Mission

In 2007, Business Objects launched an Academic Research Center (ARC) whose objective is to become a world-class applied research center in the field of Business Intelligence. ARC will serve as a liaison group between the company's engineering teams and universities and academic research centers worldwide. ARC's missions are:

Evangelize: develop knowledge of Business Intelligence, as a discipline, in academic circles
Inspire: introduce the company's research issues to academic partners, and get inspired by them on innovative research directions
Transfer: ease the transfer of breakthrough academic research into Business Objects products
Attract: introduce the company to talented students and invite them to join Business Objects
Foster: build relationships between academic partners, funding agencies, the company and its customers

Activities

Typical ARC activities include:

Sponsoring graduate students (MSc or PhD level) in collaboration with their university
Organizing workshops and participating in relevant academic conferences
Participating in collaborative research networks and research projects
Hosting professors for sabbaticals at Business Objects
Welcoming invited academic talks at Business Objects
Speaking opportunities at universities and academic research centers
etc.

Scientific priorities

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Data quality, semantics and integration
Self-tuning systems
Query processing and optimization; Search
Semi-structured/unstructured data processing
Data privacy and security
Automated software engineering; modeling and model transforms
Data analysis, operations research and business process management
Decision support on large data sets; data visualization and user experience
Social networks and collaborative online processing
Architecture of information systems
etc.

Software licenses for academic partners

ARC will provide Business Objects software licenses for academic partners. Academic partners are universities and academic research centers that have an ongoing research collaboration with Business Objects, through ARC. Contact ARC if you are an academic interested in submitting a collaboration project to ARC.

News

ARC launches an Academic Chair with Ecole Centrale Paris (ECP). Through an ARC sponsorship, ECP will hire a high-profile team of Professors and students for joint research, teaching and training in Business Intelligence.

In collaboration with top canadian partners, ARC is driving a Canadian research network application for NSERC funding. The Business Intelligence Network (/bin/*) will create an innovation platform to enhance the collaboration of the top Canadian knowledge and information management researchers and the top Canadian companies in business intelligence.

ARC-Vancouver is requesting academic proposals for these projects.

To date, ARC has sponsored graduate students (MSc and PhD level) from ECP, the University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, Dalhousie University, University of Maryland Bethesda, Simon-Fraser University, etc.

ARC organizes regular workshops involving academic researchers and Business Objects engineers in order to identify partnership opportunities.

Stay tuned for more ARC news, this page will be updated frequently!

Locations

Initial focus will be the development of ARC in Europe (Paris) and in North America (Vancouver), but ARC will gradually extend to all of the company's other development centers.

Contacting ARC

ARC is always looking for breakthrough technologies relevant to the field of Business Intelligence. Academics and students with potentially-relevant projects are invited to contact ARC at arc@businessobjects.com.