Simula Research Laboratory: by Thinking Constantly about it [Paperback]

When researchers gather around lunch tables, at conferences, or in bars, there are some topics that are more or less compulsory. The discussions are about the ho- less management of the university or the lab where they are working, the lack of funding for important research, politicians inability to grasp the potential of a p- ticularly promising ?eld, and the endless series of committees that seem to produce very little progress. It is common to meet excellent researchers claiming that they have almost no time to do research because writing applications, lecturing, and - tending to committee work seem to take most of their time. Very few ever come into a position to do something about it. With Simula we have this chance. We were handed a considerable annual grant and more or less left to ourselves to do whatever we thought would produce the best possible results. We wanted to create a place where researchers could have the time and conditions necessary to re?ect over dif?cult problems, uninterrupted by mundane dif?culties; where doctoral students could be properly supervised and learn the craft of research in a well-organized and professional manner; and where entrepreneurs could ?nd professional support in developing their research-based - plications and innovations.The Scene.- What Would you do if you Suddenly got an Annual Grant of About Ten Million Dollars?.- By Thinking Constantly About It.- The Simula Culture - How we do Research, Education and Innovation.- Impressed with Targeted Research Strategy.- The Hamming Experience.- Richard Hamming - You and Your Research.- Simula Research Laboratory  A Different Research Institution.- IT Fornebu and the Political Battle that led to the Creation of Simula.- The Right Step at the Right Time.- A Brief History of Norwegian Science and Research Policy.- Simula  The Language.- Basic Research.- to Basic Research.- Networks and Distributed Systems  Why, What, How and Whats Next.- Scalable Interconnection Networks.- Prols"