Changes at CAN

• New Structure
  • RIACA
  • CAN Expertise Centre
  • CAN Diensten
• Personnel
• What will change for you?

• The connections with our host organisation, CWI, have become less. Currently there is only one project, the Dynamical Systems Lab, where both CWI and CAN are cooperating;

• There is a steady growth in the commercial activities of the Expertise Centre of around 15% a year, which is promising, but not rocketing as in the first years with a level of 50%. During the last years, the Expertise Centre is for about 50% self supporting;

• The Expertise Centres that are recognised by NWO have been subject of a study for evaluating the current situation and the science policy. Among the outcomes was that the centres have been successful in making information technology easily accessible, but not in becoming financially self supporting. CAN ranks among the highest with the 50% coverage. An important conclusion from the report is that an embedding in a large institution may be a solution for an Expertise Centre to ensure closest connections with science and to reduce the costs to a marginal level;

• A similar reasoning holds for RIACA. To function in the best way, it needs an embedding in a scientific setting.

So 1995 was a year of thinking and brainstorming at CAN, talking to policy makers and to directors of institutions to find a new place for the Expertise Centre and for RIACA. Finally we are now in a stage of implementing a new structure that reinforces CAN and that is simpler from an organisational point of view. Start will be the 1st of January 1996.

New Structure

The new structure of CAN consists of three parts:

1. RIACA, which will be situated at the faculty of mathematics and informatics of the Technical University of Eindhoven.

2. CAN Expertise Centre, which will be located at the science faculty at the University of Amsterdam;

3. CAN Diensten (which stands for CAN Services), an independent enterprise which will take care of the marketing and sales of mathematical software.

Let us go through the parts in more detail in the next sections.

• RIACA
• CAN Expertise Centre
• CAN Diensten

RIACA

At the Research Institute for Applications o f Computer Algebra, now at the Technical University of Eindhoven, the formula of a project-oriented guest institution will remain. Main fields are interfaces and symbolic computation, hybrid numerical and symbolic software, and dynamical systems. Currently, there are the following projects running:

• Human Interaction for Symbolic Computation, which is related to the Askey-Bateman project for special functions;

• Interfaces for numerical software;

• Dynamical Systems Lab, headed by Jan Sanders. An important activity is the work on a continuation program CONTENT, done by Yu. Kuznetsov and V. Levitin;

• Innovation in Science Education; in which the Expertise Centre will be involved;

• European SAC-network coordination. Due to its close connections to the Expertise Centre, it will be located at the University of Amsterdam and coordinated by Thierry van Effelterre;

Of course, RIACA remains proposing new projects, such as the currently evaluated proposal for an optics project.

As for the personnel, the current manager, Jan Sanders, will resign, and his place will be taken by Hans Sterk and Hans Cuypers of TUE. Arjeh Cohen will remain scientific director. The positions of system manager for Alena Lacova, and secretary for Patricia Wirahadiraksa will not be prolonged, so they will stop working for us.

CAN Expertise Centre

The Expertise Centre will be embedded in the University of Amsterdam. The current activities for providing computer algebra services to the scientific community will be continued in cooperation with RIACA. These services include:

1. central computing facilities with a large range of computer algebra software, to be stationed at the TUE. The workstations which have been stationed at several locations in the first years of CAN will be handed over to the current users;

2. information services: the Computer Algebra Information Network and the nieuwsbrief remain in the air, also as part of the SAC-network activities of RIACA;

3. Courses and consultancy to be organised by CAN Diensten, the contents will be provided by the Expertise Centre;

Together with RIACA and the University of Amsterdam, a new project will be started directed towards the innovation of science education with help of computer algebra, and the development of authoring tools for teachers.

In previous months Els Willems and Alena Lacova have already stopped working for the Expertise Centre. Dick Verkerk will go over to CAN Diensten. So only André Heck and Leendert van Gastel will stay.

CAN Diensten

The board of the CAN Foundation wished to give the commercial activities of the Expertise Centre an independent setting. To achieve this, a commercial enterprise CAN Diensten has been set up. It will be headed by Dick Verkerk, who during last years was responsible for the software sales at the Expertise Centre. Not only the computer algebra systems will form of the product range, but also mathematical software in a wider range, like Scientific WorkPlace, S-PLUS and PV-Wave. At the background of CAN Diensten, the expertise and knowledge of the Expertise Centre will remain.

Soon CAN diensten can be reached at http://www.candiensten.nl.

Personnel

The organisational changes at the CAN affect the personnel as well. Jan Sanders and Dick Verkerk will stay involved in CAN matters, but in a different position. Alena Lacova, Els Willems and Patricia Wirahadiraksa have given some of their best years to CAN. But in the new setting, CAN is not anymore able to provide work for them.

What will change for you?

Not that much, actually. Mail addresses will change, of course. But Internet addresses, like www.can.nl, canc.can.nl and email-adresses like heck@can.nl, will stay the same. You can find the new telephone numbers and addresses here. The services related to the CAN computers will stay the same. The sales and marketing of software licenses and also the help-desk and courses will go via CAN Diensten. RIACA-projects are moved: TUE will be the base for RIACA. But, as before, projects with more partners are pursued. One of the new projects will involve the CAN Expertise Centre: the innovation of education with help of computer algebra.

So everything changes, yet all remains the same.

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