The Institute for Information Transmission Problems
of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPPI) was founded on the initiative of Professor A. A. Kharkevich (1909-1965), full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The institute was expected to tackle problems bearing upon the progress of information theory and its applications, the development of principles of integrated systems of information transmission and distribution (structures of communication networks and switching centers, problems of control, the teletraffic theory), and automatic pattern recognition (reading machines, recognition of images, speech recognition). The formal birthday of the Institute is December 29, 1961, the date when the decision of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences entitled "On the reorganization of the Laboratory of Information Transmission Systems into the Institute for Information Transmission Problems" was issued. By the same decision, Academician A. A. Kharkevitch was nominated director of the Institute.The first principal fields of research, initiated in the newly founded Institute, were studies in the fundamentals of information and coding theory; formulation and development of the concept of an integrated automated communication network; new approaches to pattern recognition theory; and new approaches to picture processing. 1963 saw the commencement of studies on information processes in living nature after the laboratory of vision biophysics headed by Professor N. D. Nyberg (1899-1967) had been transferred to this Institute from the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
After Academician A. A. Kharkevich died, Professor V. I. Siforov, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, became the director of the Institute. He held this position from 1966 to 1989. Over these years a number of new laboratories were organized – those of complex information systems, digital methods of information processing, digital optics, learning systems of behavior organization, computational linguistics, and communication networks.
At present the IPPI's basic directions of research are the information theory and applied mathematics, computer and communication sciences in technology, control, language, and living systems. Among the most important topics studied by the Institute are problems of the theory of nonlinear analysis of complex systems, multicomponent homogeneous random systems, information transmission, queueing theory, coding and cryptography, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, information distribution and computer networks, the theory of linguistic communication and linguistic processes (including machine translation), statistical methods of information processing and control, the theory and methods of image processing (including data compression), intellectual partner computing and information systems, information transmission and processing in living objects, sensory systems, motion control in living systems and robotics.
There is a stable scientific body of highly trained and young specialists, composed of mathematicians, physicists, biologists, linguists, programmers, and engineers in the Institute, in all near 320 staff members in 1999. There are now three members of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other academies, 206 full professors and doctors of sciences, honorary members of foreign academies, laureates of Russian State and international prizes.
In 1999 the institute included 15 laboratories, 5 sectors, scientific management department, a number of service departments, and the administration.
The financing sources in 1999 included: State budget (through The Russian Academy of Sciences), grants from Russian State Programs (through The Russian Ministry of Science and Technical Policy) and other funds (Russian Foundation for Basic Research, International Association for the Promotion of Cooperation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, INTAS, etc.).
The institute offers postgraduate courses and doctorates with honors for Russian and foreign young specialists.
The Institute's scientific potential was instrumental in giving rise to the collaboration with the well-known universities and scientific centers of Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Korea, The Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, USA etc. In all, over 25 agreements and contracts were signed in 1999. The Institute organizes all-Russia and international conferences and workshops. In 1999, the 3rd International Conference "Distributed Computer Communication Networks. Theory and Applications (DCCN’99)", co-organized by the Institute, was held in Tel Aviv (Israel), November 9-13, 1999. The Institute has founded and publishes two academic periodicals: "Problems of Information Transmission" and "Automation and Remote Control", which circulate in Russia and abroad.
On the basis of the Institute were formed the Information Theory Chapter of IEEE in Russia and two scientific departments of the World Laboratory.
It is hoped that this annual report aimed the reviewing scientific activities and results of the Institute in 1999 will assist other organizations to better understand the Institute and promote exchanges between our Institute and research institutions the world over.