Camille Paloque-Bergès & Loïc Petitgirard of the HT2S-Cnam Laboratory
The CÉDRIC laboratory, the Cnam Computer Science Study and Research Center, appeared under this name in 1988, before its administrative validation in the establishment in 1990. It was the culmination of fifteen years of efforts by the institution’s computer scientists to develop a visible and recognized team in the field of computer science both in France and internationally.
The laboratory’s roots are steeped in a history of teaching computer science at Cnam which began very early on. Since it was an established faculty at the institution, computer science has followed several trajectories, linked to the evolution of teaching and the availability of computers, which was relatively late compared to the international context. Computer Science found its place at the Cnam in the 1950s, linked with the teaching of applied mathematics, accounting (primarily concerned with computer science, introduced in the institution by the training needs of the manufacturer Bull) and electronics. Computer Science enriches the applied approach characteristic of Cnam training programs including industrial requests (first hardware manufacturers, then IT service companies).
In 1968, this pioneering period saw the creation of the Mathematics-Computer Science department (initially called “Computer Science and Applied Mathematics”) and the IIE (Institute of Business Computing), as well as research chairs dedicated to the discipline. The department quickly grew due to the very rapid development of computer science: growing from two to five research chairs. Grouping together twelve to fifteen courses (depending on the period), it presented a diversified offer of training. It was divided into three specialties: Pure and Applied Mathematics, Mathematics of Economics, and Computer Science (including Operational Research under the leadership of Robert Faure). A fourth subject was added in 1973, with the appointment of François-Henri Raymond to the chair of Computer Programming (theoretical computer science and programming methods): when Raymond, founder of the pioneering Société d’Electronique et Automatique (SEA) left the working world, in the departments were in the midst of a reorganization while the Plan Calcul was drawing to a close. This chair was therefore created for him by Alexis Hocquenghem, who was himself a holder of the chair of Applied Mathematics and Director of the Department. The domain of Computer Science became very popular, notably thanks to televised broadcasting, and the early 1970s saw the introductory computer science courses from Paul Namian (holder of the chair of Mathematical Machines since 1966). Computer Science was finally a subject and means of pedagogical experimentation at Cnam.
In this context, it was at the heart of the “Computational Laboratory”, the computing center bringing together all the computing resources of Cnam created by Hocquenghem in the previous decade, which then became the “Computer Science Laboratory” created by a Systems Team in 1975 under the leadership of Claude Kaiser. A seasoned researcher from IRIA, Kaiser had been teaching at Cnam since 1969, before becoming a lecturer in 1974, then taking over Raymond’s chair in 1982. Taking advantage of an assessment request by the general administration in 1975 on the occasion of the 7th establishment plan, he drew up the first inventory of computer science research in its embryonic state in France, but which was gaining momentum at the international level – notably with an OECD report. At a national level, it was also the year that Computer Science officially entered academic structures, with the opening of a subsection of the CCU (Consultative Committee of Universities, ancestor of the National Council of Universities) entitled “Fundamental and Applied Computer Science” and a section “Computer Science, Automation, Systems Analysis and Signal Processing” at the CNRS.
With this, Kaiser initiated a first group of researchers, which would of course change over time, but he sowed the seed that would germinate into CÉDRIC. Within the team, practical and theoretical research emerged, both of the initial themes, but also new specialized research themes, from the most practical (the assembly of mini-computers, computer systems, networks, etc.) to the most theoretical (programming languages, stochastic Petri nets – which would be one of the strong subjects when CÉDRIC as we know it was founded). In conjunction with INRIA researchers and industrial partners, notably via the French Association for Economic and Technical Cybernetics (AFCET), the team left their mark in the world of network development and administration (with the opening of the first French connections to the international UUCP computer network in 1982, via the European EUnet infrastructure), and work on distributed systems (with the CROCUS manual, published in 1975, and the CORNAFION publication work in 1981).
During the 1980s, other perspectives were added: there was renewed interest in research into theoretical programming (sequential, semantic, classical) with the arrival of Véronique Donzeau-Gouge; studies into operational research, initiated by Robert Faure and subsequently developed by Bernard Lemaire, Alain Billionnet and Marie-Christine Costa; and finally those in management information technology, important players in Computer Science at Cnam during the 1980s through the activities and influence of the Institute of Business Information Technology (which became ENSIIE in 2006). The opening of PhD programmes from 1985 also encouraged the growth of research in Computer Science.