A Brief History of "Service Télématique et Communication"
(ULB-STC)
Prof. Paul VAN BINST
Director
January 2006
The University of Brussels (“Université Libre de Bruxelles”) created “Service Télématique et Communication” after many years of developing expertise in the ICT domain, following essentially three lines of activities:
- a research group in telematics, which we created in 1986 (“Groupe HELIOS-B”), specialising in the study and realisation of telematic applications and services, as well as the various underlying network infrastructures, with a special interest in international standardisation;
- a complete university programme, of an essentially pluridisciplinary nature: “Informatique et Sciences Humaines”, created in 1980;
- a pluridisciplinary postgraduate university programme in the particular domain of telematics and its socio-economic and political implications: “Télématique et Organisation”, which we created in 1989.
The blend of such diverse expertise is the unique characteristic of “Service Télématique et Communication” which groups a small number of members and collaborators (also from “Vrije Universiteit Brussel”), actively involved in various research and development projects, as well as in many teaching, training and consultancy activities, in public and private institutions, in Belgium and abroad.
It is worth mentioning, among others, our collaboration with the following companies:
| ALCATEL | ASCOM | BANKSYS | BELGACOM |
| CISCO | DAMOVO | DIMENSION DATA | |
| ERICSSON | HP | SIEMENS |
our participation in the following European Commission programmes:
| ACTS | ADAPT | COMETT | COPERNICUS |
| DELTA | ENS | ESPRIT | IST |
| LEONARDO | LIBRARIES | RACE | TELEMATICS |
| TEMPUS | TEN-TELECOM | VALUE |
our participation in the EUREKA COSINE project;
in Belgium, contracts with:
FNRS IRSIA IWT SSTC/DWTC/OSTC
Federal and Regional Ministries
Dozens of publications, communications, contributions to the international standards organizations, and internal reports, show the amount of activities of the Group, as well as its recognition (by ISO, ITU, ETSI, IETF, IEEE, IFIP, ACM, etc).
A particularly important investment has been made on a scientific and personal basis in the world of European research networks (we have been a member of the Board and Vice-President of the RARE and TERENA associations, where we represented Belgium from 1986 till 1994).
We are actively involved in the world of European ICT standardisation, where we have been associated in various ways with ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) almost since its origins; we have also been the Chairman of the Steering Committee of CEN/EWOS (European Workshop for Open Systems). Today, ULB-STC is a member of ETSI and actively involved in IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). We have also been an expert to the NATO Advisory Panel on Computer Networks.
Our Group is very active at the Belgian and Brussels Region levels, in particular through the following bodies:
- Belgian Broadband Platform, of which we are member of the Board
- Belgian Institute for Post and Telecommunications, of which we are member of the Advisory Committee for Telecommunications
- Belgian Teleworking Association, of which we have been President
- BRUNETTE project (Brussels Network for Telematics in Education) initiated by the City of Brussels and Service Télématique et Communication
- Brussels Region Scientific Policy Council, of which we are member
- Brussels Teleport, of which we are Vice-President
- Centre d’Informatique pour la Région Bruxelloise, of which we are President of the Scientific Committee
- DNS.BE, of which we have been member of the Board
Service Télématique et Communication
Université Libre de Bruxelles – CP 230
Bd. du Triomphe - 1050 Brussels
Tel. + 32 2 629 3211 or 3209
Fax + 32 2 629 3816
E-mail vanbinst@helios.iihe.ac.be
