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Under the patronage of His Excellency Prof. Abdelhamid Djekoun / President of Mentouri University of Constantine (UMC) and chaired by Prof. Mohamed-Khireddine Kholladi / Conference Program Chair and Chairman of the Computer Science Department at UMC, the opening session for the International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT’2004) was inaugurated at 09:30 AM on December 12, 2004. The attendance included Dr. Emad Abuelrub / ACIT Secretary General, Prof. Mohammed Helmi Mahran / Secretary General of the Colleges of Computers and Information Society (CCIS), and over 300 participants including guests, specialists, and researchers.
Prof. Abdelhamid Djekoun / President of UMC delivered his speech, where he welcomed all participants, wishing them a pleasant and a happy stay in Algeria. Then he talked about the importance of information technology and how it differs from previous technologies in affecting every body all over the world. He also stressed the importance of information technology and how it deals with all elements of the human society by producing new eras of science. He also pointed out that the good use of this technology will lead toward an information development movement and will shrink the digital gap all over the world.
After that, Dr. Emad Abuelrub / ACIT Secretary General clarified in his talk the idea of this conference since it started five years ago until this meeting. He pointed out that ACIT is an international, scientific, refereed, and specialized conference in information technology that is held annually in one of the Arab universities. Then he added that ACIT is the official conference of CCIS, stemming from the Association of Arab Universities. It is supervised by an international steering committee and has a General Secretariat that is hosted by Zarqa Private University, Jordan. He concluded his talk by thanking Mentouri University of Constantine (the host of ACIT’2004), its President Prof. Abdelhamid Djekoun, Prof. Mohamed-Khireddine Kholladi / Conference Program Chair, and all the team at UMC who worked hard to make ACIT’2004 a successful conference.
Then, Prof. Mohammed Helmi Mahran / CCIS Secretary General talked about the role and importance of CCIS. Also, he talked about the activities of this society. Finally, he concluded by thanking UMC for all the efforts they spent in preparing for the conference and for the nice hospitality.
Prof. Mohamed-Khireddine Kholladi / ACIT'2004 Program Chair concluded the opening session with a speech in which he welcomed conference participants and guests. He briefed the participants with the main areas of the conference and with the percentage of accepted and rejected papers. He concluded his speech thanking UMC for its role in providing all the means for the success of this conference and wishing participants a pleasant stay in Algeria.
The sessions lasted for four days, December 12-15, 2004 as follows:
The First Day: Sunday, December 12, 2004
- The opening session.
- A keynote lecture titled "Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology" by Prof. Zaidi Sahnoun, UMC, Algeria.
- Two parallel sessions
- Session A1: Image Processing I
- Session A2: GIS
- Posters session.
- Evening tour to the city of Constantine and its famous museum Sirta.
The Second Day: Monday, December 13, 2004
- Two morning parallel sessions
- Session B1: Image Processing II
- Session B2: Computer Architecture, Networks, and Parallel Systems
- A keynote lecture titled "Requirements for Grid Based Applications: the Mamo Grid Project" by Prof. Mohammed Odeh, University of the West of England, UK.
- Posters Session.
- Evening tour in the Prince AbdulKhader Islamic University followed by dinner at the Constantine Club.
The Third Day: Tuesday, December 14, 2004
- Two morning parallel sessions
- Session C1: Speech Processing and Character Recognition
- Session C2: Web Technology and Information systems
- Posters session.
- Visit to the Tidis ancient city.
The Fourth Day: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
- Two morning parallel sessions
- Session D1: Signal Processing
- Session D2: Database and Information Systems
- Two noon parallel sessions
- Session E1: Security Systems
- Session E2: Web Technology
- The closing session.
The following meetings were held during the conference:
- ACIT Steering Committee held its annual meeting that was chaired by Dr. Emad Abuelrub / ACIT Secretary General and was attended by the majority of its members. The committee discussed the activities on its agenda and agreed for Al-Isra Private University in Jordan to be the host university for ACIT’2005, which will be held during the period 6-8 of December, 2005 in Jordan.
- The Executive Committee for the Colleges of Computers and Information Society (CCIS), stemming from the Association of Arab Universities, held its annual meeting. The society discussed many topics related to information technology activities in the Arab region. Also, it discussed many issues related to its official journal, the International Arab Journal of Information Technology (IAJIT), which is a refereed, indexed, and specialized journal in information technology that is published quarterly, by Zarka Private University, Jordan.
Participants
The number of papers accepted was 92 papers from 22 different countries out of 242 papers submitted. The acceptance rate was 38% and number of accepted posters was 18.
The number of papers accepted was 92 papers from 22 different countries out of 242 papers submitted. The acceptance rate was 38% and number of accepted posters was 18.
Conclusions and Recommendations
- The conference continues in achieving its goal in attracting researchers from 22 different countries.
- The papers presented in the conference reflected Arab researchers creativity and ability to conduct competitive research in information technology.
- It was agreed to open all proper channels to encourage the private sector to sponsor applied scientific research.
- Encouraging all local and international companies to participate in information technology exhibitions that will be held on the sideline of ACIT meetings in the future.
- Encouraging public and private sectors to increase financial support offered for conferences and scientific seminars, which are considered as the best field for exchanging scientific experience.
- Encouraging the use of the grid technology in the Arab world in different eras such as medical, scientific, and environmental applications.
At the end of the conference, Al-Isra Private University in Jordan was declared as the host for the sixth meeting of the conference (ACIT’2005) that will be held in the first week of December 2005. Other universities who submitted applications to host ACIT’2005 are the Islamic University of Gaza in Palestine, April 7 University in Libya, Assiut University in Egypt, Bahrain University in Bahrain, and Zarqa Private University in Jordan.
The conference participants concluded the closing session by sending a thank you cable to His Excellency Prof. Abdelhamid Djekoun / President of Mentouri University of Constantine, expressing all their thanks and appreciation for all the support that made this conference a successful one. The participants are also pleased to express their thanks to Prof. Mohamed-Khireddine Kholladi / Conference Program Chair and the Chairman of the Computer Science Department at UMC, and all members of organizing committees who worked hard to make this conference a reality. The participants also thank the General Secretariat at Zarqa Private University in Jordan and hope that it will continue to hold this scientific conference annually, wishing Mentouri University of Constantine continues progress and prosperity.