1: Focus and Strengths
Build upon existing strengths and focus on four main programs. Other Information:
A New Beginning -- UNU-IIST was established in 1992 with the mission to help developing countries strengthen their education
and research in computer science and their ability to produce computer software. Over the past eighteen years the institute
has pursued that mission by conducting high quality research and carrying out training and mentoring activities in computer
science, bringing knowledge of new and emerging technologies to audiences in the developing world. The world of information
and communication technology has changed immensely since the institute was founded. The information technology industry has
seen phenomenal growth in countries such as India, South Korea, China, and Malaysia. University research capacity in all areas,
including computer science, has improved at an increasingly rapid rate to the extent that universities in countries such as
China and South Korea now routinely recruit top tenured research faculty from US universities. So, while the capacity to conduct
research in computer science and to produce software may not be evenly distributed, much of the developing world, particularly
Asia, now has sufficient human resources to help itself in strengthening that capacity. The time, therefore, is ripe to consider
reorienting the institute to address the unmet needs that computing can serve in the developing world and to do so in a way
that leverages the unique position of UNU-IIST as a part of the United Nations. The institute is embarking on a more dramatic
and focused response to the new computing environment and its potential to serve the cause of sustainable development. At
the outset of its new mandate, UNU-IIST will build upon existing strengths and focus on four main programs, briefly summarized
below ...
Objective(s):
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