Norwegian Computing Center
Encyclopedia
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
and quantitative methods for a broad range of industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
, commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
and public service
Public services
Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...
organisations in the national and international markets. NR has its offices near the university campus Blindern in Oslo, Norway, as part of what is known as Forskningsparken, Park of Research.
NR has three scientific departments:
NR's Department of Applied Research in Information Technology (DART) offers project-oriented applied research within multimedia, information security, information privacy and risks, universal design, and e-inclusion. In addition to research, DART's work covers concept studies, analysis, consultancy, prototyping, training, development, and evaluation.
NR's Statistical Analysis, Image Analysis, and Pattern Recognition (SAMBA) offers project-oriented applied research in all areas of mathematical statistics. The main application areas are Statistics for Climate, Environment, Marine Resources and Health, Statistics for Finance, Insurance and Commodity Markets,
Statistics for Technology, Industry and Administration,
Earth Observation, and
Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition.
NR's Statistical Analysis of Natural Resource Data (SAND) offers project-oriented applied research statistics related
to the oil industry. The group is a significant international contributor to research and services within reservoir description, stochastic modeling and geostatistics for the oil industry. The primary goal is to use statistical methods to reduce and quantify risk and uncertainty. The main area is stochastic modeling of the geology in petroleum reservoirs including upscaling and history matching. There is also a significant activity on all kinds of risk quantification, primarily within the energy sector.
NR is the host for a Centre for research based innovation, Statistics for Innovation with a funding from the Research Council of Norway in the period 2007-2014.
Historic Landmarks
NR was established in 1952. Until 1970 an important part of the activity was to perform mathematical computations for other organizations. After 1970 NR has been a methodological research institute. In 1985, NR became an independent institute and moved to its present location in 1988. NR is famous for inventing the first object oriented programming language SimulaSimula
Simula is a name for two programming languages, Simula I and Simula 67, developed in the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard...
in the 1960s. NR has worked with data communication since 1963, the Internet since 1973 and multimedia since1994. NR started working with statistics in 1952, remote sensing in 1982, geostatistics and petroleum in 1983, marine resources in 1988 and electricity prices and finance in 1994. The history of NR is described in a historic book called "Norsk Regnesentral 1952-2002" (in Norwegian) published in 2002.
- The Simula programming language was designed and built by Professor emeritus Ole-Johan DahlOle-Johan DahlOle-Johan Dahl was a Norwegian computer scientist and is considered to be one of the fathers of Simula and object-oriented programming along with Kristen Nygaard.- Career :...
and Professor emeritus Kristen NygaardKristen NygaardKristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer and politician. He was born in Oslo and died of a heart attack in 2002.-Object-oriented programming:...
at the Norwegian Computing Center (NCC) in Oslo between 1962 and 1967.
Awards
- NR employees Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygraard received the ACM Turing Award in 2001 and the 2002 IEEE John von Neumann MedalIEEE John von Neumann MedalThe IEEE John von Neumann Medal was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 1990 and may be presented annually "for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology." The achievements may be theoretical, technological, or entrepreneurial, and need not have been made...
for the introduction of the concepts underlying object-oriented programmingObject-oriented programmingObject-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
through the design and implementation of SimulaSimulaSimula is a name for two programming languages, Simula I and Simula 67, developed in the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard...
67. - November 6, 2008: Chief research scientist Wolfgang Leister and research scientist Truls Fretland, win a best-paper award for their contribution at the conference ICSNC 2008 in Sliema, Malta for their work in the SAMPOS research project.
- Feb. 2010: Research scientist Till Halbach wins a best-paper award for his contribution to the ACHI 2010 conference for his work in the DIADEM, UNIMOD, and KogNett research projects.
- Nov. 2010: Chief research scientist Wolfgang Leister, PhD fellow Svetlana Boudko, and research scientist Till Halbach win a best-paper award for their contribution to the ICSNC 2010 conference for their work in the MOVIS and ADIMUS research projects.
External links
- Norsk Regnesentral / Norwegian Computing Center: http://nr.no/
- Norsk Regnesentral's annual public reports: http://www.nr.no/pages/common/annual_reports
- A Google Earth 3D model of Norsk Regnesentral's building is available at Google SketchUp
- Professor emeritus Kristen NygaardKristen NygaardKristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer and politician. He was born in Oslo and died of a heart attack in 2002.-Object-oriented programming:...
: http://www.ifi.uio.no/in_memoriam_kristen/ - Professor emeritus Ole-Johan DahlOle-Johan DahlOle-Johan Dahl was a Norwegian computer scientist and is considered to be one of the fathers of Simula and object-oriented programming along with Kristen Nygaard.- Career :...
: http://www.ifi.uio.no/adminfo/tribute.html