The State Key Laboratory of Novel Software Technology
Based on years of research conducted by both the Department of Computer Science and Technology and the Institute of Computer Software of Nanjing University, the State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology passed expert argumentation in 1986, started preparations in 1987, and was established in 1990. After passingstate inspection, it was open todomestic and foreignscientists and researchers. It passed through the first assessment in 1993, the second assessmentin 1997, and the third assessment in 2002.In 2007, the laboratory passed through the fourth assessment and was rated as “Excellent State Key Laboratory in the Area of Information Science”.In 2012, it passed throughthe fifth assessment and once again was rated “Excellent State Key Laboratory in the Area of Information Science”.The current lab director is Professor Jian Lv (Academicianof Chinese Academy of Science), and the director of the academic committee is Professor FuqingYang (Academicianof Chinese Academy of Science).
The laboratory mainly focuses onthe researchof novel software technologies and the correspondingapplications. It aims to leverage the challenges and opportunities in the rapid development of novel software technologies, and meets the requirements in the aspect of information construction of the country. Moreover, the laboratory explores important scientific problems in the area of computer software, studies basic and common problems in novel software technologies, and adheres to the guiding ideology of conducting original research,making technology breakthrough, and getting achievements to promote industry.The laboratory aims to form its own characteristic and superiority in scientific research and application development of novel software technologies, as well as in the cultivation of high-quality talents, and contributesin promotingeffective and rapid development of China's software industry.
The main research directions of the laboratory are as follows: novel programming and software methodologies, software quality assurance and automation, distributed computing and system security, machine learning and intelligent information processing, media computing and content processing. Specifically, at a macro level the major research contents can be summarized as “One system, two entry points, three levels and four key tasks”. One system refers to the Internet oriented software methodology and technical support system; two entry points refer to the software methodology and machine learning; three levels refer to the open and Internet-oriented software methodology, the intelligent and trustworthy key supporting technology, and the ubiquitous and natural basic application mode; while four key tasks refer tothe Internet oriented and reliable framework of software methodology, machine learning and intelligent software supporting technology, ubiquitous and distributed application supporting technology, humanistic media content processing technology and applications.
Till the end of 2013, the lab has undertaken over 560 research projects,including the national 973 projects, 863 projects, national S&T major projects, national science fund for distinguished young scholars, the national natural science funds, provincial ministries, international cooperation and horizontal collaboration project. Moreover, the lab has published over 5000 papers in important international journals including AI、JMLR、JSAC、PR、TKDE、TMM、TOSEM、TPAMI、TPDS、TSE、Science China and important conferences includingAAAI、ACM MM、CAV、COLT、CVPR、FMCAD、ICDCS、ICML、ICNP、ICSE、ICWS、IJCAI、INFOCOM、ISSTA、KDD、MOBIHOC、NIPS、OOPSLA、SPAA、UBICOMP、WWW,etc. The lab has also published 47 academic books. These high-quality papers have been cited by peer researchers fromUSA, UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, etc. Due to its establishment, the laboratory has won 79 prizes at the national or ministerial levels, including one second-class National Prize of Natural Science, four second-class National Prizesof Scientific and Technological Progress, two ministerial-level Grand Prizes, 10ministerial-level First Prizes, 24 ministerial-level Second Prizes, two academic books won the First Prizes of Excellent Textbook from Ministry of Education, respectively. The laboratory has won three National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations, six CCF Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations, and four Jiangsu Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations. The laboratory has also made great efforts on developing real-life applications, and played an important role in economic and social developments of China. It has been granted 130 patents and 61 software copyrights till the end of 2013.
At present, the laboratory has 57 permanent researchers, 35 of themareprofessors and 52 of them have PhD degrees. These researchers have formed a team with high quality, high vigor and balanced composition. Many young talents have emerged. Among them, there are 1 Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 ACM Distinguished Scientist, 1 IEEE Fellow, 1 IAPR Fellow, 1 IET/IEE Fellow, 1 AAAI Fellow,3 Distinguished Professors in the Cheung Kong Scholars Program, 6 Winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 2 Winners of the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars, 2 Winners in the National BaiQianWan Talents Project of the first and second levels, 3 Outstanding mid-aged experts, 2 Winnder of the Thousand Talents Plan for Young Professionals, 2 Winners of theChina National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award,17 Winners of the Trans－Century Training Programme Foundation of Ministry of Education of China, 2 Winners ofthe Excellent Youth Scholars of Ministry of Education of China, 1 Winner of the He Liang He Li Prize for Science and Technology Progress, 1 Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of China Computer Federation, 1 Winner of the Outstanding Education Contribution Award of China Computer Federation, 1 Winner of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding Early Career Award, 3 Fellows of China Computer Federation, 1 Winner of the Young Scientist Award by China Computer Federation, and 7 Winners of Zhongchuang Software Talent Award.
Many of the researchers of the lab have served as committee members in important academic programs and organizations, including the information science domain expert committee of the National Grand Fundamental Research Program (973) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863); general expert committee of the National S&T Major Program; information science domain advisory expert committee and expert committee of the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China; disciplinary assessment team of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council; China Computer Federation and its technical committees; Chinese Association forArtificial Intelligence and its technical committees; United Nations University; International Institute for Software Technology (UNU/IIST); ACM China Council; IEEE Nanjing Section; and IEEE Computer Society (Nanjing Chapter). The researchers have also served as advisers, executive editors, associate chief editors, associate editors, domain editors and editors for Chinese and international academic journals and transactions. They have also served in many academic conferences as steering committee chairs and members, general (co-) chairs, program committee (co-) chairs and area chairs. In 2005, the research team on “Software Methodology and Technology for Internet” won the title of Innovative Research Teamof the Ministry of Educationof China. In 2007, the team won the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It continued to receive the rolling fund in 2011 and 2014.
In academic exchange, the laboratory has established tight collaborations in research, development, and graduate student education with over a dozen countries and regions, including UK, USA, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and Australia. It has hosted a series of national and international academic conferences. All these activities of collaborationsand academic exchanges plays important roles for the laboratory in increasing international academic influence, enhancing the academic standing, expanding the scope of the search and gaining knowledge of the latest development of the field. The lab encourages the interaction and cooperation of researchers of different disciplines and specialties, encourages researchers to make full use of existing research and experiment facilities, and strives to make itself into an important national research base and a window for international academic exchange.
The laboratory has established rules and regulations and received great supports from the university in terms of running funds, office space, talent recruitment, work assessment, academic activity and cooperation natively or internationally, whichfacilitate the researchers to concentrate on their own scientific research and the development of the laboratory so as to achieve the laboratory’s strategic goals. The goals include increasing international influence on its prospective and creative exploration in new software methods and technology, achieving continuous progress in new and high technology research and development of software, making substantial achievements in the application and industrialization of key software technology and system, and consequently making the laboratory as a research base for the systematic and continuous foundational research, as a research and application base for new technology research of software, as a base for cultivating high talents as well as a base for self-innovation and practice of new software technology, in the purpose of making our country to stand at the international highland of hi-tech in software development, promoting the leap-forward development in software industry in our country.
