In 2000 Chairman of the German Informatics Society (GI) professor Dr. H.C. Mayr, head of CAMS department professor M.D.Godlevsky, and associate professor of CAMS department Dr.-Ing. N.V.Tkachuk proposed to organize an international conference on the base of NTU ‘KhPI’. The subjects of this conference should have included a wide spectrum of the advanced information technologies, first of all it concerned development and application of information systems. This proposition had been supported by the university authorities and by rector, professor L.L.Tovazhnyansky personally.
In any country one of important factors of the development of science and high technology industries is establishing international scientific conferences. Information technology conferences are especially important. Unfortunately, until recently the number of such scientific forums in Ukraine was limited, and they were practically never carried out in our region.
The conference received the title Information Systems Technology and its Applications (ISTA). As English is the common language for experts in the field of information technologies it was chosen as the official language of the conference. The program committee of the conference was headed by professor Dr. H.C. Mayr, co-chairmen of the program committee were professor M.D.Godlevsky and professor V.A.Kravets. Well-known scientists in the domain of information technologies from many countries agreed to join the program committee.
The founders and organizers of the conference were: NTU ‘KhPI’, German Informatics Society, Austrian Society of Informatics, University of Klagenfurt (Austria), the company TelesensKSCL Ukraine (Kharkov) and Kharkov regional state administration.
The first international conference Information Systems Technology and its Applications (ISTA ’2001) was held on June, 13-16, 2001. The organizing committee of the conference was headed by NTU ‘KhPI’ pro-rector on scientific work, professor A.P.Marchenko and vice-president of the regional state administration V.I.Potapov. The industrial committee was headed by director of the company TelesensKSCL Ukraine E.Y. Rubin. The organizing committee and the working group of the conference consisted mainly of employees and students of the Computer-Aided Management Systems department. Employees of the company TelesensKSCL Ukraine and regional state administration also took active part in the conference organization.
Opening of the ISTA’2001 conference was a significant event for Kharkov and our university. Among the participants were ambassador of Germany in Ukraine Dr. D.Studemann, governor of Kharkov region E.P.Kushnarev, and president of the company TelesensKSCL G.Man.
The conference was representative and achieved a great success. Over 100 scientists and experts from different countries of the world, including Germany, Austria, the Great Britain, Denmark, Italy, Russia, Slovenia, and Finland took part in it.
During the sessions of the conference more than 70 papers on the following subjects were submitted: information systems structure, information systems and telecommunications, information system components, new concepts and technologies of ERP-systems, information system integration, data warehouses, security of information systems, etc.
The conference proceedings were published by the publishing house of German Informatics Society.
Along with the conference a number of activities took place. They included an international forum on prospects of the development information networks, telecommunications, a seminar on complex reviewing of the problems of training specialists in the field of IТ-technologies.
The second international conference Information Systems Technology and its Applications was held on June, 18-21, 2003. Professor Dr. H.C.Mayr was the chairman of its program committee, as well as in 2001. Professor M.D.Godlevsky and professor S.Liddle (Brigham-Young University, Salt Lake City, USA) were co-chairmen. The organizing committee was headed by pro-rector of NTU ‘KhPI’ on international relations, professor V.A.Kravets and pro-rector on scientific work, professor A.P.Marchenko. Employees and students of Computer-Aided Management Systems department participated in the work of the organizing committee and working group of the conference even more actively than in 2001.
The scientific level of the ISTA’2003 conference remained equally high as in 2001. More than 100 participants took part in the conference including about 50 representatives from 10 foreign countries (USA, Austria, Germany, Canada, France, New Zealand, Korea, Romania, Russia, and Belarus).
41 reports on subjects of corporate engineering procedure and business-processes modeling, methodology of continuous system adaptation and software evolution, information systems development tools, Internet and Intranet technologies, database technologies, real-time applications, electronic teaching, project management of information systems, and other topics were submitted at the sessions of the conference. The proceedings were also published in Germany.
The conference ISTA’2003 as well as the previous one was a great success. It was held at a high organizational level and achieved its purposes completely.
ISTA’2004 was held in July 15-17, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, ISTA’2005 was held in May 2005, in Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, ISTA’2006 was held in May 2006, Alpen-Adria-Universitat Klagenfurt, Austria. ISTA conference became a well-respected event joining international researchers to discuss wide range of the development, implementation, application and improvement of information systems.
This year ISTA’2007 again returned back to its initial place – Kharkiv. The 6th international conference Information Systems Technology and its Applications was held at NTU ‘KhPI’ in May, 23-25, 2007. The information was available over the Internet to the address http://www.ista2007.org.
The conference acquired a great interest among academy from all over the world. Austria, Germany, Ireland, France, Russia, New Zealand participated in ISTA’2007. According to participants’ opinion the conference was well-conducted and showed a very hight level of scientific discussions in committee meetings. This conference enhance the prestige of Ukraine as an organizer of scientific forums.
The next conference ISTA’2008 is back again to Klagenfurt (Austria). It will take place in April, 22 – 25, 2008. It will concentrate on the latest inventions, achievements, and experiences in information system based (business) technologies. The goal of the conference is to bring together practitioners, researchers, users and information providers involved in the development and deployment of commercial and industrial information systems to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations.