French-Dutch IT co-operation started with ATEAMS project

Publication date
26 Jun 2009
ATEAMS, the first IT project in the Franco-Dutch cooperation between the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, and INRIA (Institut National de Recherche and Informatique et en Automatique) started on June 25. That afternoon INRIA president Michel Cosnard, Jan Karel Lenstra, managing director of the CWI, and Paul Klint, project leader ATEAMS, signed the agreement in Amsterdam that confirmed this cooperation. The project deals with analysis and transformation of software, with the aim to create better software.

During the ceremonies there were also speeches given by François Delahousse of the French Embassy, Jos Engelen, Chariman of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and initiators Paul Klint (CWI) and Jean-Pierre Banâtre (INRIA). The objective of the cooperation is to strengthen the European research infrastructure.


Better software through meta-programming
One of the applications of the ATEAMS project is about analyzing and improving software written in Java. This programming language is widely used, for example, in banking applications, computer games and software embedded in mobile phones. Parts of cars, such as the control of airbags or the video control system for reverse parking, are also programmed in Java. With these tools so called 'code sniffers' can detect 'dirty smells' and remove them from the software. This is 'meta-programming': improving a program with another program. Meta-programming can be implemented for various types of programming languages. The results will be available for a wide range of users by integrating the results with Eclipse, one of the most widely used open source Java development environments. The project runs until 2013.


Photo 1, from left to right: François Delahousse (French Embassy), Jos Engelen (NWO), Michel Cosnard (INRIA), Paul Klint (CWI), Jean-Pierre Banâtre (INRIA) and Jan Karel Lenstra (CWI). Photographer: Fred Schuurhof.

Photo 2 and 3, from left to right: Paul Klint (CWI), Michel Cosnard (INRIA) en Jan Karel Lenstra (CWI). Fotograaf: Fred Schuurhof.  

More information: Prof. Dr. Paul Klint (CWI and UvA), e-mail Paul.Klint @ cwi.nl, tel 020 592 4126.

Founded in 1946, CWI is the national research institute for mathematics and computer science. It is located at Science Park Amsterdam and is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The institute holds a strong international position. More than 160 researchers conduct pioneering research in about 70 projects, and share their acquired knowledge with society. Some 30 researchers are professor at a university. The institute generated 16 spin-off companies.