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French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation facts for kids

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Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique
Inr logo rouge.svg
Formation 3 January 1967
(58 years ago)
 (1967-01-03)
Type Public
Purpose Research
Headquarters Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, France
Fields Computer science
Applied mathematics
Official languages
French, English
President
Bruno Sportisse
Budget
235 million (2013)
Staff
1,772 researchers
Website inria.fr
Formerly called
Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique

The National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) is a French research group. It focuses on computer science and applied mathematics. This means they study how computers work and how math can solve real-world problems.

Inria started in 1967 near Paris. Its first name was the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (IRIA). The first office was in a historic building once used by NATO military forces. This building is still Inria's main headquarters today. The name changed to INRIA in 1980 and then to Inria in 2011.

Inria is a public organization. It is overseen by two French government ministries. These are the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Economy.

Where Inria Works

INRIA Alpes'13 - 377 Grenoble
Inria Grenoble building, 2013

Inria has nine research centers across France. You can find them in cities like Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, and Paris. There is also one center outside France, in Santiago de Chile, Chile.

Inria also works with other research teams. For example, Inria Rennes is part of a group called IRISA. This group includes several other research organizations.

About 3,800 people work at Inria. This includes 1,300 researchers and 1,000 Ph.D. students. Many others are post-doctoral researchers.

Cool Things Inria Does

INRIA
Inria Paris-Saclay, 2014
INRIA 2007-02-05
Part of INRIA Sophia Antipolis, 2007
Classroom and monitors area at INRIA Lille
Activity within INRIA Lille, 2010

Inria does both basic and practical research in computer science. They have created many programs that people use widely. Some of these include:

  • Bigloo: A programming language called Scheme.
  • CADP: A tool for checking how computer systems work together.
  • Caml: A family of programming languages.
    • This includes Caml Light and OCaml.
  • Coq: A special tool that helps prove if computer programs are correct.
  • Eigen (C++ library): A library for math calculations in C++.
  • medInria: Software for looking at medical images, like MRI scans.
  • GNU MPFR: A math library for very precise numbers.
  • OpenViBE: A platform for designing and testing brain–computer interfaces. These allow people to control computers with their thoughts.
  • Pharo: An open-source programming environment.
  • scikit-learn: A popular software package for machine learning. This is how computers learn from data.
  • Scilab: Software for doing complex math calculations.
  • SOFA: An open-source tool for simulating physics, often used in medical simulations.
  • ViSP: An open-source library for visual servoing. This helps robots see and move.

Inria is also a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) research in France. In 2019, it ranked 12th worldwide for its AI research.

Inria's History with the Internet

IRISA
INRIA Rennes in 2006, part of joint IRISA

In 1988, Inria helped connect France to the early internet. Their Sophia-Antipolis center connected to the NSFNet in the United States. This was done using a satellite link.

This connection became active on August 8, 1988. It allowed French researchers to use the US network. It also let NASA researchers access a star database in France. This was the first time French networks used TCP/IP, the main internet protocol. For many years, the Internet in France was mainly for research and education.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique para niños

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