CyberCollaboratory to be Demonstrated During Fleet Week
released 05.17.05
Contact
Trish Barker
NCSA Public Information Specialist
tlbarker@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217.265.8013
CHAMPAIGN, IL —
This summer, collaborative technology developed in part by researchers funded by the Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center (TRECC) will be demonstrated on board a Navy research vessel at several East Coast ports of call.
A working prototype of the CyberCollaboratory, a new Web-based collaboration system for distributed groups requiring real-time information sharing for managing unforeseen events such as oil spills, will be one of a number of technologies demonstrated aboard the Office of Naval Research's Afloat Lab. The CyberCollaboratory will make its debut during Fleet Week (May 23-30) in New York City. CyberCollaboratory demonstrations will also take place at Afloat Lab dockings at the Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
ONR's Afloat Lab, a scaled-down "surface combatant" ship formerly used by the U.S. Naval Academy for seamanship and navigation training, provides a platform for testing new shipboard technologies, as well as a way for the Navy to showcase its science and technology.
The CyberCollaboratory was developed to help researchers take advantage of emerging sensing and information technologies which, by accessing and integrating information from sensor systems, could make it easier to assess and monitor complex system-wide interactions in real time. Such sensor systems range from large-scale, satellite-mapping systems to networked small-scale devices enabling real-time measurement of physical quantities such as surface currents. The CyberCollaboratory makes it possible for multi-institutional, remotely located research teams involved in sensor-related research to communicate quickly and effectively.
"This system is for people who, while collaborating, need to easily share technical information such as data analyses," says Barbara Minsker, the project's lead investigator. Minsker is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and director of the Environmental Engineering, Science, and Hydrology Group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
The implementation of the CyberCollaboratory that will be demonstrated aboard the Afloat Lab is a prototype for the CLEANER community, a proposed national network of environmental field research facilities. The demonstration illustrates how users in remote locations can easily discuss oil spill and surface current information in real time, using sensor networks and near real-time oil spill trajectory tracking and simulation tools developed at Texas A&M University.
Via a Web browser, users can create a simulated oil spill in Corpus Christi Bay in Texas and begin tracking the trajectory of a spill from that location as it is transported based upon near-real time or historical surface current data generated from high-frequency radar. All simulations are stored and can be shared and discussed with other users. Other features in the CyberCollaboratory will also be made available in the future for collaborative viewing, such as the ability to share documents or analyses. Easily customizable for the needs of different communities, the CyberCollaboratory brings together in one place a broad variety of tools useful for scientists and engineers, including instant messaging, videoconferencing, analysis and modeling software, and data-management tools.
The CyberCollaboratory is a joint project of the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, through TRECC. TRECC is a program of the University of Illinois, administered by NCSA. For an online demonstration of the CLEANER CyberCollaboratory, along with further information on CLEANER, visit http://cleaner.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.
