Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Інститут кібернетики НАН України ім. В. Глушкова; Instytut kibernetyky NAN Ukrainy im. V. Hlushkova). A scientific research institute at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Ukraine’s leading center of fundamental and applied research in the fields of computer science and computer engineering. It was established in Kyiv in 1962, succeeding the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (est 1957), initially founded as the Laboratory of Computational Mathematics and Engineering at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. It was in this laboratory that the first microcomputer in the USSR and continental Europe named MESM was created in 1950. For applied purposes, in order to facilitate the implementation of research designs in the industry several research and design facilities were added to the Institute of Cybernetics (IC): the special design office of mathematical machines and systems, together with a research plant (1963) and special technological-design office of software development (1980). Several scientific schools have developed on the basis of the institute, including that of theoretical cybernetics, systems theory, methods of optimization, computational mathematics, automatic control theory, artificial intelligence, reliability theory, simulation theory, and theory of programming. Starting with the 1960s, the institute’s associates have designed and constructed the MIR, Promin, Dnipro, Kyiv, Iskra, Ros, and other computers, including the first Soviet microcomputers. The large computer named Ukraine was designed in 1966. While it was never fully implemented, it anticipated many ideas that would be used in the design of American computers in the 1970s. By the end of the 1960s the computers designed in IC comprised 30 percent of all Soviet-made computers. The institute’s scientists designed the ‘super-computer’ EC–1766 by using the pioneering principle of parallel macro pipelining (its mass production began in 1987). During the 1970s–80s, IC focused on the design and production of mini- and microcomputers (more than 30 models in total), including a series of personal computers EC–1840, EC–1841, and Neiron, which enabled the automation of numerous sectors of production and economy. An early automated control system called Lviv was created in cooperation with the Lviv Television Plant in 1967 and was subsequently used on a number of industrial plants across the USSR. In the early 1970s, another automated control system, Hal'vanik, was specifically designed for the galvanization of machine elements at the Kyiv Arsenal Plant but was later used on many other metal-processing plants in the Ukrainian SSR and other Soviet republics (its chief designer Ivan Serhiienko was awarded the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR in 1972). Cybernetics’ methods were also applied to other disciplines, such as economics, biology, medicine, and the study of complex systems, which gave rise to economic, biological, and technical cybernetics.

In 1982 the institute was named after its founding director Viktor Hlushkov. In the mid-1980s it had a staff of over 2,000 in 52 departments, 27 laboratories, and its own powerful computing center. During the late-Soviet period, research was focused on computer programming and design, automation and systems theory and design, economic, technical, biological, and medical cybernetics, control systems, robotics, and mathematical economics. In 1993 IC established the Cybernetics Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine—the country’s coordinating authority in the field of informatization. Aside from the Institute of Cybernetics, the center encompasses five other scientific research institutes, including the Institute of Mathematical Machines and Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute of Software Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the Institute for Space Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and State Space Agency of Ukraine. Today, IC is divided into two large research sections: of mathematical cybernetics and system analysis and of computer facilities and systems, each consisting of a number of specialized departments and laboratories (24 in total). It also operates the center for collective use of Supercomputer Complex SCIT of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine which consists of four clusters on multi-core processors. It serves the needs of Ukraine’s multiple research institutions in different areas, such as medicine, biochemistry, physics, mathematics, geology, and engineering. It has a staff of around 700, among them 400 scientists who work on the variety of fundamental and applied problems, including a general theory and methods of systems analysis, mathematical modeling, optimization, and artificial intelligence; a general theory of control and means for the construction of intelligent control systems; a general theory of computing machines and the development of advanced computer facilities, artificial intelligence, and informatics; general-purpose and applied software systems; new information technologies and intelligent systems; and a process of informatization of society. A number of prominent scientists have worked in the institute over the years, among them Mykola Amosov, Vasyl Deineka, Anatolii Dorodnitsyn, Anatolii Hladky, Viktor Hlushkov, Anatolii Hupal, Kateryna Yushchenko, Pavlo Knopov, Yurii Kryvonos, Sergei Lebedev, Volodymyr Mykhalevych, Oleksandr Palahin, Ihor Voitovych, and Valerii Zadyraka. The institute’s scientists were awarded the highest prizes of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and independent Ukraine, including two Lenin prizes, 29 State prizes of the USSR, Ukrainian SSR, and Ukraine (after 1991), as well as more than 40 other awards.

The institute publishes two bimonthly journals Kibernetyka ta systemnyi analiz/Cybernetics and Systems Analysis (between 1965 and 1991 titled Kibernetika, 58 vols, 1965–) and Problemy keruvannia ta informatyky (between 1956 and 1994 titled Avtomatika, 1956–), one trimonthly Systemy keruvannia ta komp’iutery (between 1972–2019 titled Upravliaiushchie sistemy i mashiny, 297 vols, 1972–), one quarterly Kibernetyka ta obchysliuval'na tekhnika/Cybernetics and Computer Engineering (208 vols, 1965–), and two periodic compendiums Matematychne ta komp’iuterne modeliuvannia (2008–), and Kibernetyka ta komp’iuterni tekhnolohii (4 vols, 2019–) that succeeded three compendiums published by IC earlier: Kompiuternaia matematika (2009–19), Komp’iuterni zasoby, merezhi ta systemy (17 vols, 2002–18), and Teoriia optymal'nykh rishen' (18 vols, 1968, 2003–19). During the Soviet period IC published one more periodic compendium Naukovedenie i informatika (30 vols, 1969–92). It also prepared and published the first Soviet encyclopedia of cybernetics (2 vols, 1973–4), in Ukrainian. Its directors have been Viktor Hlushkov (1962–82), Volodymyr Mykhalevych (1982–94), and Ivan Serhiienko (1995–).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Institut kibernetiki imeni V.M. Glushkova – kolybel' mikroelektronnoi bazy kompiuternykh sistem (Kyiv 2016)
The Institute’s official website: http://incyb.kiev.ua/

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was updated in 2022.]