Gerhard Chroust
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n systems scientist, and Professor Emeritus for Systems Engineering
Systems engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...
and Automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
at the Institute of System Sciences at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz
Johannes Kepler University of Linz
The Johannes Kepler University of Linz is a public institution of higher education in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. Chroust is an authority in the fields of formal programming languages and interdisciplinary information management
Information management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
.
Biography
Gerhard Chroust was born in 1941 in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He started to study Communications-electronics
Communications-electronics
In telecommunication, communications-electronics is the specialized field concerned with the use of electronic devices and systems for the acquisition or acceptance, processing, storage, display, analysis, protection, disposition, and transfer of information.C-E includes the wide range of...
in 1959 and received a M.A. from the Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology is one of the major universities in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Founded in 1815 as the "Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute" , it currently has about 26,200 students , 8 faculties and about 4,000 staff members...
in 1964, a M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1965, and a PhD. from the Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology is one of the major universities in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Founded in 1815 as the "Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute" , it currently has about 26,200 students , 8 faculties and about 4,000 staff members...
in 1974.
Chroust started working at the Kepler University Linz and the Technical University Vienna in 1975 as Lecturer for Microprogramming. In 1980 he became Assistant Professor in Computer Science, and lectured "Dataflow Mechanisms", "Dataflow Mechanisms" and later "Software Development Process" at the Kepler University Linz, at the University of Klagenfurt
University of Klagenfurt
The University of Klagenfurt was founded in 1960 in Klagenfurt, Austria. It began as a College of Educational Studies . Since October 2004 the official German name is Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt in order to stress the intercultural connections between the Alpine regions and the Adriatic Sea...
and the Technical University of Vienna. From 1992 until 2007 he was Professor for 'Systems Engineering and Automation' at the Kepler University of Linz and Department Head of the Department (in 2004 transferred into an Institute) of Systems Engineering and Automation from 1992 until 2007.
Chroust is Editor-in-Chief of the IFSR
International Federation for Systems Research
The International Federation for Systems Research is an international federation for global and local societies in the field of systems science...
Newsletter a.o. Furthermore he is Chairperson of the Editorial Board of the Book Series of the Austrian Computer Society (OCG), Editorial Board Member of several journals: The Journal of Microprocessors and Microsystems from 1976 until 1985, the IBM Programming Series from 1978 until 1990, the Computer Standards and Interfaces from 1992 until 2005, and
Systems Research and Behavioral Science
Systems Research and Behavioral Science
Systems Research and Behavioral Science is an international scientific journal for theory and research in the fields of systems sciences....
since 1994. In 1997 he was also on the Academic board of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
The book International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics is an authoritative encyclopedia for systems theory, cybernetics, the complex systems science, which covers both theories and applications in areas as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences...
, edited by Charles François
Charles François
Charles François, , is a Belgian administrator, editor and scientist in the field of cybernetics, systems theory and systems science, internationally known for his main work the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics.- Biography :...
.
Further Chroust is organizationally active is as Secretary/Treasurer at the International Federation for Systems Research
International Federation for Systems Research
The International Federation for Systems Research is an international federation for global and local societies in the field of systems science...
, Vice-President of the Austrian Society of Cybernetic Studies and Advisor to Austrian Standards Committee.
Work
The research interests of Gerhard Chroust are in the fields of Software EngineeringSoftware engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
(Representation and Enactment of Software Process Models, Quality and Improvement of Development Processes), Systems Science
Systems science
Systems science is an interdisciplinary field of science that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations, which are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences.Systems...
and Systemic Aspects of Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, Emergence
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
, History of Computers and Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, and Human Aspects of Software Development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
.
Cybernetics and Programming Languages
In 1964 Chroust wrote his Masters Thesis "Kybernetisches Modell: Muehlespiel Masters" about cyberneticsCybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
and continued to investigate cybernetic machines for another four years.
From the study of Theorem Proving 1965-66 Chroust continued to study formal definition of Programming Languages, whereby he developed the "Vienna Definition Language
Vienna Development Method
The Vienna Development Method is one of the longest-established Formal Methods for the development of computer-based systems. Originating in work done at IBM's Vienna Laboratory in the 1970s, it has grown to include a group of techniques and tools based on a formal specification language - the VDM...
". He started studying compiler theory and the evaluation of arithmetic expressions from 1967 until 1975.
In the 1970s Chroust continued to study parallelism and simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
from 1969 until 1972, microprogramming from 1975 until 1990 and compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
building from 1976 until 1982.
Software engineering and information engineering
In the 1980s the scope of Chrousts research turned towards Software EngineeringSoftware engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
and its environment, and towards Information Engineering
Information engineering
Information engineering or information engineering methodology in software engineering is an approach to designing and developing information systems.-Overview:...
in the 1990s. He had a special interest in software inspection
Software inspection
Inspection in software engineering, refers to peer review of any work product by trained individuals who look for defects using a well defined process...
s and Workflow
Workflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
management.
Publications
Chroust has written, co-authored and edited a dozen books and over 400 articles, papers and other publications. A selection:- 1980. Firmware, microprogramming, and restructurable hardware : proceedings of the IFIP Working Conference on Firmware, Microprogramming, and Restructurable Hardware, Linz, Austria, April 28-May 1, 1980. Edited with Jörg R. Mühlbacher.
- 1985. Formal models in programming : proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on the Role of Abstract Models in Information Processing, Vienna, Austria, 30 January - 1 February 1985. Edited with E.J. Neuhold.
- 1989. Mikroprogrammierung und Rechnerentwurf. Oldenbourg Verlag.
- 1992. Modelle der Software-Entwicklung - Aufbau und Interpretation von Vorgehensmodellen. Oldenbourg Verlag Wien-München.
- 1994. Workflow management : challenges, paradigms, and products : CON '94. Edited with A. Benczúr.
- 1994. Interdisciplinary Information Management Talks 94. Edited with P. Doucek.
- 1995. Umfrage Workflow - Eine Momentaufnahme über die Verbreitung, Einsatz und Meinungen über Workflow in den deutschsprachigen Ländern. With J. Bergsmann. Oldenbourg Wien-München.
- 1995. Die Geschichte der Datenverarbeitung - Bibliographie zur Geschichtswand. With H. Zemanek. Oldenbourg Wien/München
- 1998. Adolf Adam - 80 Jahre, eine Anekdotensammlung, ÖSGK, Reports of the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, Vienna.
- 2005. IFSR 2005 - The New Roles of Systems Sciences for a Knowledge-based Society, Kobe 2005. Edited with Jifa GuJifa GuJifa Gu is a Chinese systems scientist, and Professor of Operations Research and Systems Engineering at the Institute of Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and System Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.- Biography :...
. Jaist Press, Komatsu, Japan.
External links
- Homepage Gerhard Chroust at www.sea.uni-linz.ac.at.
- Dr. Gerhard Chroust. ICSCI, 2008.
- Article 25 Years of the IFSR: A Milestone in the Systems Sciences, by Gerhard Chroust.
- "Emeritus am Institut für Systems Engineering and Automation an der JKU Linz – ein Portrait" by Helmut Malleck. pp 4–5. (in German).