the Research and Innovation, and the Resilient minister in his speech, including his remark Networks project are clear signs that Simula about how the dedicated efforts lavished on has made formidable scientific advances that Simula are a good example of how it is possible have been recognised by independent experts. to cultivate outstanding research groups in cer- In 2006, Simula also reached new heights with tain fields. seven completed PhDs, as well as a larger num- Simula School of Research and Innovation ber of published scientific articles and books In October, Simula’s management handed over than in previous years. The joint project a proposal to the Ministry of Education and Computational Geosciences (CG), in collabora- Research regarding the establishment of a tion with industrial giant Hydro ASA, picked up research school within ICT: The Simula School momentum during the year. The project began of Research and Innovation. The Ministry of in 2005. Its objective is to develop a better Education and Research announced in understanding of the geological and geophysi- December that they would initially allocate cal processes that contribute to the develop- MNOK 5 for such a school of research. Although ment of hydrocarbon deposits. These efforts further funding was promised, the level was not have already resulted in new contributions to specified. Hydro’s technology for the design of complex geomodels, the development of the first version The Board of Directors hereby expresses its of a four-dimensional global model of the litho- gratitude to the Norwegian government for its sphere, and the development of a prototype of demonstration of confidence and the opportu- a network-oriented software community for a nity to set up a School of Research and new, integrated process for oil and gas explo- Innovation in the field of ICT to address timely ration.

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