BIRN: Virtual Communities in Biomedical Research

The Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) promotes advances in biomedical and health care research through the development and support of a cyberinfrastructure that enables data sharing and multi-institutional collaboration. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, BIRN facilitates sharing, analysis, visualization, and data comparisons across geographically distributed virtual communities. The growing BIRN consortium currently includes more than forty research groups from more than twenty-five universities and hospitals interconnected by Internet2's Abilene Network, which provides the backbone for all of BIRN's distributed data and computational resources.

BIRN collaborators participate in one of three initial testbed projects or associated collaborative projects, all of which require advanced networking capabilities. BIRN's initial testbed projects center on structural and functional brain imaging of neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, depression, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, attention deficit disorder, brain cancer, and Parkinson's disease. The advanced applications that process the massive quantities of images generated by these brain imaging studies require the high-performance Abilene Network.

BIRN's initial testbed studies are driving the construction and daily use of a federated data-sharing environment that aggregates and presents data held at geographically-separate sites as a single virtual data resource. The BIRN program is rapidly producing tools and technologies to enable the aggregation of data from any laboratory's research program to the BIRN data federation system. Lessons learned and best practices are continuously collected and made available to help new collaborative efforts make use of this infrastructure.

The BIRN infrastructure is also used by the National Alliance for Medical Imaging Computing, a multi-institutional team of computer scientists, software engineers, and medical investigators developing computational tools for the analysis and visualization of medical image data. In addition, BIRN researchers use advanced networks and applications to work with collaborators in the United Kingdom.

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Aqueous Myth

The Department of Dance at Florida State University joins forces with local, national, and international artists to present the world premiere of Aqueous Myth: Tales of a Water Planet, a full evening of modern dance performed in a media-enhanced environment of projected video and surround sound. A work in the planning for a number of years, Director of Aqueous Myth and FSU Assistant Professor of Dance, Tim Glenn, has at last realized his vision, that of creating an evening-length "techno ballet," complete with eight pre-edited video projection sources and two real-time videographers on stage. The production stylistically borrows from the film genre, blurring the boundaries of cinema and concert dance, and results in a sophisticated new work of multimedia dance theater. Twenty-seven consecutive vignettes, including 18 dances, have been combined to create a seamless experience drenched in water-related imagery. Joining Glenn in the production of Aqueous Myth is a long list of contributing artists, designers, and technologists. Wayne State University dance faculty Kelly Gottesman will continue his on-going collaboration with Glenn on projection technologies. During the program, Gottesman will share his expertise in telematic performance. Aqueous Myth will be broadcast live on Internet2 advanced networks.

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Gigaconference Videoconferencing Event

The world's first Gigaconference videoconferencing event was held 9 August 2005 showcasing the use of high-end, high-performance videoconferencing equipment. The Internet2 Commons and Codian Corp. sponsored the event. Some presentations from the more than 20 sites from around the world included: "Classical Music and the IP Prince" by the Cleveland Institute of Music: "Telemedicine via Live High-Performance Video" from Helsinki, FN; "Live from the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference", in Madison, WI; and "The Ohio State University Marching Band."

Dr. Bob Dixon, Chief Research Engineer, Ohio State University (OSU) and OARnet, Gigaconference co-organizer, and one of the world's foremost videoconferencing experts, said the idea for this event was born out of a desire to test the limits of new videoconferencing equipment in a multi-vendor environment. OSU collaborates with the Ohio Supercomputer Center to house and maintain the Commons for the Internet2 community.

Gigaconference was the first videoconferencing event to be held completely at speeds above 1 Megabit/s across a bridge that could have included as many as 40 locations. Codian provided technical support for the Codian MCU, resolving compatibility issues encountered at various endpoint types. Polycom and Sony participated in the event providing technology and assistance. Highlights from the event will be shown at the Fall 2005 Internet2 Member Meeting in Philadelphia, 19-22 September 2005.

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Access Grid Featured as Emerging Technology at SIGGRAPH 2005

The Access Grid made its debut at the SIGGRAPH 2005 conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, as one of 32 interactive installations in the Emerging Technologies venue. The Access Grid (AG) is an ensemble of resources including multimedia large-format displays, presentation and interactive environments. This emerging, scalable teleconferencing technology enables interaction between individual desktops, 3,000-person theaters, and everything in between. The Access Grid program at SIGGRAPH focused on the arts, and featured sessions including a dance performance distributed among five continents, demonstrations of Virtual Reality over the AG, and panels on consciousness and connectivity. Internet2 member organizations that participated in the Emerging Technologies venue included Boston University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Purdue University, University of Florida, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Donna Cox, of UIUC and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, served as chair for the SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies Committee. Jennifer Teig von Hoffman, of Boston University, and Jeff Carpenter, of NCSA, served as co-chairs for the Access Grid subcommittee. Significant equipment and software was contributed by Internet2 corporate sponsor inSORS Integrated Communications.

"We see this as a great opportunity to enable knowledge creation and learning in this unique and collaborative environment," said James L. Mohler, SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference Chair from Purdue University. "Since SIGGRAPH is the place where barriers are broken, it is especially significant that this will be the first time in history that the Access Grid will host a performance with artists working together on the same piece from five different continents." George Lucas, storyteller, director, producer, and visionary presented the keynote address at SIGGRAPH, which was held 31 July through 4 August 2005 in Los Angeles, California.

Live MPEG-2 and Windows Media video streams were provided by the Internet2 Commons. The MPEG-2 stream was driven by Internet2 corporate member HaiVision Systems hai210 encoders and decoders.

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Live from the Lost City! July 23 - August 1, 2005

No, its not a city where people once lived with glamorous ruins creating a backdrop to a former civilization. This city has more in common with life on Mars. The area was discovered in 2000 when scientists using underwater cameras came across strange 90 to 200 foot white towers west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Identified as a completely new kind of underwater hot spring environment, it was named the Lost City Hydrothermal field. 2100 feet below the oceans surface, an extreme environment created by heat, pressure and toxic chemicals surrounds the vents. It provides conditions for life forms that have learned to thrive in ways that may yield new insights into how life evolved on our planet and might survive under the surface of Mars.

Dr. Deb Kelley, University of Washington, joins Dr. Bob Ballard, University of Rhode Island as Co-Chief Scientists on this expedition that will collect geologic and biologic data, and provide live educational programming to museums, aquariums and Boys and Girls Clubs nationwide. Live TV-quality video from the expedition will be multicast over Internet2 networks. Captured by deep-sea remote operated vehicles (ROVs) launched from the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown, the shipboard control system enables direct broadcast through a satellite telecommunications system to workstations across the country. Equipped with Iinternet2 technology, participating sites will be able to experience the exploration as it happens.

Produced shows were broadcast live each day from July 23 through August 1, 2005.

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Washington University in St. Louis 2005 Commencement Multicast Live

Photo courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis, an Internet2 member since 1998, is a medium-sized, independent university with 6,509 undergraduates and 5,579 graduate and professional students, as well as 1,384 part-time students. Twenty-two Nobel laureates have been associated with Washington University, with nine doing the major portion of their pioneering research there. Washington University offers more than 90 programs and nearly 1,500 courses in a broad spectrum of traditional and interdisciplinary majors.

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DVTS Enables Transatlantic Master Class

The 2005 GARR conference in Pisa, Italy—hosted by Garr, the Italian Academic and Research Network—invited members of the Internet2 Arts and Humanities community to help stretch the boundries of technology-enabled, simultaneous, remote learning and teaching. Hosted in Pisa from 10-13 May 2005, the conference was attended by 300 network specialists from the all over Europe who came to report on national and international research and achievements, and to explore the possibilities a ubiquitous network can bring to research, learning, and culture.

Working with the hosts at GARR, the team created virtual studio space for viola maestro, Hillary Herndon, at the New World Symphony, and viola student, Anna Simeone, from the Conservatory of Music in Pisa to meet for a class. Bridging languages through translators and distance through technology, the broadcast was the first of its kind between Europe and the US. Two laptop computers were used: one receiving the 30 Mbps NTSC signal from Miami and converting it to PAL, the other sending the outgoing PAL signal to Miami at 30 Mbps where it was decoded running DVTS software resulting in an aggregate bandwidth of 60 Mbps. In addition to the conference attendees on site, 170 viewers attended by netcast. Among the enthused attendees was the Principal of the Trieste Conservatoria who referred to the demonstration as "the most astonishing experience he had ever had" and proposed several future applications for his students.

While both geographic and language barriers were being erased, the enabling technology ultimately dropped away to reveal... a student, a teacher, and the intricacies of a music lesson. Internet2 would like to thank the following participants for their assistance in this demonstration, Claudio Allocchio, GARR; Stefano Zani, INFN Multimedia Group/GARR Netcast; Fabio Bisi, INFN Multimedia Group/GARR Netcast; Roberto Giacomelli, INFN Multimedia Group/GARR Netcast; Tom Snook, New World Symphony; Andrew Hollis, New World Symphony and Phil Ribeiro, New World Symphony.

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Descent to the Underworld

Descent to the Underworld is a collaborative game-film project involving 8 universities around the world. A "game-film" is a participatory project that uses an interactive game that produces a linear film as an outcome. As players "move" through the game, they win different scenes from a film, depending on the choices they make. When the game is completed, the scenes the player has "won" are automatically edited and streamed to the participant. Descent to the Underworld is based on a myth that appears in many cultures. The story tells of humans successfully traveling back and forth between earth and the underworld. Some better known versions include the Greek "Demeter and Persephone" and "Orpheus and Eurydice"; the Norse "Baldur"; the Babylonian story of "Ishtar". Four teams of students meet online once a week to share sketches, ideas, animation and film clips; and debate their own approaches to the storyline. Their collaboration will result in twenty different scenes which will be played in a short film as a result of choices made during the game's progress. This online game will launch 24 May 2005.

The teams use the Access Grid (AG) across Internet2's Abilene Network and partner international advanced research and education networks. The AG, developed by the Futures Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory, is an open source suite of tools that enable large scale, group-to-group videoconferencing. Final production is a collaboration between Drexel’s College of Media Art and Design and Druid Media. Each team has its own Wiki for out-of-class communications and its own mailing list. Descent to the Underworld is sponsored by Apple Computer and supported by a grant from Department of Community and Economic Development of the State of Pennsylvania. MAGPI, the Mid-Atlantic GigaPop located at the University of Pennsylvania, is providing additional support and also provides connectivity to the Abilene Network backbone for several of the participating organizations.

The 8 participating universities are:

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Megaconference Jr. 2005

Megaconference Jr. is the world's first all virtual K-12 videoconference event over Internet2 and other advanced networks around the world. The Internet2 Commons H.323 Videoconferencing Service provides the high capacity multipoint videoconferencing technology that makes this event possible. Now in its second year, Megaconference Jr. gives students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and participate in each other's learning, using real-time, advanced multi-point videoconferencing technology. Presenters will conduct learning activities that take advantage of geographical and cultural diversities to build international awareness. Students, teachers and staff will be able to address questions and collaborate with geographically distant peers. The 12-hour duration will make it possible for schools from many time zones to participate during their regular school hours. Megaconference Jr. takes place on 19 May 2005 and runs from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm EDT (UTC-4). This year there are over 190 registered schools with many schools bridging multiple sites from their locations. According to Jennifer MacDougall, Applications Coordinator at the MAGPI GigaPoP and a Megaconference Jr. organizer, "Last year we saw the power of how the Megaconference Jr. event can impact student learning and dramatically increase student engagement with other peoples and cultures using Internet2 and advanced networking technologies. We've already seen huge success in our goal of increasing opportunities for international collaborations using these technologies. Putting the process and the technology in the hands of the students and teachers is the key to empowering learning through engagement and improving our understanding of each other."

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Music Bridges

Photo by Fred Cattroll.

The Manhattan School of Music distance learning program is partnering with Michigan's St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency, located in a largely rural county just outside the Detroit metropolitan area, to present music programs delivered via interactive videoconferencing over Internet2 advanced networks. St. Clair County, which includes 57 schools in 7 local school districts, will receive offerings such as American Composers; A Personal Introduction to Opera; Jazz: Get into the Groove; Music from around the World; group instrumental lessons; and the type of custom telementoring sessions that require the high-fidelity, broadcast-quality streaming audio and video available over Internet2. Additionally, these programs will enable partner schools to tap into the rich musical resources of Manhattan School of Music's artist faculty and student teaching artists, thereby eliminating the barriers of time and distance and allowing musicians to extend their expertise to new students and audiences around the country. In the image shown above, saxophone students representing several Canadian universities and high schools receive broadband videoconference instruction from world renowned Manhattan School of Music faculty member, Dave Liebman, saxophone during a similar distance learning initiative.

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Internet2 Teaching and Learning Working Group

The inaugural gathering of the Internet2 Teaching and Learning Working Group will take place on 2 May at the Spring 2005 Internet2 Member Meeting in Arlington, Virginia. The mission of the Teaching and Learning Working Group is to increase awareness of, and engagement in, the uses of advanced networking technologies in support of teaching and learning activities throughout the Internet2 member community. The Working Group will serve as the convener of, and support group for, these initiatives—focusing on the unique issues and needs of those who are implementers and early adopters of advanced technologies in the teaching and learning arena. The kick-off meeting will include updates on activities in the teaching and learning arena and also include case studies, such as "Learning Commons and Internet2." The Working Group is co-chaired by Jennifer MacDougall, MAGPI GigaPoP, University of Pennsylvania and Martin Siegel, Indiana University. Ann Doyle, Internet2 Program Manager for the Arts and Humanities Initiative, serves as the Internet2 staff liaison to the Working Group.

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The Slides of March

Photo by Mike Hutmacher provided courtesy of The Wichita Eagle.

An ensemble of Wichita State University (WSU) trombone students performed an arrangement of Scarborough Fair during a videoconference on 15 March 2005 for members of the New World Symphony (NWS) trombone section in Miami, FL. The high-bandwidth, low-latency audio and video streamed over Internet2 advanced networks, provided musicians in Wichita and Miami an experience that was as close to "in-person" as possible. The two-hour exchange, dubbed "The Slides of March" by WSU music professor Russ Widener, allowed the students to perform solo pieces as well and receive one-on-one critiques and tips on technique from the NWS musicians. Widener added, "It's like taking a trombone lesson, and you don't have to fly to Miami to do it." NWS loaned WSU an MPEG-2 codec to provide the live, interactive stream to Miami. The event was also streamed live across Kan-ed, the new Kansas statewide broadband network for educational institutions, hospitals, and libraries. Kan-ed funds a program called Kan-ed Live! which provides both live webcasts and a webcast archive to Kan-ed members.

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VRVS From a Jumbo Jet

The Virtual Room Videoconferencing System (VRVS) is Caltech's web-oriented service that provides a low cost, bandwidth-efficient, extensible means of videoconferencing and remote collaboration over IP networks. The Caltech team passed a new milestone in global collaboration and communications when VRVS's chief architect, Philippe Galvez originated an intercontinental videoconference using the VRVS production system, on a flight over the Atlantic at an altitude of 12,000 meters on 7 March 2005. Participants at Caltech in Pasadena, California (USA), at a university in Kosice (Slovakia), at CERN in Geneva (Switzerland), and Galvez on a Boeing 747 en route from Los Angeles to Munich were able to enjoy a high quality videoconference session. This mile-high conference was made possible by Caltech's advanced global collaboration system and also the new Internet connectivity service now available on selected airlines. The unique features of VRVS helped to transparently resolve technical issues such as a firewall, Network Address Translation (NAT), multi-site connectivity, latency, and jitter—while managing to deliver 1.5 Mbps video to the plane and around 200 Kbps to the ground with nearly zero packet loss. Philippe Galvez—VRVS project manager and co-inventor (with Harvey Newman, Professor of Physics at Caltech)—summed it up by saying "You now have no excuse to miss a meeting!" Galvez and collaborators will be presenting on VRVS during their session Next Generation Grid-Enabled Collaborative System at the Spring 2005 Internet2 Member Meeting.

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Read Across America

Initially created as a one-day event to celebrate reading on Dr. Seuss' birthday on 2 March, the National Education Association's (NEA) Read Across America event has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day. The effort includes the TWICE Read Across America celebration, a point-to-point videoconference to connect classrooms in the continental United States, providing children the opportunity to both read to, and be read to by, another class. This successful program is the result of a partnership between NEA and Two Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE), a Michigan organization promoting videoconferencing in K-12 education. TWICE provides a matching service for this annual videoconference project. In 2005, from 1-3 March, over 630 classrooms in 18 states are sharing reading activities such as book related game shows, reader's theater, choral reading, songs, raps, and skits.

According to Janine Lim, Instructional Technology Consultant for theBerrien County Intermediate School District in Michigan, "Kid-to-kid encounters via videoconferencing are the most powerful experiences I've seen. Besides practicing reading and presentation skills, students participating in this project learn about communities in a different area of the U.S. Students love seeing kids in other places; they love seeing the work that other kids do. It motivates them to do quality creative work."

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Megaconference Jr. 2005 Call for Participation

Megaconference Jr., now in its second year, is a project designed to give students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and contribute to each other's learning in real time, using advanced multi-point videoconferencing technology. Presenters will design and conduct videoconference-based presentations and activities focused on both academic and cultural issues. Participants will be able to address questions to presenters and to collaborate with geographically diverse peers in collaborative learning activities, thus building international cultural awareness. Megaconference Jr. takes place on 19 May 2005 and runs from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm EDT (UTC-4). The 12-hour duration will make it possible for schools from many time zones to participate during their regular school hours. Students, teachers, content providers and technical staff members are all encouraged to participate—by either preparing 15 min presentation about an interesting project at your school, suggesting activities that could be organized between presentations, or you can join us as participants, with no special presentation given from your side. Presenter proposals are due by 28 March 2005 and registration closes on 29 April 2005.

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The Internet2 Commons Offers new RTC Service Pilot

The Internet2 Commons is deploying a new service pilot that will provide Internet2 members with access to a variety of real-time communications (RTC) tools. Providers of RTC services from across the Internet2 member community are invited to participate and offer their services through the pilot to Internet2 members. Jonathan Tyman, Program Manager for the Internet2 Commons, explained, "The mission of the Internet2 Commons is to promote and facilitate remote collaboration throughout the Internet2 research and education community. This new pilot will allow us to extend our service offerings to the desktop with real-time collaboration suites." Internet2 corporate member Wave Three Software was selected as the first participant in the pilot. Tyman continued, "Wave Three was selected because they offer a suite of standards-based, multi-platform products with proven interoperability, as they demonstrated to our member community during the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting." Bob Randall, the CEO of Wave Three Software added, "We are extremely pleased to partner with Internet2 Commons to deliver Session Communications Services. We believe our voice, video and data collaboration tools within the Internet2 environment will move communications to the next level by dramatically enhancing personal relationships and collaboration throughout the research and education community." More information, including the ability to try the Session Communications Services, can be accessed at the Commons RTC Pilot webpage. Internet2 corporate members, as well as university and affiliate members, are welcome to participate as service providers in the pilot. Please contact Jonathan Tyman for more information <tyman@internet2.edu>.

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Digital Anatomy BOF

The Visible Human and Digital Anatomy areas now have a large number of imaging and learning resources at various states of development and deployment. At the same time, anatomy teaching faculty at all medicals schools are experiencing cutbacks in teaching hours and staff. A new Internet2 Digital Anatomy BOF ("Birds of a Feather" group) is forming to explore the creation of an anatomy teaching resource accessible over Internet2. This will be a cross-cutting initiative with broad applicability and requiring the involvement of a diverse collection of communities. It will seize an opportunity created by a convergence of needs and technical capabilities, and will require the unique capabilities of the Internet2 community. The immediate result of the project will be the identification of technologies and standards needed to support a sophisticated collection of tools for teaching anatomy. Parvati Dev of Stanford University and Steven Senger of University of Wisconsin—LaCrosse convened a session during the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting to discuss the potential for a Digital Anatomy BOF within the Internet2 community and have now drafted a proposal entitled The Visible Human and Digital Anatomy Learning Initiative to officially launch the BOF.

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ConferenceXP Request for Proposals

ConferenceXP is a Microsoft Research project that explores how to integrate real-time collaboration and distance learning with wireless-enabled classrooms and advanced audio/video technologies. ConferenceXP simplifies the development of collaborative tools and applications by providing high-quality, pre-packaged collaborative infrastructure, eliminating the need to build applications from the ground up. The ConferenceXP Research Platform enables researchers and developers to create distributed real-time collaborative applications with native support for high-fidelity audio and video while also providing mobility by taking advantage of Tablet PCs and high-speed wireless networks. To help further research and teaching in the areas of real-time collaboration, wireless-enabled classrooms, and distributed learning—Microsoft Research is seeking proposals for projects that will extend the Conference XP research platform and/or support the development of innovative learning applications. With this request for proposals, Microsoft Research encourages developers and researchers to incorporate collaborative technologies within their applications, testbeds, and frameworks to further enhance learning and research processes by funding creative projects that will have an impact and advance the state of the art within their domains. The deadline for the first submission of proposals is 1 February 2005, with a final deadline of 3 March 2005.

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Emerging Trends in Medical Simulation

Training professionals for real-world application of knowledge and skills is a major challenge; simulations can be used in training to enhance understanding, improve performance, and assess competence. Dale Alverson, one of the co-principal investigators for Project Touch (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health) explains, "Each year more than 46,000 people die as a result of medical errors. Medical simulation improves patient safety by offering new ways to 'train and maintain' skills." Alverson will be among the presenters at the Emerging Trends in Medical Simulation workshop, taking place in conjunction with the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference (26-29 January 2005 in Long Beach, CA). The workshop will describe how tools such as fully immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) simulations—presented using advanced technologies, such as multiple Access Grid nodes connected across Internet2 and other advanced networks—allow dissemination of these simulations and enable collaborative learning independent of distance. This cutting-edge research integrates computing, advanced networking, and human-computer interfaces to provide new approaches to how people learn by creating interactive experiential training environments. In terms of learning outcomes, students who participate collaboratively in problem solving and managing of a simulated patient find that opportunities to make mistakes and repeat actions using the VR interface are extremely helpful in learning specific principles. They also feel more engaged with the "patient" than in standard text-based scenarios. Alverson concludes, "VR simulations create a safe environment to make mistakes and endless opportunities to repeat and practice, as well as provide a platform for training refreshment."

This project was supported partially by grant 2 D1B TM 00003-02 from the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Health Resources and Services Administration.

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Delaware Collaboration Uses Internet2 to Provide Services to Students, Train Teachers

Photo courtesy of the University of Delaware.

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NLM/Internet2 Tutorials at RSNA 2004

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Brain Morphometry BIRN Testbed

Image courtesy of BIRN.

The Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN), is an National Institutes of Health information technology initiative that fosters distributed collaborations in biomedical science. Currently, this growing consortium includes multiple research sites from 14 universities and hospitals interconnected via Internet2's Abilene Network. BIRN participants are engaging in three testbed projects centered on neuroimaging studies of human neuropsychiatric illness and associated animal models. The Brain Morphometry BIRN testbed focuses on correlating structural brain differences to neuropsychiatric disorders, starting with studies of Alzheimer's Disease and depression. As part of the NLM/Internet2 Tutorials at RSNA2004, BIRN collaborators will demonstrate three focused applications that highlight the use of high-performance network infrastructure to advance science within the Morphometry BIRN:

1) The Alzheimer's Project demonstrates how the BIRN infrastructure can be used for mining multi-site clinical MRI studies with a preliminary study of Alzheimer's disease, while integrating legacy data from several clinical research studies.

2) The Multi-site Imaging Research in the Analysis of Depression (MIRIAD) project integrates advanced brain morphometry tools from multiple sites to analyze MRI structural data from one site and measure volume changes in cortical and subcortical gray matter, that correlate with various clinical measures in depression and age-matched controls.

3) The Semi-Automated Shape Analysis project (SASHA) is developing a seamless and robust processing pipeline among multiple institutional sites that segments sub cortical structures from structural MRI data, computes the geodesics in the space of infinite dimensional diffeomorphisms, visualizes results and enables statistical analyses of the results.

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NEES Celebrates Grand Opening

Credit: University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.

Initially launched as a research initiative with $81.8 million of National Science Foundation (NSF) support, the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) is a consortium that includes 15 large-scale, experimental sites, which feature such advanced tools as shake tables, centrifuges that simulate earthquake effects, unique laboratories, a tsunami wave basin and field-testing equipment. Distributed across 10 states, these facilities are linked to a centralized data pool and earthquake simulation software, bridged together by the advanced capabilities of Internet2 networks. The new NEESgrid system allows off-site researchers to interact in real time with any of the networked sites.

As the NEES consortium was forming, participants used Internet2 networks for both collaboration and sharing of scientific data. Beginning in January 2002, NEES coordinators at the geographically dispersed sites utilized the Internet2 Commons H.323 Videoconferencing Service to support their planning efforts. As NEES becomes operational, both scientists and administrators will continue using the Commons as part of their ongoing collaborations. Because the NEES community has already integrated Internet2 and other advanced technologies for video, data, and control information into their scientific work, researchers can now fully leverage these tools across all NEES facilities and ultimately advance the science of earthquake engineering.

On 15 November 2004, the NSF hosted the grand opening of NEES. This event was webcast live and featured live demos of several NEES tools.

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The Envision Center for Data Perceptualization

Representatives from the Envision Center will be demonstrating some of their innovative technologies at the upcoming SCGlobal, held in conjunction with SC2004 (6-12 November 2004 in Pittsburgh). Their demonstration " Stereographics and Virtual Reality over the Access Grid" will present two different methods for sharing stereographic displays using the Access Grid (AG). The first one is a simple method for creating stereoscopic movies that can be broadcast over the AG and viewed using an updated version of the AG2 shared application movie player. These movies can then be displayed with passive stereo methods using a PC with dual output video card, such as a typical Geowall setup. The second is an ongoing project to create an AGJuggler toolkit, an add-on for the VRJuggler toolkit, for enabling collaborative virtual reality over the AG. This set of libraries will allow virtual reality applications to run in geographically separate AG nodes.

The Envision Center receives support from the National Science Foundation.

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Astronomers Demonstrate a Global Internet Telescope

Image courtesy of the European VLBI Network.

On 22 September 2004, European and US collaborators demonstrated the use of advanced networks to link the radio telescopes electronically in real-time to perform radio astronomy experiments. The 20-hour long observations used the European VLBI Network (EVN) and involved radio telescopes in the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, and Puerto Rico. The combined resolution of the antennas was at least 20 milliarcseconds, which is about 5 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope. Including the antenna at Arecibo, in Puerto Rico, also increased the sensitivity of the telescope array by a factor of 10. Each European telescope was connected to its country's advanced research network, and the data routed at 32 Mbps per telescope across GEANT, the pan-European research network and the Dutch network, SURFnet. Arecibo data were sent to Europe via AMPATH and Internet2's Abilene Network. The data were then delivered to the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), the central processing facility for the EVN in the Netherlands. There, the 9 Terabits of data were fed in real-time into a correlator and combined to deliver the final data directly to the astronomers. Before the advent of advanced research and education networks, astronomers could not transfer the huge amounts of data required for real-time VLBI observations across the Internet, and instead used magnetic tapes which were shipped to central processing facilities.

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Transatlantic Howl

Photo by Lisa Law.

Internet2, and several collaborators, hosted a transatlantic poetry reading on 14 October 2004 honoring Allen Ginsberg and the 50th anniversary of his epic poem, HOWL. Poets performed Transatlantic Howl! A Dedication to Allen Ginsberg at venues in London, Paris, and across the United States in celebration of Ginsberg, the renowned poet and champion of human rights. Using the advanced videoconferencing capabilities provided by the Internet2 Commons—this live, interactive event was simultaneously streamed across UK's JANET network, France's Renater, and Internet2's Abilene Network to audiences at each site. It was also netcast to an Internet-wide audience for viewing with QuickTime or Windows Media Player. Featured readers included Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Anne Carson, Ed Sanders, Alice Notley, The Allen Ginsberg Greek Chorus, and many more. Anne Waldman, of Naropa University, and Ann Doyle, Internet2 Program Manager for Arts and Humanities Initiatives, served as MCs for this event. Doyle explained, "Transatlantic Howl! demonstrated how advanced networking technologies can enable the poetry community to interact in real-time. The event also demonstrated how high-speed networks can be used to multicast live events—whether they are arts performances, teaching sessions, or even medical procedures—over vast distances to enable collaboration among separate organizations." As far as the literary importance of HOWL, Anne Waldman explained, "Like any good work, it can speak different things at different times and be relevant. It still has a vitality that is best felt by being vocalized. It still hasn't been buried as a footnote."

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Live 3D Video for Virtual Presence

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DREAMS: Disaster Relief Emergency Medical Services

The DREAMS project will be among the advanced applications demonstrated at the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting. The DREAMS demo will include a civilian ambulance equipped with multiple computers, cameras, and a variety of medical equipment; a HMMWV armored military ambulance that is similarly equipped; and the software and hardware package from the ambulance repackaged as a portable for carry-in to a disaster scene.

According to Larry Flournoy, Applications Development Administrator at Texas A&M University, "With the expert guidance of the online physician, the presence of a virtual physician has an immediate positive impact on patient care. The DREAMS project demonstrates that the application of telecommunication and other advanced technologies will decrease the interval between the incident of injury and the initiation of definitive tertiary care." Flournoy will be one of the demoers for the DREAMS project at the Fall Member Meeting. Flournoy added, "Internet2 advanced networks have the potential to increase DREAMS capabilities in emergency situations, especially where natural or other large-scale disasters disrupt communications in a region. A large majority of the nation's medical teaching and research facilities are now connected to Internet2 advanced networks."

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Internet2 Commons Hosts Training and Demonstrations

Save the date: Training September 27.
Gather with other H.323 implementers for an introduction to H.323, its complexities and supporting technologies. Experts from Internet2 member institutions will cover topics on network diagnostics and troubleshooting, SIP and H.350, MCUs, Gatekeepers, and a review of Data Collaboration applications and considerations. Many attendees new and not-so-new to H.323 find this a valuable opportunity to meet others deploying and supporting videoconferencing on their campuses. To find out more or to sign up, visit the Commons training web site.

Collaboration in the Demo Room
Throughout the Fall Member Meeting, Internet2 university and corporate members will demonstrate videoconferencing and collaboration applications. Demonstrations at the Internet2 Commons booth and others will include technologies that support remote collaboration: the H.323 multipoint videoconferencing service; the LoCI distributed store and forward infrastructure; corporate sponsors RADVISION, Polycom, First Virtual, Tandberg, and VBrick; corporate partner Microsoft Research; and corporate members WaveThree Software and VCON. Visit the demo area at the Fall Member Meeting, and find out more.

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Logistical Distribution Network

Research at LoCI is supported by grants from the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

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MusicPath

CANARIE's CA*net 4 high speed network provides the connection that enables the MusicPath research and subsequent music lessons. Explains Karen Wilder, MusicPath Project Leader, "Through the interconnection of Internet2 advanced networks and CA*net 4, we are now free to conduct music lessons or give piano performances between any locations where the network travels. Without the software and advanced networks, the lessons could only be conducted by traveling from rural Nova Scotia to metro Toronto by car or plane."

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Virtual Surgery Master Class

Stanford and CSIRO are preparing a similar Virtual Surgery Master Class demonstration for the Fall 2004 Internet2 Member Meeting, taking place in Austin, TX on 27-30 September. In that demo, the surgical instructor will lead the student, who is immersed in a 3D view of the abdominal organs, through the live simulated surgical procedure. The system will continuously transmit incremental changes in the 3D model (anatomy, instruments, pointers, and annotation) between Canberra and Austin keeping all components, including the haptically-enabled instruments, synchronized with each other. Both participants can simultaneously "grasp" pliable body organs, cut tissue, and at the same time feel the actions and forces provided by each other across the Pacific. Each site can independently zoom or pan the viewpoint, and also lock the views together to jointly study the scene. Instruction will be supplemented by real-time 3D annotation in the virtual scene and a virtual white board is available for drawing diagrams. A virtual video player, allows the participants to remain immersed in the virtual environment while they view a pre-recorded video of real surgery. Each participant can pause the video and draw on the virtual screen while discussing the operation. The virtual video players at each end of the network connection are synchronized so that each participant sees the same video frames.

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CIC Nursing Informatics Course

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Extreme Internet Video

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WPI: Creating Collaborative Opportunities

By working with local access providers, the region's cable company and developing a local peering network, WPI significantly reduced the physical costs of connection for the other schools. Creating collaborative opportunities was accomplished by reaching out and sponsoring Internet2 participation for some of Worcester's unique institutions: the American Antiquarian Society, a research library founded in 1812 that documents the life of America's people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction; and Higgins Armory Museum, the only museum in the western hemisphere entirely devoted to the study and display of arms and armor. These organizations are working with WPI's other Internet2 sponsored participants, the College of the Holy Cross, Assumption College (and soon, Clark University), to develop educational programs for the K-12 community. "Collaboration works," said Lynch, "Already our members have received a number of significant research and education grants that might never have happened had we submitted proposals for them individually."

Today, the local peering network, now know as the Goddard Collaborative, continues to grow. WPI has also successfully sponsored the Merrimack Education Center, a 35-year-old education collaborative that provides Internet services to 70% of Massachusetts K-12s and the Museum of Science, Boston. WPI and the Museum are working to jointly develop science education programs for K-12 students.

Some big changes are underway for WPI. In the next two months, WPI and the Goddard Collaborative will move their Internet2 connection to the NoX in Boston. "Physical network connections certainly improve collaborations," added Lynch, "We are all looking forward to a much closer relationship with the Boston community." WPI is also pursuing some international initiatives. Lynch was recently in Africa at Polytechnic of Namibia, a WPI education partner, where he participated in one of the first Access Grid conferences between Africa and the US.

VoIP Softphones Deployed at Dartmouth College

Photo courtesy of Dartmouth College.

Since its initial deployment in spring 2001, the wireless network has affected many aspects of campus life, providing new teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom, academic and technology research opportunities, and new forms of social interaction. The campus-wide integration of softphones into this environment is an experiment that will be closely watched, not only at Dartmouth, but by the rest of the Internet2 community as well. According to Ben Teitelbaum, Internet2 Program Manager for Voice and Integrated Communications Initiatives and staff liaison to the Internet2 VoIP Working Group, "Dartmouth is a leader in the deployment of softphones and advanced wireless personal communications. Dartmouth is using its campus as a 'living laboratory,' in which faculty, students, and university IT professionals are jointly engaged in the deployment and refinement of new campus communications services. This is an incredible opportunity to understand the communications needs of the campus user base, which is increasingly mobile and technically sophisticated."

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Medical Simulators and Internet2: Distributed Medical Education

The Center for Excellence in Remote and Medically Underserved Areas (CERMUSA) at Saint Francis University (SFU) has been working with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and the MAGPI gigaPoP to develop advanced methods of medical education using Internet2. These collaborators are making costly medical simulation models housed at USUHS, located in Bethesda, MD, available over Internet2 advanced networks to students in the Physician Assistant program at SFU, located in rural Loretto, PA. Advanced connectivity in rural and hard to reach locations such as Loretto can be a challenge for institutions that are looking to take advantage of Internet2. In partnership with the University of Pennsylvania and the MAGPI gigaPoP, a sustainable cost-effective solution was found enabling CERMUSA to obtain a 45 Mbps connection to the Abilene Network through MAGPI. Colleagues at the National Library of Medicine, along with the technical staff at CERMUSA, were helpful in finding innovative solutions for many of the security issues the group confronted during transmission.

The most recent simulation—performed by these collaborators—involved SFU students in a classroom with four plasma monitors, each displaying high quality video of the emergency room simulator located at USUHS. Two monitors showed an overall view of the emergency room and two displayed the vital signs monitor for the simulated patient, transmitted using Digital Video Transport System (DVTS). Students watched the live video feeds, made assessments about the "patient," and communicated those assessments in real-time to the doctor at USUHS, who then performed the procedures on the patient simulator. According to Robert E. Griffin Assistant Director of Distance Learning at CERMUSA, "Simulation is a tool that must be used in medical education. Internet2 advanced networks can potentially extend access to simulators, instructors, and other learning resources, to students anywhere—changing the traditional model of the medical education classroom."

This project is partially funded by the Office of Naval Research.

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Bob Ballard's Return to the Titanic Streamed Live Over Internet2

The Inner Space Center at URI features a collection of plasma screens that replicates the science workstation aboard the research vessel. From the Inner Space Center, researchers can talk with the shipboard scientists and technicians and request images at various resolutions for examination. In the 6 April 2004 issue of EOS, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union, Ballard describes how Internet2 could change the way scientists conduct deep-sea research. "Instead of being restricted to one or two scientists working for a few hours within the small confines of a human-operated vehicle," said Ballard "scientists using remotely-operated vehicles connected to Internet2 could spend an unlimited about of time on the bottom and share, in real-time, their observations with colleagues around the world."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a mission partner and an Internet2 member. "As the nation's ocean agency, NOAA has an interest in the scientific and cultural aspects of Titanic," said Fred Gorell, spokeman for NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration. "The science of this mission is to learn more about why and how quickly, natural and human factors are contributing to the deteriorating of the ship. The knowledge gained will be applied to the study and protection of other shipwrecks and submerged cultural resources," he said. "We also want to share knowledge with scientists and students on a real-time basis."

VBrick Systems is a frequent collaborator with Mystic Aquarium, where Ballard is president of the Institute For Exploration, and has supported previous expeditions. According Richard Mavrogeanes, VBrick President, "One of the joys of the Internet2 is that it interconnects other networks that increasingly provide similar capability. As a result, I suspect there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of viewers worldwide returning to the Titanic with Ballard over Internet2."

To view the live event, VBrick has made a special Internet2 viewer available on www.explorethesea.com (please note that certain broadcasts are embargoed from viewing by the general public).

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MIT and Collaborators Achieve e-VLBI Transmission Milestone