Swedish Institute of Computer Science

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The Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SICS, is an independent non-profit research organization with a research focus on applied computer science. The institute carries out research in a number of areas, including networked embedded systems, future Internet technologies, large scale network-based applications, and human-machine interaction. Research projects at SICS are typically carried out in cooperation with both industry and academia.

SICS was ranked as the 15th most acknowledged computer science research institution in the world in an article in December 2004 issue of the highly esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). SICS is the only Swedish institution included in the list, and is one of two European institutions alongside 13 well-known American institutions – several of them ten times bigger than SICS.

The mission of SICS is to contribute to the competitive strength of Swedish industry by conducting advanced and focused research in strategic areas of computer science, and to actively promote the use of new research ideas and results in industry and in society at large.

In January 2005 SICS had approximately 88 employees, of which 77 are researchers and 30 have PhD degrees.

1 Software
2 Academic output
3 Notable spin-off companies
4 Owners
5 Funding
6 History
7 External links

[edit] Software

A number of well-known software packages have been developed at SICS:

Contiki, an operating system for memory constrained embedded devices
Delegent, an authorization server
Distributed Interactive Virtual Environment or DIVE in short
lwIP, a TCP/IP stack for embedded systems
Mozart, a multi-platform programming system
Nemesis, a concept exokernel operating system
Protothreads, light-weight stackless threads
Quintus Prolog, a Prolog implementation
SICStus Prolog, a Prolog implementation
Simics, a full-system simulator originally developed at SICS
uIP, a TCP/IP stack for embedded systems

[edit] Academic output

The research at SICS results in approximately 100 refereed publications in academic journals, conferences and workshops per year. Around 2-4 SICS researchers receive higher academic degrees per year, and 1-3 persons move to academia for tenured positions.

[edit] Notable spin-off companies

Dynarc
Effnet
Virtutech
Tacton

[edit] Owners

SICS is jointly owned by Swedish industry and the Swedish government. The industry owners are TeliaSonera, Ericsson, FMV (the Swedish Defense Material Administration), Green Cargo, ABB, and Bombardier Transportation.

[edit] Funding

SICS research is funded by the owners, by national funding sources, often Vinnova (the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems) and SSF (the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research), and by industrial collaboration partners. SICS also participates in several European research projects funded by the European Commission.