From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Showplace for High-Tech Projects (Chron of Higher Ed)
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 08:30:59 -0600
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Computing Consortium Creates a Showplace for High-Tech Projects
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
Arlington, Va.
A new computer center perched on the eighth floor of a high-rise office
building here will serve both as a hostel for traveling computing
researchers and as a showplace for projects that use high-speed research
networks.
ACCESS-DC, as the center is called, is 7,000 square feet of high-tech
computers, video-conferencing equipment, and connections for superfast
networks. It doesn't have a specific research focus, and it is open to
researchers from any of the 50 universities, businesses, and government
agencies that are part of the National Computational Science Alliance,
which runs the center.
Need to show some government officials how your virtual-reality project
will work? Bring them in and let them try it out. Want to explain your
high-speed networking application to a colleague while you're both in
town for a conference? Arrange to meet at the center. Need a temporary
office for a few weeks? Look no further.
"Right now, if I came to Washington and wanted to really demonstrate
virtual reality, supercomputing, or high-speed networking, it's pretty
difficult," says Larry L. Smarr, director of the alliance, which is
based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Janet I. Thot-Thompson, associate director for the center, adds that
being able to demonstrate high-end technology might help some
researchers win grant funding. "You can write proposals out the wazoo,
but if people don't see and feel and touch this technology, then they
don't see the benefits of it," she says.
Mr. Smarr describes the center as a window into the advanced computing
technologies being developed by the alliance, which is one of two
supercomputing consortiums supported by the National Science Foundation.
The consortium's goal is to create a new networking architecture,
nicknamed the National Technology Grid, that would seamlessly connect
supercomputing centers, remote-controlled scientific instruments, and
other devices.
The ACCESS center has been operating on a limited basis since January,
and it will hold its grand opening next month. The alliance plans to
build about six more of the centers in select cities across the country
in the next few years.
Most of the center's machinery is installed and ready to go, but a few
key pieces are still missing. Most notably, the center isn't yet
connected to Internet 2's Abilene network or the vBNS -- the National
Science Foundation's very-high-performance Backbone Network Service. Mr.
Smarr says the center hopes to have one or both of the high-speed
research networks linked by next month.
So far, the center's weeks have had an uneven rhythm. Some days, Ms.
Thot-Thompson says, the place bustles with group demonstrations or with
technology classes. But one day recently, the facility seemed lifeless,
with no one even staffing the front desk. The sun glinted off rows of
shiny computer monitors that looked like they had just been taken from
their boxes. The white walls stood unadorned, although colorful posters
of supercomputing projects and networking pioneers are to arrive any day
now.
Ms. Thot-Thompson led a tour and asked that the "mind's eye" be used to
fill in what's not yet installed. The front room, which has a drop-down
screen and projectors, can serve as a small auditorium for
demonstrations. Off to the side are several computer stations and a
$50,000 Immersadesk, a special large-screen display used for
virtual-reality projects.
Around the corner is a high-tech classroom, which has about 20 computers
facing a large video screen. An adjoining "board room of the future"
features a large conference table wired for networking and video
conferencing. The center also has several temporary offices and small
video-conferencing booths. There is a small kitchen too, contributing to
the impression that this is the most advanced cyber-cafe ever built.
Ms. Thot-Thompson expects to see a steady stream of researchers at the
facility once it officially opens. "It's a very fluid and flexible
arrangement," she says.
Another focus of the center will be training. The center plans to hold
how-to classes that will be open to government officials and university
professors involved with the alliance.
But for the next few weeks, Ms. Thot-Thompson will be putting the final
touches on the center and preparing for three days of grand-opening
festivities -- including an open house for the education community on
April 13.
Background stories from The Chronicle:
"Super Infrastructure Is Now Key to Supercomputing," 4/25/97
"NSF Says It Will Support Supercomputers in Cal. and Ill.," 4/11/97
Copyright © 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education