NCSA NEWS

New Access Grid Node to Bring MSIs into Virtual Research Community

released October 2, 2001

Contact
Karen Green
NCSA Public Information Officer
kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217.265.0748 phone
217.244.7396 fax

CHAMPAIGN, IL — A new Access Grid node to be installed at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami will serve as the first node in a testbed for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).

The testbed will give MSIs the chance to use the Access Grid and its resources and to become contributing members of the Access Grid research community as it spreads throughout the world.

The Access Grid (http://www.accessgrid.org/) is an integrated audio and visual environment that supports distributed meetings, remote visualization and collaboration, and distance education. The Access Grid is a National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance) project led by Argonne National Laboratory. Funds from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Networking with Minority Serving Institutions (AN-MSI) program will pay for the estimated $60,000 in equipment needed to set up the node on the south campus of FIU.

"An Access Grid node gives researchers at FIU the chance to collaborate with others across the country and the chance to expand their own research and collaborative programs," said Stephenie McLean, head of Alliance Access and Inclusion Initiatives. "It is also part of the AN-MSI effort to create an Access Grid testbed for MSIs where they can utilize the Grid, take advantage of its scientific applications and tools, and become contributors to the Access Grid community."

The AN-MSI program aims to help colleges that traditionally serve African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans develop the infrastructure needed to take advantage of advanced computational tools and resources. AN-MSI provides funding to the Education, Outreach and Tranining Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI) program and to the Alliance Access and Inclusion program, an EOT-PACI partner.

"We have the networking and the technical capability to become the first MSI to set up a Grid node through the AN-MSI program," said Jose "Pepe" Longoria, a professor of Earth Sciences at FIU. "This is a major technical advance for us, and the impact will be far reaching. It will allow our Natural Disasters Online Laboratory to undertake more and better research, and give us access to people, data and remote scientific instruments."

FIU is a perfect candidate for an Access Grid node because it already has the high bandwidth networking needed for a node. It is connected to Internet2's Abilene research network and is the U.S. connection to the Pathway of the Americas (AMPATH) project, a network that connects to research institutions in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Long-term plans include establishing Access Grid nodes at more MSIs in the U.S. and at sites connected to AMPATH.

Longoria, who studies natural disasters and runs a lab with direct access to the Internet2 backbone, plans to use the new Grid node for computer simulations and visualizations of natural phenomena. He will also use it to expand a project with the Miami-Dade School District, which provides teachers with remote access to teaching and research facilities in an effort to improve earth and space science curricula.

Equipment needed to run an Access Grid node includes top-of-the-line PCs to handle display, video capture, audio, and general control of the setup, three projectors with video capture devices and cameras, and a wide range of audio gear. In addition FIU staff must be trained to operate the node, debug the multicast network, and use the Access Grid backchannel to exchange problems and solutions with Access Grid tech staff at other sites.

The new Grid node is expected to be running by mid-December.

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, government and industry research partners from across the United States. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign leads the Alliance. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program. The NSF, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA.

EOT-PACI is the Education, Outreach and Training effort of the NSF's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program. It's mission is to develop human resources through the innovative use of emerging technologies.

 

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