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GNAT Academic Program: Promoting Ada Usage in Academia Worldwide

The GNAT Academic Program aims to promote the usage of Ada programming language in academia worldwide. Through providing free Ada software development tools and resources, it supports the integration of Ada into university curricula and encourages the sharing of instructional materials and textbooks. With the goal of creating stronger links between the Ada academic community and industry, the program fosters awareness and usage of Ada in various fields, including avionics, medical instrumentation, and space technology.

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GNAT Academic Program: Promoting Ada Usage in Academia Worldwide

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  1. Presentation cover page EU GNAT Academic Program Robert Dewar dewar@adacore.com US Headquarters: 104 Fifth Avenue, 15th Floor New York, NY 10011 +1-212-620-7300 (voice) +1-212-807-0162 (FAX) FOSDEM Brussels Sunday, 26 Feb, 2006 European Headquarters: 8 rue de Milan 75009 Paris France +33-1-4970-6716 (voice) +33-1-4970-0552 (FAX) www.adacore.com

  2. AdaCore • Two companies, one in New York, one in Paris • About 25 full time people in each • Produces the only complete Ada language implementation (Ada 83, Ada 95, and now Ada 2005), together with a suite of tools, and a full development environment. • A commercial product • Used in Avionics (Boeing 787, C130 …) • Medical instrumentation • Space (Canadian space arm) • Many other large critical projects • But entirely Free Software • Freely downloadable non-commercial versions available • GNAT public versions • FSF versions (included in many GNU/Linux distributions) • (but, till GAP, not supported by AdaCore)

  3. GAP Overview • Perspective • What is the GNAT Academic Program (“GAP”)? • Challenges • Criteria for success • GAP membership • GAP shared resources • AdaCore academic partners • Coming events • Conclusions

  4. Perspective • Goals • Promote awareness/usage of Ada in academia worldwide • Create stronger links between Ada academic community and Ada industry • Promote use and production of Free Software in universities • Achieving this goal involves several activities • Creating a “can do” attitude among Ada proponents in academia • Helping show Ada as an up-to-date language • Making quality Ada tools available, with support, at no cost, to academia • Encouraging sharing of Ada instructional material, software and materials • Encouraging writing of Ada textbooks • Promoting the linkage between software reliability and Ada • GAP was established to provide a focal point for these activities • Natural step for AdaCore • Company origins are in academia • GNAT project at NYU  Ada Core Technologies (1994), ACT-Europe (1995) • Original purpose of GNAT was to have free compiler available for universities when Ada 95 became a standard • Close academic ties (AdaCore/Europe and ENST Paris VI, ENST Bretagne)

  5. What is the GNAT Academic Program • Ada software development tools for academia • An integrated binary distribution for Windows, Solaris & GNU/Linux comprising • GNAT compiler (including support for Ada 2005) and toolset • GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) Integrated Development Environment • HTML integrated documentation • Source releases for GLADE, PolyORB, GtkAda, ASIS, AWS, XML/Ada and Florist • Support • Online technical support, to professors, from AdaCore's team of Ada experts • Website for shared Ada teaching resources • Submitted by/for GAP members • Many kinds of resources • Books and videos • Slide presentations • Articles and papers • Lecture notes • Programming exercises • Ada tools and libraries

  6. What are some challenges? • Current trends at universities • Shrinking number of students concentrating in Computer Science • Competing languages are not standing still • Real-time Java, Java 5.0 • Job-oriented focus of language selection • “Chicken – egg” problem to get Ada on the radar screen • Lack of up-to-date textbooks • General lack of awareness of Ada in academia • Ada proponents are often on the defensive to prove why Ada should be used • “One strike, you’re out” attitude • Negative past Ada experiences linger and can be difficult to overcome

  7. Criteria for success • Activity from AdaCore • GNAT Academic Edition • GAP promotion through announcements, press releases, etc • Activity within GAP community • Number / geographical diversity of GAP participants • Number / nature of contributed (and used) resources • Activity from other Ada tool vendors • Cooperation with others’ academic initiatives • Activity from the academic community • Usage of Ada in university curricula • Undergraduate courses • Graduate courses • Research • Appearance of Ada at computer science education conferences • SIGCSE • ITiCSE (Conf. on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education)

  8. Global distribution of GAP by country

  9. GAP members* (1) Austria Institute of Computer Aided Automation - Vienna Australia Murdoch University - Rockingham Belgium University KU Leuven - Leuven Bolivia Universidad Privada Boliviana - Cochabambia Canada Brock University – Ontario Royal Military College - Ontario France ENST - Paris INPG-ENSIMAG - Grenoble Paris XII - MIAGE - Créteil University of Orléans - Orléans University of Valenciennes - Valenciennes Université Pierre & Marie Curie - Paris GermanyUniversity of Stuttgart - Stuttgart University of Duisburg-Essen - Duisburg University of Jena - Jena University of Bremen - Bremen GhanaUniversity of Cape Coast - Central Region ItalyUniversity of Padua - Padua University of Verona - Verona LatviaTransport & Telecommunication Institute - Riga Poland Technical University of Lodz - Lodz Wroclaw University of Technology - Wroclaw Rzeszow University of Technology - Rzeszow University of Lodz - Lodz PortugalUniversity of Porto - Oporto RussiaMoscow State University - Moscow Tomsk State University - Tomsk SpainUniversity of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - Las Palmas University Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) - Madrid University of Cantabria - Santander University of the Balearic Isles - Palma de Mallorca Technical University of Valencia (UPV) - Valencia University of Zaragoza - Zaragoza University of Vigo - Vigo University of the Basque Country * Status as of Spring 2005

  10. GAP members* (2) SwedenMärlardalen University - Västerås SwitzerlandSUPSI - Manno Ecole d'Ingenieurs de Geneve - Geneva EIVD, Ecole d'Ingenieurs du Canton de Vaud – Yverdon les Bains UkraineVN Karazin Kharkiv National University - Kharkiv United KingdomCranfield University - Swindon Aston University - Birmingham Basingstoke College of Technology - Basingstoke University of York - York United States Vermont Technical College – Randolph, VT Roger Williams University - Bristol, RI Naval Postgraduate School - Monterey, CA US Military Academy - West Point, NY Colorado Technical University - Colorado Springs, CO Radford University - Radford, VA University of Northern Iowa - Cedar Falls, IA Rowan University - Glassboro, NJ Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA New York University - New York City, NY Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA Columbus State University - Columbus, GA US Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs, CO Oakland University - Rochester, MI University of Richmond - Richmond, VA Drexel University - Philadelphia, PA Indiana Institute of Technology - Fort Wayne, IN Currently109 members! * Status as of Spring 2005

  11. GAP Contributions site • Teaching materials • Books • M. Ben-Ari, Ada for Software Engineers • J. Miranda & E. Schonberg, GNAT and Ada 2005 • J. Miranda & E. Schonberg, The GNU Ada Compiler • Slides • L. Pautet & F. Gasperoni, Ada 95 Distributed Systems Annex • Libraries • MARTE OS: Real-Time Kernel (M. Rivas, M. Gonzalez Harbour) • Win_IO: A Set of Packages for Simple Graphical Input and Output (M. Gonzalez Harbour) • Tools and utilities • USAFA Utilities (M. Carlisle), including: • AdaGIDE (student-oriented IDE) • RAPID (GUI builder) • A# (Ada port to .NET)

  12. Academic partners • “Loosely coupled” relationship with Ada tool vendors • Praxis High Integrity Systems • The SPARK language and toolset • Artisan Software • ARTiSAN Academic License Program • IPL • Academic Program • GAP/AdaCore serves as clearinghouse for requests from academia • If GAP member requests information on any of the partners’ programs, we notify partner of the request • GAP mailing lists and discussion groups

  13. Coming events • GAP / Ada 2005 • Most important features implemented now • Full implementation by second quarter • GAP internship program • Innovative way to match students with Ada jobs • GNAT Tracker interface for GAP members and AdaCore customers • Students can browse to see which companies have openings • Companies can browse to find available students • Status • Up and Running • Member spotlights • Publicity for courses conducted by GAP members • Videos, course materials

  14. Conclusions • Good progress so far • AdaCore places high priority on GAP success • Dedicated resources and personnel • GAP membership growing and enthusiastic • Other Ada tool vendors are supportive • Goal of strengthening linkage between Ada community and • academia has been largely achieved • How about seeing increase in Ada in teaching? • Some reasons for optimism • Ada 2005 as fresh new technology • Connection with High-Integrity (e.g. SPARK) • Probably unrealistic to expect rapid spread, but slow/steady growth is possible • What next? • AdaCore will continue to fully support and promote GAP • “Keep those contributions rolling in” • Keep spreading the news, Ada is alive and well

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