Workshop Report: Seventh Joint Swedish-Russian International Workshop on
Information Theory
Vladimir Sidorenko
The Seventh Joint Swedish-Russian International Workshop on Information
Theory was held June 17-22, 1995, in The Education Center ``Lahta'', St.
Petersburg, Russia.
The Workshop is part of the effort at scientific cooperation between the
Swedish Universities of Linköping and Lund, and the Institute for Problems
of Information Transmission in Moscow. This effort is based on an agreement
regarding scientific and technical cooperation between the Russian Academy
of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Swedish
Academy of Engineering Sciences. The Workshop is also one of the activities
the Russian Chapter of IEEE Information Theory Society.
Financial support from the Russian Ministry of Science and the Russian Foundation
for Fundamental Research is gratefully acknowledged. Previous workshops were held in Sochi, USSR (1983), Gränna, Sweden (1985),
Sochi, USSR (1987), Gotland, Sweden (1989), Moscow, Russia (1991), and Mölle,
Sweden (1993).
The workshop was attended by more than 80 participants. Their countries
of origin (with the number of participants in parentheses) included Russia
(49), Sweden (20), the United States (4), Germany (3), the United Kingdom
(2), Armenia (2), and Japan (1).
The technical program consisted of eight sessions covering a broad spectrum
of topics: Block Codes, Information Theory, Construction of Convolutional
Codes, Information Protection, Decoding Problems, Multi-Step Decoding, Multiple-Access
Systems, and Source Coding. The technical sessions were well received, with
often lively discussion following many of the presentations. The Proceedings
were published.
The cultural program included tours of architecture, museums, and old Russian
estates in St. Petersburg. One of St. Petersburg's best jazz bands gave
a concert. Viewing the above picture from the banquet, one can also see
that several well known Soviet leaders came to deliver greetings at the
Workshop.
The response of the Workshop participants to the technical and social programs
appeared to be positive, and it is certain that the field of Information
Theory will benefit from the many new professional interactions stimulated
by this event.
LIST OF TALKS
Block Codes: Chairman - K.Sh. Zigangirov
Information Theory: Chairman - R. Johannesson
Construction of Convolutional Codes: Chairman - P.G. Farrell
