Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media (IICM)

Maurer Head: Maurer Hermann

Inffeldgasse 16c, 8010 Graz, Austria, Europe
Tel.: (+43 316) 873 5613
Fax: (+43 316) 873 5699

Homepage: http://www.iicm.edu

The IICM can refer to a long tradition of significant projects in various areas of multimedia systems and applications: The range includes MUPID, the first intelligent Videotex decoder in the early 1980s, to prototypes of the successful knowledge management system Hyperwave (http://www.hyperwave.de), to digital libraries (EU project LIBERATION), electronic publishing activities (J.UCS, the electronic 'Journal of Universal Computer Science' is co-produced by the IICM, see www.jucs.org), distributed multimedia systems (the 'Dinopolis Open Source Project') and innovative eLearning platforms (the system WBT-Master that was used by industry partners such as DaimlerChrysler in the course of the EU project CORONET).

At the IICM computer applications and their integration into the given social environment are at the center of interest, and corresponding considerations are sometimes reaching far into the future. For instance, the project MIRACLE deals with computer supported visual communication to foster new forms of inter-cultural cooperation. The project is advised by DDr. Daniela Camhy who is a philosopher and linguist at the Graz University and whose contribution lies mainly in the area of human sciences.

Other important issues investigated at the IICM are the interaction between human users and computers (HCI) and the visualizion of large information collections.

In a joined project with JOANNEUM RESEARCH, Styria Media AG and Know-Center the IICM has a leading role in the design and implementation of a comprehensive digital library. The portal will offer far more different kinds of functionalities than are known from existing platforms. Digital libraries distributed all over the world will be seamlessly integrated under one comfortable interface.
Center of this net will be the Graz University of Technology and the local existing contents like documents, publications, eLearning-Moduls, Diploma and Doctoral Theses etc.

In the area of teaching the IICM offers basic courses on programming for students of Telematics and Software Development, plus advanced courses on software technology, information systems, computer networks, databases, user interfaces, social aspects of telematics and some fields of "soft skills".

The IICM is operating closely with non-university research institutions such as JOANNEUM RESEARCH and Know-Center as well as several publishers and numerous international university institutes.

Following professors are leading the IICM:

O.Univ.-Professor Dr. Hermann Maurer (Head of the Institute)

Study of Mathematics at the Universities of Vienna (Austria) and Calgary (Canada) starting in 1959. System Analyst with the Government of Sasketchewan (Canada) in 1963. Mathematician-programmer with IBM Research in Vienna 1964-1966. Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Vienna 1965. Assistant and Associate Professor for Computer Science at the University of Calgary 1966-1971. Full Professor for Applied Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe, West Germany, 1971-1977, and Visiting Professor at SMU, Dallas, and University of Brasilia (Brazil) for three months, each, and at the University of Waterloo, during the same period.

Full Professor at the Graz University of Technology since 1978, since October 2000 also Dean of Studies for Telematics. In addition, director of the Research Institute for Applied Information Processing of the Austrian Computer Society 1983-1998; chairperson of Institute for Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media since 1988, director of the Institute for Hypermedia Systems of JOANNEUM RESEARCH 1987-2006, director of the AWAC (Austrian Web Application Center) of the ARCS (Austrian Research Centers) 1997-2000, member of the board of OCG (Österreische Computergesellschaft) 1979-2003, co-founder and chairman of the board of the Hyperwave AG Munich 1997-2005, vice-chairman of same company since then; founder and scientific advisor of the KNOW Center (K+ Center), the first research center on Knowledge Management in Austria, since 2004/01/01 first Dean of the newly formed Faculty for Computer Science of Graz, University of Technology.

Adjunct Professor at Denver University 1984-1988; Professor for Computer Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1993 (on leave from Graz), then Honorary Adjunct Professor and since May 2001 Honorary Research Fellow.

'Campus Graz 02' Captain (University College of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce) 2002-2006, honorary title 'Visiting Professor' at the Danube University (Krems, Austria), Central European Evaluation Board Member WGLN (Wallenberg Global Learning Network); External Advisory Panel Member at Kuching University (Malysia) as of December 15, 2002 and Visiting Researcher at Edith Cowan University (Perth, Australia) in 2003.

He received a number of awards, among them the ADV Prize for Merits for Informationprocessing in Austria, the "Enter-Price" (a nice play of words with Enterprise) of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce in 1999, the Integrata-Prize (for Human Software) in 2000, the 'AACE Fellowship Award' of AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education) in November 2003; he became Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences in 1996 and a member of the Academia Europaea in February 2000. In January 2001 he was awarded the "Austrian Cross of Honours for Arts and Science Class I", and later also in 2001 the "Large Medal of Honour of the Province of Styria". He received three Honorary Doctorates: one of the Polytechnical University of St. Petersburg in 1991, one of the University Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2002 and one of the University of Calgary in 2007. He was appointed member of the advisory board of the Web-History Society in May 2007.

Author of twenty books, more than 600 contributions in various publications, Editor-in-Chief of 'Journal of Universal Computer Science' and 'Journal of Network and Computer Applications'; member of the Editorial Council of the Journals 'Organizacija', 'Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia', 'International Journal of Telecommunications' and 'Journal on Educational Resources in Computing'; Chairperson of steering committees and Member of program committees of numerous international conferences; Founder of the Conference series of ED-MEDIA and WebNet/eLearn and of the conference I-KNOW; European Representative at ICCE till 2000. Project manager of a number of multimillion-dollar undertakings including a patent for optical storage device, the development of a colour-graphic microcomputer (MUPID), an electronic teaching experiment COSTOC, multi-media projects such as "Images of Austria" (Expo'92 and Expo'93), various electronic publishing projects such as "PC Library", "Geothek", "J.UCS" and "Brockhaus Multimedial"; responsible for the development of the first second generation Web Based Information System Hyper-G, now Hyperwave and the eLearning Suite (eLS), a modern net based teaching platform, participation in a number of EU projects (e.g. LIBERATION, HYMN, EUROPE-MMM, HYPDOC, EONT and others) and MIRACLE.

His main research and project areas are Networked multimedia/hypermedia systems (Hyperwave); electronic publishing and applications to university life, exhibitons and museums, Web based learning environments (eLearning, learning platforms); languages and their applications, data structures and their efficient use, telematic services, computer networks, computer assisted instruction, computer supported new media, dynamic symbolic language, social implications of computers and the topic "computers and Science" Fiction.
(He is author resp. editor of many books, among them the series of SF books "Xperts", which is dedicated parapsychological Phenomena).

Ao.Professor Dr. Keith Andrews

studied at the University of York (Great Britain) with special emphasis on mathematics and Computer Science and got his masters degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in Technical Mathematics (Informationprocessing) at the Graz University of Technology, where he also got his Ph.D. and his "Habilitation". His scientific interests are in the areas of hypermedia, human-computer interaction, computer graphics and the Web. In his teaching and research activities he puts special emphasis on information visualization, an area in which he has co-chaired the important IEEE conferences 'Information Visualization' (InfoViz) 2001 and 2002.
Among the projects managed by Keith Andrews are Harmony (an innovative browser for the Web-based information system Hyperwave, and VRwave (a VRML browser).
At the moment he gives the lectures "Internet and New Media", "Human-Computer Interaction", "Web Usability", "User Interface Design" and a Tutorial "Information Visualization".

Ao.Professor Dr. Nick Scherbakov

studied Computer Science and Technical Mathematics at the Technical University of St. Petersburg, Russia. There he also got his Ph.D. and was Professor and Head of the Lab for Information-and Expert-System. He joined the IICM in 1995.

He has written four books and over 150 scientific contributions, and is a member of the program committees of a number of international conferences such as ED-MEDIA, ED-TELECOM, WebNet and ICCE. The most important projects managed by Nick Scherbakov include the development of the object-oriented database system INFOBANK, the multimedia authoring system Hyper-PC, the comprehensive Hypermedia System HM-Card, and the Web-based training system WBT-Master. In the area of eLearning he has coordinated a number of EU projects locally, such as EONT, EuropeMMM and CORONET.

Univ.-Doz. Dr. Klaus Schmaranz

studied Telematics at the Graz University of Technology got his masters degree (Dipl.-Ing.), 1998 his Ph.D. and his "Habilitation" in "Applied Informationprocessing" in 2002.

He was a member of the task force for medical biometry at the LKH Graz (1990-1991), and head of software development and system administrator at the Institute of Applied Statistics of JOANNEUM RESEARCH (1991-94).
He is co-author of a book and sole author of two further books on software development in C and C++ (both published by Springer Pub.Co.). His current research focuses on massively distributed componentware. Since July 2005 he is only part-time at the Faculty of Computer Science: his major task is now at the Faculty for Mechanical Engineering.

Endowment Professorship for future-oriented Media ("Styria Professur")

At the beginning of 2005 the "Styria Medien AG" made a generous amount available to Graz University of Technology, which allows a new Professorship for future-oriented Media at the IICM.

The vacancy was announced of in February 2005.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Frank Kappe

studied Technical Mathematics at Graz University of Technology and began to work at the Institutes for Information Processing Graz (IIG) as a Student Assistant ("Studienassistent"), lateron there he was Director of the research group "Software and Graphics". In 1996, as head of the research group "Hypermedia" at the Institute for Information Processing and Computer Based New Media (IICM), he started the design and development of a new internet-based Information System named "Hyper-G".
In 1997 he became Chief Technical Officer and Director of HyperWave Research and Development Inc., Graz, Austria.

Since January 2006 - after 9 years with Hyperwave - Kappe has been the "Styria-Professor for future-oriented Media" at the Graz University of Technology. His research work will mainly focus on New Media like "Social Software" (also Weblogs, Wikis, open Encyclopedia etc.) and "Mobile Contents".