PSI 2014: Editor's Preface

PSI is the premier international forum in Russia for research and its applications in computer, software and information sciences. The conference brings together academic and industrial researchers, developers and users to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, experiences and concerns in the conference area. In doing so, the forum provides a venue for building up research collaborations between the rapidly growing Russian Informatics Community and its international counterparts. Also, the conference welcomes both young researchers looking for international cooperation in computer science and established scientists willing to attract new colleagues to their research.

The previous eight PSI conferences were held in 1991, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011, respectively, and proved to be significant international events. Traditionally, PSI offers a program of keynote lectures, presentations of contributed papers and workshops complemented by a social program reflecting the amazing diversity of Russian culture and history.

The PSI conference series is dedicated to the memory of a pioneer in theoretical and system programming research,  Academician Andrei Petrovich Ershov (1931-1988). Andrei Ershov graduated from Moscow State University in 1954. He began his scientific career under the guidance of Professor Lyapunov - the supervisor of his PhD thesis. A.P. Ershov worked at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computing Machinery and later led the Theoretical Programming Department at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow. In 1958 the Department was reorganized into the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and on the initiative of Academician S.L. Sobolev Ershov was appointed head of this department, which later became part of the Computing Center in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. The first significant project of the Department was aimed at the development of the ALPHA system, an optimizing compiler for an extension of Algol 60 implemented on a Soviet computer M-20. Later, the researchers of the Department created the Algibr, Epsilon, Sigma, and Alpha-6 programming systems for the BESM-6 computers. The list of the achievements also includes the first Soviet time-sharing system AIST-0, the multi-language system BETA, research projects in artificial intelligence and parallel programming, integrated tools for text processing and publishing, and many more. A.P. Ershov was a leader and participant of these projects. In 1974 he was nominated as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. In 1981 he received the Silver Core Award for services rendered to IFIP. Andrei Ershov's brilliant speeches were always in the focus of public attention. Especially notable was his lecture on "Aesthetic and Human Factor in Programming", presented at the AFIPS Spring Joint Computer Conference in 1972.

This edition of the conference has attracted 80 submissions from 29 countries. We wish to thank all the authors for their interest in PSI 2014. Each submission was reviewed by three experts, at least two of them from the same or closely related discipline as the authors. The reviewers generally provided high quality assessment of the papers and often gave extensive comments to the authors so that they could improve their contributions. 

As a result, the Program Committee has selected 16 high-quality papers as regular talks, 11 papers as short talks, 2 papers as system and experimental talks, and 4 poster presentations to be presented at the conference.  A range of hot topics in computer science and informatics is covered  by five keynote talks given by prominent computer scientists from various countries.

We are glad to express our gratitude to all the people and organizations who have contributed to the conference: the authors of all the papers for their effort in producing the materials included here; the sponsors for their moral, financial and organizational support; the Steering Committee members for their coordination of the conference, the Program Committee members and the reviewers who did their best to review and select the papers, and the members of the Organizing Committee for their contribution to the success of this event and its great cultural program. 

The program commitee work was done using the EasyChair conference management system.