The increasing complexity and flexibility of developing modern automation systems requires the systematic integration of software tools across engineering disciplines.Technical and semantic gaps between software tools in the development of automation systems hinder the correct and efficient communication across tool and system boundaries, leading to development delays and risks for system operation.In the new CD-Lab SE-Flex-AS researchers from informatics and electrical engineering start from industrial use cases to develop approaches for the technical and semantic integration of software tools and knowledge models across engineering disciplines.Concrete research scenarios regarding quality management across engineering models and toosl are 1. the engineering model version management and 2. the¿end-to-end test¿ from the sensor in the field to the associated variable in the control software program. A key results is a technical integration platform for software tools, the ¿Engineering Service Bus¿, which will be made available to scientists and practitioners as Open Source Software (http://OpenEngSB.org).

The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is growing in an alarming rate and the goals declared in the Kyoto protocol are far away. The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is undoubted for reducing CO2 emissions. This role is recognized by scientific community, international bodies and national and international policy makers. The direct footprint of ICT amounts for 2%-3% of total global emissions and 10% of emissions in OECD-countries. ICT offers a huge energy efficiency potential across the economy and can deliver emissions savings up to 15%. As 75% of ICT footprint is due to its usage, optimization of usage is the area that must receive the most attention. ICT is a contributor to CO2 emissions and global warming but more importantly it is a key technology for fighting against global warming. The key enabling technology for achieving energy efficiency and resource optimization is Cloud computing which are centralized and highly scalable services that could lead to further capacity to virtualize or consolidate resources with breakthrough gains in energy efficiency. Underutilization is the main reason for energy inefficiency of current local solutions. Most of the servers are consuming energy but are utilized under 6%. In other words, the energy is consumed but 94% of resources are wasted. In public sector the situation is not different. According to Vivek Kundra, the CIO of the USA, federal servers are utilized about 7%. Even at a very low load the power consumed is about 50%-70% of the peak power. This utilization rate and subsequently the energy consumption can be improved significantly by Cloud technology. Imagine the energy saving of a single fully utilized server instead of 16 servers, each 6% utilized. Because of this impact the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has identified Cloud computing as a high priority research area. The international trend is also clear. More and more companies such as AOL, Starbucks, Canon and providers of renewable energy such as blueEnergy are turning to Cloud. One of the major application areas of Cloud technology is public sector. The Obama administration and other governments in Germany, Switzerland, UK, Japan, Taiwan and Korea as well some other countries have recognized this opportunity and are pushing the Cloud agenda forward, not only because of its cost saving potentials but also because of its impact on the environment. This potential has been recognized in Austria but unfortunately actual steps have not yet taken. Lacking actual steps means risk of losing technological competitiveness and the strategic markets of tomorrow. Public sector has requirements such as reliability, availability, business continuity and data security and therefore is a representative case for other sectors.In this project we envision to conduct a feasibility study for Cloud powered Austrian public sector in order to make the first steps in the right direction. The experiences and results from this project can be applied to other sectors such as finance and heath. The study will not only cover technical issues but also environmental, energy savings and cost reduction issues. This project will evaluate possible applications of Cloud computing in public sector, its costs, energy saving potentials and associated risks in addition to the technical issues. The results can be used as a basis for decision makers to make the right decision and choose the right technology.

CHORUS+ is a Coordination Action which aims at creating the conditions of mutual information and cross fertilisation between the FP7 projects and the recently lunched National initiatives all over Europe together with Initiatives external to Europe. A particular emphasis on setting concrete R&D and industrial objectives for multimedia search in Europe is planned.

Due to the proliferating capabilities to generate and collect vast amounts of data and in-formation we face the challenge that users and analysts get lost in irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriately processed or presented information. This phenomenon, commonly known as information deluge, overwhelms traditional methods of data analysis such as spread-sheets, ad-hoc queries, or simple visualizations. At the same time, intelligent usage of increasingly available data offers great opportunities to promote technological progress and business success. On this score, Visual Analytics is an emerging research discipline developing methods and technology that make the best possible use of huge information loads in a wide variety of applications. The basic idea is to appropriately combine the strengths of both, computers'and humans'information processing capabilities. To make complex information structures more comprehensible, facilitate new insights, and enable knowledge discovery, methods of visualization, intelligent data analysis, and mining form a symbiosis with the human user via interactive visual interfaces.The goals of the Centre of Visual Analytics Science and Technology (CVAST) are twofold. The first goal is the integration of the outstanding capabilities of humans in terms of visual information exploration with the enormous processing power of computers to form a pow-erful knowledge discovery environment. The second goal is to scientifically assess the usability and utility of such discovery environments while bridging the gap between theory and practice for selected application scenarios. Application scenarios that involve temporal properties are in the focus of our scientific interest.Time - in contrast to other quantitative data dimensions that are usually"flat"- has an inherent structure and distinct characteristics (calendar aspect, natural and social aspects, etc.) which increase its complexity dramatically and demand specialized Visual Analytics methods in order to support proper analysis and visualization.Our expected results will be + Innovative, user-oriented, and task-specific Visual Analytics methods and tools with an assessment of their usability and utility. These methods will be used inter-twinedly and iteratively to ease the explorative information discovery processes + An appropriate framework for these methods and tools + Their evaluation in"real life"environments and examination of the information dis-covery process within several application scenarios+ A new methodology to define and evaluate insights facilitated by these methods + Applying these methods within commercial applications to illustrate their business value and economic impacts

The Gerstner Laboratory (GL) at the Czech Technical University in Prague successfully con-ducts research in the areas of artificial intelligence, with the focus on knowledge-based and information systems, knowledge discovery in databases, multi-agent systems, and software diagnostics. Till now GL has gathered experience in the development of many IT systems in the above mentioned areas. Due to an extreme increase in the size and complexity of software development in research projects the ad-hoc software process has already reached edge of quality and economics.At this stage it becomes necessary for GL to build up competence in the field of¿software process improvement for dependable systems¿ in order to enhance the research conducted in areas of dependable systems applications. This new competency will enable GL researchers to overcome the current challenges in the IT projects management (high risk of rework, risk of feasibility, quality and usability of end product and services) and to support GL researchers with the advanced methodologies addressing the quality assurance, quality management and standardization in software processes. The specific knowledge transfer objectives are formulated as follows: a) To acquire a knowledge of formal methodology of software development process, software engineering, software process improvement, b) To learn the concepts of V-Model XT framework and to tailor its process models to the needs of GL research projects and application domains in Czech practice (aimed at depend-able system applications), c) To integrate methods from requirements management and knowledge engineering to refine and improve software process models, d) To enable researches to conduct empirical studies in the area of software engineering and quality management to improve processes and products. The partner organization providing training for the outgoing researchers is TUW, The Insti-tute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems (IFS). IFS has a considerable experience in Quality Software Engineering (QSE) Research, teaching and training in the area of soft-ware engineering, project management, quality management, and risk management. Addition-ally IFS will provide the training in the V-Model XT framework for the GL researchers.

EU FP6 Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries:The DELOS network, started in January 2004, intends to conduct a joint program of activities aimed at integrating and coordinating the ongoing research activities of the major European teams working in Digital Library - related areas with the goal of developing the next generation Digital Library technologies. The focus of our contributions are on Cluster 3: Audio/Visual and Non-Traditional Objects, as well as Cluster 6: Digital Preservation.

Within this project a database solution for the global administration of CAN-data for the enterprise Rosenbauer is developed.

In the proposed project we intend to develop a new type of test for theassessment of spatial abilities that differs from conventional spatialability tests in several aspects. First, traditional spatial abilitytests (paper-pencil as well as on-screen computer versions) assess3dimensional spatial abilities with 2dimensional means. The new testwill measure the ability to visualize and mentally manipulate3dimensional objects in actual 3dimensional space, and should thus havea higher ecological validity than previous spatial ability tests. Thiswill be possible through use of the Augmented Reality tool Construct3D,which allows for projecting virtual 3dimensional objects into real spacewhere they can be seen and manipulated by means of special glasses andinput devices.Furthermore, the planned test will be a dynamic learning test; thus,other than conventional tests, it does not only measure a person¿s current status, but also his or her learning potential. Performance in conventional tests is generally, and particularly when spatial abilities are concerned, significantly dependent on factors such as test experience or experience with similar tasks and materials. Gender differences, which arestill frequently found in spatial tests, can partly be attributed to these experience-based factors. Often, such differences can be reduced or eliminated through a relatively short training, sometimes even through a simple re-take of the test. With a dynamic learning test (usually consisting of a pretest, a training phase, and a posttest) the influence of short-term learning experiences on test performance can be assessed, which may yield higher internal consistency and predictive power of the test scores. The new item material will assess the mental manipulation (rotation, combination, intersection, etc.) of 3dimensional objects. Stimuli and instructions are presented sequentially. Hence, in contrast to most other tests, participants need to actually encode and manipulate mental representations of the spatial objects. Thereby, the range of possible strategies (e.g., comparison of singlefeatures and elimination of possible answers) is reduced. In order to guarantee homogeneity of the testing material and to avoid problems such as ceiling effects, item-response-models will be employed for the development of test items as well as for the measurement of change in performance.

In this project we develop and improve an infrared-optical trackingsystem and the according tracking software in order to track multipletargets in 3D space with millimeter accuracy.