1.
GENERAL PRESENTATION
The African
Conference on Research in Computer Science and
Applied Mathematics (called « CARI » according to
its French acronym) held its ninth edition in Rabat
(Morocco) from the 27th to the 30th of October
2008, under the patronage of her Majesty Mohammed
VI, King of Morocco. The conference took place at
Mohammadia School of Engineers (EMI), following an
inaugural session, attended by numerous
personalities, that was organized in the main hall
of the Faculty of Science of Rabat. The program was
very dense and held in three parallel sessions
except for the invited keynotes lectures that were
given in plenary sessions.
Participants from
various places in Morocco and from some African
sites of the AUF could have a distant access, using
a videoconference system, to one of the tutorials,
as well as the inaugural session and all invited
keynotes lectures.
The conference was
attended by 178 researchers coming from 17
countries: Morocco (67), France (36), Tunisia (24),
Cameroon (11), Algeria (11), Côte d’ivoire (7),
Canada (4), South Africa (3), Burkina Faso (3),
Madagascar (3), Senegal (3), Benin (1), Spain (1),
Nigeria (1), Democratic Republic of Congo (1), and
Zambia (1)
Keynote Speakers
-
Modelling through
machine learning in robotics, Malik Ghallab,
Inria, Le Chesnay, France
-
A propos
d’algorithmes robustes pour la résolution de
problèmes inverses, Mohammed Jaoua, université
de Nice, laboratoire Jean Alexandre Dieudonné,
France.
-
Sélection des
caractéristiques dans des espaces à grandes
dimensions et applications, Djemel Ziou,
université de Sherbrooke, Canada.
-
Vers plus de
réalisme en synthèse d’images, Kadi Bouatouch,
université de Rennes I, France.
-
Customizations of
deductive systems, Claude Kirchner, Inria
Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, France.
-
Upscaling in
hydrology: bridging the gap between laboratory-scale
experiments and groundwater-scale management,
Jean-Raynald de Dreuzy, université de Rennes I,
France.
Tutorials
As for its previous
issues, the conference was preceded by some
tutorials that were given from 23rd to 25th of
October at the University of Kénitra.
-
A tutorial on
« Rewriting foundations and applications» given
by Hélène Kirchner (Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest)
and Horatiu Cirstea (Loria, Nancy), took place
on the 23rd and 24th of October.
-
A tutorial on « Informatique
graphique, de la modélisation au rendu », given
by Kadi Bouatouch, Rémi Cozot and Fabrice
Lamarche (Irisa, Rennes) took place on the 23rd
and 24th of October.
-
A tutorial on « Imagerie
personnelle » given by Djemel Ziou (chaire CRSNG-Bell
Canada) took place on the 25th of October.
-
A tutorial on
« Conception de système d’aide à la décision en
agriculture basés sur l’utilisation des
modèles : de la définition des besoins des
utilisateurs au logiciel final » given by
Vianney Houles (ITK, a start-up of Cirad) took
place on the 25th of October.
-
A tutorial on
« Modern concurrent computing: State of the art
and research challenge » given by Michel Raynal,
from the University of Rennes I, took place on
the 25th of October.
Some
Statistics
Submitted
papers:
Accepted
papers:
Invited
keynote Lectures:
Tutorials: |
290
86
6
5 |
Geographical
distribution
– We show
for each country the number of papers for which at
least one of the co-authors is originating.
Afrique du Sud |
3 |
|
France |
27 |
Algérie |
12 |
Iran |
1 |
Belgique |
1 |
Madagascar |
3 |
Burkina Faso |
2 |
Maroc |
26 |
Cameroun |
8 |
R.D.
Congo |
1 |
Canada |
1 |
Sénégal |
5 |
Côte
d’ivoire |
2 |
Tunisie |
27 |
Espagne |
1 |
Zambie |
1 |
Comparison with the previous conferences:
|
1994 |
1996 |
1998 |
2000 |
2002 |
2004 |
2006 |
2008 |
Number
of submitted papers |
130 |
187 |
190 |
178 |
176 |
212 |
222 |
290 |
Number
of accepted papers |
55 |
60 |
65 |
56 |
46 |
56 |
48 |
86 |
% of
acceptation |
42 |
32 |
34 |
31 |
26 |
26 |
22 |
30 |
Rough balance sheet
The precise statement of accounts
for Cari’08
will be communicated to the Permanent Committee when
it is completed. Some additional incomes not
reported below did contribute to the success of the
conference. First, some institutions (Laboratories,
Universities …) took in charge the travel and/or
stay of some authors of accepted papers. Second, a
support in terms of man power or logistics was
provided by
Inria as a coordinator of
Cari,
by the University of Annaba which maintains the
Cari
Web site, an indispensable support to the
organization of the conference, and by IRD which
took care of all the financial issues locally.
Receipts |
|
Expenditures |
Maroc |
29 000 € |
Posters
and proceedings |
8 800 € |
MAEE (+SCAC) |
5 000 € |
Meeting of the Programme
Committee |
9 000 € |
AUF |
11 000 € |
Travel and stay expanses for
authors |
60 000 € |
UNU |
16 000 € |
Invited
speakers |
6 000 € |
INRIA |
15 000 € |
Tutorials |
3 000 € |
IRD |
5 000 € |
Conference bags |
3 500 € |
CIRAD |
13 000 € |
Local
committe secretary |
5 000 € |
CIMPA |
5 000 € |
Various
expanses (logistics) |
5 000 € |
1.
TRACKS OF CARI
Following the recommendations of
its Permanent Committee in Cotonou during
Cari’06,
the submissions have been organized into seven
different tracks reflecting the main domains of
research activities covered by the conference.
-
Complex
Systems Modelling
-
Signal, Image and Multimedia
-
Scientific Computing and Parallelism
-
Artificial Intelligence & Computer-based
Collaborative Learning Environments
-
Information Systems
-
Distributed Systems, Embedded Systems, Computer
Networks, and Mobility
-
Formal Methods for Software Engineering
Each track had its own Programme
Committee that proceeded to the selection of papers
for the corresponding domain; then the overall
Cari
Programme Committee, combined in a plenary session,
finalized the scientific program of the conference.
This new organization has facilitated the selection
process. It also gave a better visibility to the
conference. The tracks and their Programme
Committees, which may evolve in the future, are
given in an appendix.
3. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
THE MEETING OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE
AND THEIR
DECISIONS
3.1.1 Renewal of the Permanent Committee
Three mandates of African
researchers came to an end:
-
Badara Ali Kaba, Burkina Faso
-
Mokhtar Sellami, Algeria
-
Théodore Tapsoba, Burkina Faso
Two new members were elected:
-
Saint-Jean Djungu, Democratic Republic of Congo
-
Yagoubi Belabbas, Algeria
The Permanent Committee suggested
that a statement should be added to the
Cari
charter stipulating that a former member of the
Permanent Committee is allowed to postulate again to
take part to the committee after a delay of four
years (corresponding to two successive issues of the
conference). That proposition was approved by the
General Assembly.
3.1.2
Activities of the Permanent Committee
The Permanent Committee has the
opportunity to meet on two specific occasions:
during the programme Committee when papers are
selected and during the conference. In order to play
more plainly its role of coordination and management
of the Cari,
the Permanent Committee has decided to organize a
one day meeting before each of these two events.
3.1.3
Site
Cari
Since its inception in March
2001, the Cari
website (http://www.cari-info.org)
is maintained by the department of Computer Science
of the university of Annaba, under the
responsibility of Mokhtar Sellami. In each edition
of Cari,
the will is expressed to turn the site into a
genuine tool of communication for the corresponding
scientific community (mailing lists, forum …). It is
requested from each member of the Permanent
Committee to play the role of correspondent for the
Cari
website at least for their respective countries.
3.1.4
Numéro
spécial du Cari’08 pour la revue
Arima
As for the preceding editions of
the conference, a special issue of the ARIMA Journal
will be dedicated to
Cari’08.
This special issue will be edited by the President
of Cari’08, Marc Kokou Assogba, with a support by the
coordinators of the various tracks. Each author of a
paper accepted to
Cari’08
is invited to submit an extended version of
his paper for publication in this special issue.
Submission deposit will take place on
Cari
website (http://www.cari-info.org) according to a
procedure that will be enacted before end of
December 2008. Deadline of submission is end of
January 2009. The special issue is expected for June
or July 2009.
The rate of acceptance of papers
for the two preceding special issues of ARIMA
Journal dedicated to
Cari
was particularly low (less than 20%). Moreover, the
fact that every accepted paper is eligible to this
special issue leads to an heavy process with
subsequently long delays before publication. The
Permanent Committee has decided that a new procedure
will take place from the next
Cari
on. During the selection of the papers for
presentation at the conference, the Programme
Committee will proceed to a preselection of a subset
of the accepted papers to be considered for the
corresponding special issue. At the end of the
conference, after the presentation of these papers,
the Programme Committee will finalize the list of
papers selected for the special issue. The authors
of selected papers are then contacted and invited to
submit a full version of their paper for publication
in the special issue of the ARIMA Journal. These
papers will be subject to a quick evaluation process
(Publication of the special issue expected for the
beginning of the civil year following the
conference).
3.1.5
Cari’10
Three countries were candidate to
host the next
Cari in 2010 : Côte d’ivoire, Madagascar and
South Africa. The Permanent Committee selected the
proposal of Côte d’ivoire.
Cari
2010 will be held in Yamoussoukro under the
responsibility of Professor Ibrahime
Lokpo.
The Permanent Committee is very eager to receive any
suggestion of tutorials and invited keynote lectures
for Cari’10.
Professor Abderrahmane
Sbihi
is President of
Cari’10.
Report of
the Permanent Committee of
CARI
|