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 Conservatory’s computer scientists to develop a visible and recognized team in the field of computer science in France and internationally.
The laboratory’s roots are steeped in a history of computer science teaching at the CNAM that begins very early. Since its establishment at the institution, computer science has followed several trajectories, linked to the evolution of teaching and the availability of computers, which was relatively late in the international context. Computer science found its place at the CNAM in the 1950s, in connection 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 in connection with industrial demands (first hardware manufacturers, then IT service companies).
This pioneering period saw the creation in 1968 of the Mathematics-Computer Science department (initially called “Computer Science and Applied Mathematics”) and the IIE (Institute of Business Computing), as well as the establishment of chairs dedicated to the discipline. The department grew rapidly due to the very rapid development of computer science: growing from two to five chairs, grouping twelve to fifteen courses depending on the period, it presented a diversified offer. It was divided into three specialties: Pure and Applied Mathematics, Mathematics of Economics courses, 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, programming methods): while Raymond, founder of the pioneering Société d’Electronique et Automatique (SEA) left the industrial world, then in the midst of reorganization while the Plan Calcul was ending, this chair was created for him by Alexis Hocquenghem, also holder of the chair of Applied Mathematics and director of the department. The theme became very popular, notably thanks to the televised broadcasting, in the early 1970s, of the introductory computer science courses of Paul Namian (holder of the chair of Mathematical Machines since 1966). Computer science was finally a subject and means of pedagogical experimentation at the Cnam.
In this context, it was at the heart of the “Computational Laboratory”, the computing center bringing together the computing resources of the Cnam created by Hocquenghem in the previous decade, and which became the “Computer Science Laboratory”, that a Systems Team was created in 1975, under the leadership of Claude Kaiser. A seasoned researcher from IRIA, Claude Kaiser had been teaching at the Cnam since 1969 before becoming a lecturer in 1974, then taking over Raymond’s chair in 1982. Taking advantage of a request for an assessment 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 at the local level, but which was gaining momentum at the international level – notably with an OECD report. At the national level, it was also the year when 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, he initiated a first group of researchers, whose outlines would evolve over time, but concentrated the hard core that would germinate CEDRIC. Within the team emerged practical and theoretical research, both from the initial themes, and also specialized in new research themes, from the most practical (the assembly of mini-computers, computer systems, networks) to the most theoretical (programming languages, stochastic Petri nets – which would be one of the strong themes at the dawn of the foundation of CEDRIC). In conjunction with INRIA researchers and industrial partners, notably via the French Association for Economic and Technical Cybernetics (AFCET), the team will leave its mark in particular 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, which appeared in 1975, and the work CORNAFION, 1981).
During the 1980s, other perspectives were added: research in theoretical programming (sequential, semantic, classical) taken up again with the arrival of Véronique Donzeau-Gouge; studies in operational research, initiated by Robert Faure and constantly developing with Bernard Lemaire, Alain Billionnet and Marie-Christine Costa; and finally those in management information technology, important players in IT at the Cnam during the 1980s through the activities and influence of the Institute of Business Information Technology (which became ENSIIE in 2006). The opening of doctoral training from 1985 also encouraged the growth of research in IT.