GNAT Academic Program: Promoting Ada Usage in Academia Worldwide

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