9ème Colloque Africain sur la Recherche en Informatique -   CARI'08
9th African Conference on Research in Computer Science - CARI08
27-30 octobre 2008 / october 27-30th, 2008 - Rabat, MAROC

CARI'2008 Final Report

 

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

 

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