PC SYSTEMS (PSYST GA) (PCSr.AT), subsidiary of the POULIADIS GROUP (POUL GA) (POUr.AT), announced that it signed a contract amounting to 1.7 million euros with the General Secretariat of Research and Technology within the framework of the "Competitiveness" business plan of the Third Community Support Framework.

Specifically, the Research and Development Division of PC SYSTEMS undertook the coordination and realization of the SOL Research Project (Advanced Interactive Information System of Communication, Updating and Sensitization of the Public to issues concerning the protection against earthquakes), which will be completed within thirty (30) months.

The project focuses on the utilization of the up-to-date informatics and communication technologies for the best informing and sensitisation of the public regarding protection against earthquakes issues.

More specifically, the under progress SOL System will provide through the Internet:

• Extensive informative material regarding earthquakes, historical examples of great earthquakes and earthquake protection guidelines plus general information which will be specially processed in order to be comprehensible both by the broader public as well as targeted user groups: students, professors, parents, individuals with disabilities.

• Extensive scientific material and bibliography as well as on line graphical illustration tools of geographically broken down seismological and geological data

• Interactive support services of user group activities such as projects of elementary and high school students, readiness drills of professionals and ?on-line? psychological profile, research activities.

• Psychological support of the public and feedback from experts to questions related to earthquakes

• Collection and evaluation of sociological information in order to draw conclusions and improve the system on a continuous basis

From a technological point of view, the company will lay emphasis on the operational and easy utilization of the system. Thus the system will be accessed through the Internet. In addition, it will be particularly user friendly and support will be rendered to people with disabilities such as phonetic presentation of texts and use of sign language dictionary. From a scientific point of view, emphasis will be given, apart from the reliability and extent of the informative material, on its best adjustment in order to be comprehensible to the population target-groups.

Apart from the Research and Development Division (R&D) of PC SYSTEMS, which is the project?s coordinator and provides know-how in issues concerning the systems development, the National Observatory of Athens, the Pedagogical Institute, the Eugenides Foundation, the Institute for Language and Speech Processing as well as the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens also participate in the project.

The SOL project (Seismos On Line) aims at the establishment of a viable interactive system which will comprise specialized researchers, technological infrastructure, data and actions, and which will aim at the communication with the public and the individual population groups for its valid, continuous and complete updating concerning earthquake issues and emergency plans. PC SYSTEMS with its active participation in the SOL project continues its successful course for the development and realization of innovative systems in the sectors of information technology and telecommunications. Thus the company will be able to establish the appropriate infrastructure for the facilitation of the provision of information and services through alternate communication channels.
PC SYSTEMS constitutes the basic unit of Pouliadis Group in Systems Integration area. The main sectors, which the company is active in, are focused on the design, distribution, support, training and maintenance of information systems, the provision of advanced technology services to the information technology and telecommunications sectors, on the systems integration and the business software production.