News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Karen Green
NCSA Public Information
217-265-0748


NCSA and American Museum of Natural History Take Remote Collaboration to 
New Level to Create Space Show


CHAMPAIGN, IL, March 7, 2002--The new space show, "The Search for Life: 
 Are We Alone?" at the American Museum of Natural History's (AMNH) 
Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space features the 
work of visualization artists at the National Center for Supercomputing 
Applications (NCSA) integrated into the show through an unprecedented 
process of remote virtual collaborative visualization.

The new show premiered March 2 at the planetarium. "The Search for Life" 
was developed by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration 
with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The show was 
written by Ann Druyan, writer/producer and Carl Sagan's long-time 
collaborator, and Steven Soter, an astrophysicist and writer in the 
museum's Division of Physical Sciences, with music by Stephen Endelman. 
This same team also worked on the highly acclaimed "Passport to the 
Universe," the first-ever space show presented to the public in the Rose 
Center, which opened on February 19, 2000.  "The Search For Life:  Are 
We Alone?" is made possible through the generous support of Swiss Re. 
The film, narrated by Harrison Ford, looks at the possibility of life 
outside our solar system and includes segments on the birth of our Sun 
and solar system.

About eight minutes of the show were created with help from NCSA's 
Virtual Director team--Donna Cox, an NCSA senior researcher and 
professor in the University of Illinois School of Art and Design; Robert 
Patterson, NCSA visualization programmer; and Stuart Levy, NCSA senior 
research programmer. The Virtual Director software team also worked with 
staff at the museum to create animations from scientific data for 
"Passport to the Universe." This time, however, the work included 
real-time interaction between staff at NCSA on the University of 
Illinois campus in Urbana-Champaign and at the Rose Center in New York City.

"We have been involved in remote collaborative efforts before, but 
certainly nothing at this level," said Patterson, who spent many late 
nights working with the museum's production team over a high-speed 
connection to Internet2's Abilene research network. "This is an example 
of connecting two sites with two unique display systems to put together 
visualization sequences in real time over long distances. We never once 
needed to travel to the museum."

The Virtual Director software allows users to navigate through complex 
computer datasets, record and edit their movements through the data, and 
share tracker and camera data. In effect, the user choreographs--or 
directs--with a virtual camera to create animations.

To create the new space show's animations, Patterson would start up the 
Virtual Director software in the NCSA CAVE, a virtual reality display 
system, and the museum's production team in New York would run Virtual 
Director on the Hayden's Digital Dome. As Patterson, Cox, and Levy 
created Digital Dome flight paths through the data, the museum 
production team in New York was able to "fly" along, view the images in 
the dome, and discuss choreography and production issues with their 
colleagues at NCSA. Each participant in the process was represented as a 
graphical avatar in order to determine their locations in the dataset. 
Each avatar could freely move through the data or attach to the flight path.

Levy handled data conversions and interface issues. His software 
PartiView was connected directly to Virtual Director so the teams could 
preview representations of the simulation data in real time and Levy 
could alter the data representations on both display systems as needed. 
 In addition, Patterson was able to connect directly to the Hayden's 
display system and make changes to the choreography from the New York 
user's point of view.

Every work session aimed to analyze the scientific data and find its 
most interesting aspects. Ultimately, the teams sought to tell a 
complicated story in a way that was scientifically accurate and visually 
engaging.

"Our goal is to bring the most accurate science to the greatest number 
of people, using the most advanced tools of our age and presented in the 
most aesthetic manner possible," said Cox. "This process has helped us 
realize that goal."

Once a path through the data was complete, the NCSA team transferred the 
data to Dave Nadeau, a visualization programmer at the San Diego 
Supercomputer Center (SDSC). Nadeau rendered every frame with SDSC 
volumetric rendering software at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels. 
Each full dome image consists of seven of these frames blended together 
to create an image with about 30 times the resolution of a standard TV 
screen image. The entire sequence required more than 75 hours to render 
on SDSC's Blue Horizon, one of the world's largest computers.

"`The Search for Life:  Are We Alone?' is a perfect example of what 
makes public education at the museum unique," said Myles Gordon, vice 
president for education at the museum. "Through our exhibitions and 
public programs, we are not only able to educate people about 
breakthrough scientific concepts, but also to do so with the benefit of 
insights and first-hand information provided by the museum's scientists 
and researchers. It is the dynamic collaboration of astrophysicists, 
educators, computer scientists, science visualizers, artists, producers, 
engineers, sound designers, script writers, and composers that makes 
this new space show a unique experience and a potent educational tool."

The computer simulation data is the work of Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, 
assistant curator in the department of astrophysics at AMNH and part of 
the National Computational Science Alliance Cosmology team. Mac Low's 
data simulates the birth of a star, and computing it required about four 
days of dedicated time on a 512-processor SGI Origin2000 supercomputer 
at NCSA. Other NCSA visualizations incorporated into the space show 
include a flight through the Milky Way and beyond, and views of the 
"local" universe created using an astronomical database of 35,000 
observed galaxies developed by Brent Tully, an astronomer at the 
University of Hawaii.

In total, the NCSA team computed about 70,000 frames for the 2002 space 
show.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a leader in developing and 
deploying cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and 
information technologies. NCSA is a partner in the TeraGrid project, a 
National Science Foundation initiative to build and deploy the world's 
largest, fastest, most comprehensive, distributed infrastructure for 
open scientific research. NCSA also leads the National Computational 
Science Alliance (Alliance), a partnership to prototype an advanced 
computational infrastructure for the 21st century that includes more 
than 50 academic, government, and industry research partners. The NSF 
Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program 
funds the Alliance. In addition to the NSF, NCSA receives support from 
the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, private sector 
partners, and other federal agencies.  For more information, see 
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu.


Images: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/News/Access/Releases/020306.AMNH.html

SDSC press release: http://www.npaci.edu/online/v6.5/hayden.html

Rose Center/Hayden Planetarium: 
http://www.amnh.org/rose/haydenplanetarium.html


---------------------------------------------------
Karen Green
Assistant Director for Communications
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
605 E. Springfield Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820

ph: 217-265-0748, fax: 217-244-7396
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
----------------------------------------------------



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Subject: ANSP connects to AMPATH
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 15:00:39 -0500
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AMPATH ADDS TOP RESEARCH CONNECTION POINT IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL TO ITS 
AMERICAS HIGH-SPEED NETWORK

¨ AMPATH, now supported in part by grants from the National Science 
Foundation, began as a collaborative project between Florida International 
University and Global Crossing.
¨ Academic Network at São Paulo (ANSP), the network of the State of São Paulo in Brazil, will benefit from the advanced speed and connection to U.S.-based 
universities and research centers.
¨ Global Crossing is donating bandwidth for this project.

MIAMI – (March 6, 2002) -- The AmericasPath (AMPATH) project is announcing the recent connection of the Academic Network at São Paulo (ANSP), the network of the State of São Paulo in Brazil. Late last year, ANSP and Florida 
International University (FIU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to connect this Brazilian network to AMPATH. Now, ANSP is connected to AMPATH through a 45 Mbps fiber optic connection, provided in part by telecommunications firm Global Crossing, and is peering with the highly regarded Abilene research network. Services going through AMPATH to ANSP include unicast and multicast peering, as 
well as engineering support, and NOC services, provided through the Global Research NOC at Indiana University.

ANSP unites São Paulo’s University networks, as well as the Scientific and Technological Research Centers in the State of São Paulo. The ANSP network is managed by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). It is the main 
Internet connection point of all the Institutions that belong to the State of São Paulo Science and Technology System. The international traffic of the ANSP network is encoded independently through a 155 Mbps fiber optic connection. The ANSP Network also encompasses the PoP of the National Research Network (RNP) in São Paulo. 

Prof. Hartmut Glaser, ANSP’s Network Coordinator, sees a future of international collaboration and exploration. “Through this connection to AMPATH, all of the 
institutions connected to ANSP will have new opportunities to expand their cooperation with US universities and research centers, offering these centers significant potential for new applications and services. I expect that, because of this new connectivity, the partnership between AMPATH and ANSP researchers will enhance the quality of our relationships, and working together will result in new scientific developments.”

AMPATH, now supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation, began 
as a collaborative project between FIU and Global Crossing. Using Global Crossing's 
terrestrial and submarine optical-fiber network, AMPATH will interconnect the 
Research and Education (R&E) networks in South and Central America, the Caribbean 
and Mexico to US and non-US R&E networks via UCAID's Abilene network. 
Participants will also be able to utilize the StarLight/STARTAP peering points led by 
the University of Illinois at Chicago, with grant support from the National Science 
Foundation.

The AMPATH PoP currently consists of a GSR 12012 router donated by Cisco 
Systems, a CBX-500 ATM switch donated by Lucent Technologies, and a Juniper 
Networks M10 router. The Global NOC at Indiana University provides network 
monitoring and back-up engineering services in coordination with FIU's 
network engineering staff.

About FIU:
FIU, Miami's public research university, educates 33,000 students on campuses throughout South Florida and Latin America. It is the only public urban university in Florida with both a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and the Carnegie 
Foundation's top rating for research universities. Over the past three years, its sponsored research program has been the fastest growing of any research university in the state. FIU delivers high-quality education and training, 
conducts and promotes research to enhance Florida's role as a leader in telecommunications and information technology, offers training necessary to fostering business development and workforce preparedness and promotes technology transfer to enhance enabling technologies for the telecommunications 
and information technology industries. More information about FIU can be found at www.fiu.edu and www.ampath.fiu.edu. 

About Global Crossing:

Global Crossing provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network, which reaches 27 countries and more than 200 major cities around the globe. Global Crossing serves many of the world's 
largest corporations, providing a full range of managed data and voice products and services. Global Crossing operates throughout the Americas and Europe, and 
provides services in Asia through its subsidiary, Asia Global Crossing (NYSE: AX). 

On January 28, 2002, Global Crossing and certain of its affiliates (excluding 
Asia Global Crossing and its subsidiaries) commenced Chapter 11 cases in the 
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and 
coordinated proceedings in the Supreme Court of Bermuda.

Please visit www.globalcrossing.com or www.asiaglobalcrossing.com for more information about Global Crossing and Asia Global Crossing. 

About StarLight:
StarLight(sm), the optical STARTAP(sm) initiative, is an advanced optical infrastructure and proving ground for network services optimized for high-performance applications. Operational since summer 2001, StarLight is a 
1GigE and 10GigE switch/router facility for high-performance access to participating networks and will ultimately become a true optical switching facility for wavelengths. StarLight is being developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern 
University, and the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with Canada's CANARIE and Holland's SURFnet. STARTAP and StarLight are made possible by major funding from the US National Science Foundation to the University of Illinois at Chicago. STARTAP and StarLight are service marks of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. See www.startap.net/starlight.


About Abilene:
Abilene, developed in partnership with Qwest Communications, Cisco Systems, 
Nortel Networks and Indiana University, is an Internet2 backbone network 
providing nationwide high-performance networking capabilities for over 200 
Internet2 universities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto 
Rico. For more information on Abilene please see www.internet2.edu/abilene

About Internet2(R) 
Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnership of academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, see: http://www.internet2.edu/ 

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Subject: Invitation to HPNC Proposal Preparation Workshop
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 13:11:29 -0600
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Invitation to HPNC Proposal Preparation Workshop


The University of Missouri-Kansas City is hosting a one-day, hands-on =
workshop on Friday, April 12th from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm at UMKC's =
Administrative Center building, 5115 Oak Street, Kansas City, second =
floor Plaza conference room.  A continental breakfast will be served at =
7:30 am, and a buffet lunch will be provided.

This workshop is for prospective PIs from organizations desiring to =
submit proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) High =
Performance Network Connections (HPNC) Program. =20

During this workshop, PIs will be mentored and supported in the =
development of quality proposals.  Participants will have access to =
computers and wireless networks so that they can access NSF's Fastlane =
Proposal Preparation System.  Upon completion of the workshop, =
participants will have made significant progress toward developing a =
quality proposal to submit to NSF.

Please Email your interest in participation to Debbie Jarvis-Ferguson, =
Project Coordinator, at 

 =
<mailto:>
 no later than Friday, April 5th.  =
Please include your name, title and institution, email address, phone =
number, and mailing address.  Directions to the workshop location will =
be sent to you via return Email.

Debbie Jarvis-Ferguson

Admin Asst - CIO & DIR - UMKC
(816) 235-2660

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Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 10:49:10 -0800 (PST)
From: "Lucy E. Lynch" 
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Subject: IETF 53, Minneapolis MN
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Once again the IETF will meet in Minneapolis MN, March 16-21, 2002
and selected working group sessions will be multicast in two tracks
Monday 3/18 through Thursday 3/21:

53rd IETF-Minneapolis, MN Multicast Guide:
http://www.ietf.org/meetings/multicast_53.html

MONDAY    0900-1130  1300-1500  1530-1730  1930-2200
  (UTC)  1500-1730  1900-2100  2130-2330  0130-0400
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 1  |          |          |          |          |
        |          |  mboned  |    avt   |   ipv6   |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 2  | sipping  |          |          |   sip    |
        |          |          |          |          |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+

TUESDAY   0900-1130  1300-1400  1415-1515  1545-1645  1700-1800
  (UTC)  1500-1730  1900-2000  2015-2115  2145-2245  2300-0000
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 1  | mobileip |  l2tpext | l2tpext  |    ips   |    ips   |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 2  |   mpls   |   roi    |          |   dnsop  |   siked  |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+==========+

WEDNESDAY 0900-1130  1300-1500  1530-1730  1930-2200
  (UTC)  1500-1730  1900-2100  2130-2330  0130-0400
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 1  |   magma  |   msdp   |   avt    | plenary  |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 2  |  mmusic  |    sip   |  ipsec   | plenary  |
=========+==========+==========+==========+==========+

THURSDAY  0900-1130  1300-1500  1530-1730
  (UTC)  5600-1700  1900-2000  2130-2330
=========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 1  |   ipsec  |   pwe3   |    idn   |
=========+==========+==========+==========+
CHAN 2  |   ipv6   |   monet  |   saag   |
=========+==========+==========+==========+

You can review technical details & find links to client software here:
http://www.ietf.org/meetings/get_multicast.html

If you're not sure that your internet link is multicast enabled, you
can test your connectivity here: http://www.multicasttech.com/mt/

Lucy E. Lynch                           Academic User Services
Computing Center                        University of Oregon

                (541) 346-1774/Cell: 912-7998


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