[Whren-today] April 2009 WHREN-LILA Newsletter

[WHREN-LILA News]

Volume 5, Issue 2
April 13, 2009

The Western#
Send Hemisphere Research and Education Networks (WHREN)-Links
Interconnecting Latin America (LILA) Report summarizes activities from
participating networks. The WHREN-LILA Report is published under
National Science Foundation (NSF) Award # 0441095 and Academic Network
at São Paulo (ANSP) award Projeto Fapesp no. 04/14414-2.

April 2009 Issue:
1. WHREN-LILA Activities
2. FIU-CIARA Activities
3. AtlanticWave Activities
4. CENIC Activities
5. Pacific Wave Activities
6. CUDI Activities
7. CLARA Activities
8. REUNA Activities
9. RNP Activities

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

1. WHREN-LILA Activities
The WHREN-LILA link was utilized to enable Brazil to participate in the
175th American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual
Meeting held February 12-16 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. For the first
time, the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided an advanced network
service for its exhibition space at the conference, enabling multiple
gigabit-performance applications to be demonstrated continuously.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and
Northwestern University were invited by the NSF to showcase its
International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program in the city
where StarLight, the world’s most advanced communications exchange
facility, was established with funding from the NSF.
To support the demonstrations, a high-performance network was extended
from StarLight, located on the Chicago campus of Northwestern
University, to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, site of the conference. The
StarLight communication services supported high- resolution video
teleconferences with international collaborators as well as several
high-performance application demonstrations.

The high-definition video teleconferences took place between the NSF
booth and scientific institutions in 
Michigan, Russia, the Netherlands, Korea, the Czech Republic and Brazil.
Attendees were able to watch the live presentations and question the
scientists appearing on a 65-inch LCD display, as if meeting face to
face. 

Read full article at: http://www.whren-lila.net/events/aaas_2009.htm
For more information about WHREN-LILA, visit http://whren-lila.net


2. FIU-CIARA Activities
Global CyberBridges has embarked on its latest course to enhancing their
understanding of High-Performance Networking and Grid Computing
Augmented e-Science and Engineering Research and Education.  This course
which is offered this Spring is titled, “Grid Enablement of Scientific
Applications” with students from Florida International University,
Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Rio De Janeiro,
Brazil, along with Universidade Catolica de Santos (UniSantos) in Sao
Paulo, Brazil.  

The class is composed of 14 students from Miami, 7 from China and 2 from
Brazil.  These students will grapple with one of the following four
projects that cover topics such as, “A Collaborative Platform based on
SAGE”, “Weather, Research & Forecasting (WRF) Performance
Predication (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU/WRF)”, “Performance
Evaluation of Large-Scale Scientific Applications on Grid Computing
Environments with Parallel Real-time Immersive network Modeling
environment (PRIME)” and “Grid-Computing Support for Financial
Engineering”.   

Each of these projects has a student and faculty member working together
in a mentoring relationship, along with a support team from either China
or Brazil and sometimes both.  Each team specializes in either Earth
Sciences, Finances, Computer Science Visualization and Computer
Networks. The project provides each student with a greater opportunity
for cross-disciplinary communication.  Each student will publish and
present their project’s results.  
  
For more information about Global CyberBridges please visit
www.cyberbridges.net
For more information about FIU-CIARA, please visit http://ciara.fiu.edu/


3. AtlanticWave Activities
Oakridge National Laboratories (ORNL), Georgia Institute of Technology
and the Imperial College of London in the UK are now utilizing
AtlanticWave for video conferencing collaboration between researchers at
all three locations.  Researchers from Georgia Tech, Imperial College
and ORNL have initiated new biofuel, biopower and biomaterial projects,
under the auspices of a multi-institutional consortium - called the
AtlantIC Alliance for BioPower, BioFuels and Biomaterials - to help
solve some of the major research issues surrounding the creation of an
integrated biorefinery. In general, a biorefinery integrates biomass
conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power and chemicals
from biomass. AtlanticWave exchange points SoX and MANLAN collaborated
with GEANT and JANET to establish layer2 transport for this special
project.

For more information about the AtlantIC Alliance for BioPower, BioFuels
and Biomaterials, please visit
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-ss06/ragauskas.html

For more information about AtlanticWave, please visit
http://www.atlanticwave.net


4. CENIC Activities
CENIC held its annual conference at the Long Beach Hilton in California
March 9-11, 2009. Presentations are posted on the conference website at
http://cenic09.cenic.org/program/index.html. 

CENIC is also actively investigating extensions of Pacific Wave
facilties into the Portland Convention Center show floor for
Supercomputing 2009. For more details see http://www.cenic.org/sc09.html

For more information about CENIC, visit http://www.cenic.org


5. Pacific Wave Activities
John Silvester (University of Southern California) and Jacqueline Brown
(University of Washington) attended APAN27 held March 2 - 6 2009 in
Kaohshiung, Taiwan.

Celeste Anderson (University of Southern California) co-moderated a
panel called "Extreme Networking" at the recent CENIC Annual Conference
held March 9-11, 2009 in Long Beach, California. During that session,
Alan Whinery (University of Hawaii) gave a presentation entitled
"Connecting the World's Tallest Mountain: The Evolution of Networking on
Mauna Kea" which mentioned the role the Translight/Pacific Wave project
has had in getting high-speed connections to the Big Island and to Mauna
Kea in particular.

For more information about Pacific Wave, please visit
http://pacificwave.net 


6. CUDI Activities
Carlos Cassasus, CEO, CUDI joined other NREN leaders for the Regional
Networks panel at the CENIC annual conference. He gave a presentation
about the developments in research and education infrastructure for
Latin America. He introduced attendees to the different networks and
ongoing projects in Latin America and Mexico. The Powerpoint
presentation is available at: http://tinyurl.com/cudipresentation

For more information about CUDI, visit: http://www.cudi.edu.mx/ 


7. CLARA Activities
Within the framework of the @LIS 2 programme, the European Commission
(EC) signed an €18-million contract on 30.11.2008 with the
not-for-profit international organisation CLARA for the ALICE2 project.
ALICE2 will consolidate and extend the RedCLARA network in Latin
America, thus improving connectivity between Latin American and European
Researchers. The e-infrastructure for collaborative research and
education will provide a first class platform to support Latin American
development and the project will work towards disseminating the
potential of its use for applications that impact the Region, thus
helping to reach the goals agreed by Governments in the UN MDG Plan.

The ALICE project (América Latina Interconectada Con Europa – Latin
America Interconnected with Europe), which ran from June 2003 to March
2008 and was co-funded by the European Commission’s @LIS programme,
established CLARA, the Latin American research networking association,
and built a research and education network infrastructure in Latin
America –the RedCLARA network. Built on this success, the EC has
approved funding for the ALICE2 project, which will run until August
2012 with the goal of reaching and connecting more Latin American
countries and broadening the possibilities for collaborative research
and regional development.

Basile T. Papadopoulos, Head of Unit EuropeAid/B/2, commented the reason
for supporting ALICE2: "The success of the ALICE Project which was able
to create a Latin American Research and Education Network (RedCLARA)
linking together 12 Latin American Countries among themselves and to the
pan-European Network GÈANT2 has been one of the major achievements of
the EU-LAC Cooperation in Information Society. The construction of the
physical telecommunications network has been implemented successfully
but, more importantly perhaps, the Latin Americans stakeholders of this
ambitious endeavour have been able to create an independent working
organisation which manages and operates the network and promotes
collaboration between the LA countries, each with its national
organisation of networks for research. These achievements and the
dynamism of this relatively young organisation, has convinced us to
support the ALICE2 Project, aiming at expanding the network and its
benefits to all the countries in the region and, to promote
collaborative research intra LA and with EU, contributing thus to the
consolidation of RedCLARA's self sustainability".

"ALICE2 will permit CLARA to create a state-of-the-art RedCLARA network
by deploying an Optical Network Infrastructure that will provide first
class support to networked research and education, thus facilitating the
creation across Latin America of virtual research laboratories and
educational facilities. The project will also target researchers,
educators, and technicians, by empowering them through training and
community-building so that they can jointly create solutions to some of
the more pressing regional problems while improving collaboration with
Europe and the rest of the world”, explains Florencio Utreras,
Executive Director of CLARA.

Read full article at: http://tinyurl.com/alice2article 

For more information about ALICE2, please visit
http://alice2.redclara.net/
For more information about CLARA, please visit http://redclara.net


8. REUNA Activities
Developed as part of the EC-cofunded GridTalk project, the GridGuide was
developed to demonstrate the global reach and variety of grid computing,
in terms of the countries and organisations involved, and the scientists
and engineers who work to make it happen. REUNA, Red Universitaria
Nacional (National University Network - Chile), was invited to
participate in this effort and ever since February, when GridGuide came
to life, has its own space in the guide and the honor to be the first
Latin American institution to be exposing its grid experience in such a
relevant space.

Under the title of Science, in the GridGuide, REUNA is divulging
information about six initiatives in grids and e-science in which has
been involved since year 2004: UCRAV (a scientific instruments grid),
the actions carried out to foster the establishment of a National
e-Science Programme, the study for a Chilean Virtual Observatory, and
its participation in some international projects (EELA, EELA2 and
RINGrid).

And as GridGuide also aims to show "the human face of grid computing,"
REUNA had also the chance to publish the profile of three members of its
staff, plus its own history (that started in year 1992 and some tourist
information for those who are thinking in visiting Chile.  

At the date there are 26 guides available in the GridGuide (20 of
Europe, 2 of North America, 3 of Asia and 1 of South America – REUNA)
and it will continue improving. And while the guide of worldwide grids
is improving, REUNA is also trying to help to improve the Chilean
scientific, academic and technological communities skills in the use and
comprehension of grid technologies, that’s why from January 21st to
23rd it carried out a grid tutorial in collaboration with OSG - Open
Science Grid. This activity –that was held in the facilities of the
CMM (Mathematical Modeling Centre) of the University of Chile-  was
considered as a very fruitful experience that helped to gain new
knowledge that will serve to generate the technological basis that is
required to the future implementation of a National Grid Infrastructure.

To visit the REUNA guide in GridGuide, please go to:
http://www.gridguide.org/gridguide_content.php?id_ge=18
For more information about GridGuide, please visit:
http://www.gridguide.org/
For more information about OSG, please visit:
http://www.opensciencegrid.org/

For more information about REUNA, please visit: http://www.reuna.cl/


9. RNP Activities
On March 25, institutions belonging to the Telemedicine University
Network (Ruth) opened their core network: Getúlio Vargas University
Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM),
University Hospital Professor Miguel Riet Correa Junior, Federal
University of Rio Grande (FURG) Hospital School, Federal University of
Pelotas (Ufpel) and Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). The opening links institutions
in the South and North of Brazil, showing the extent of the Ruth
Project, which currently consists of 47 centers distributed throughout
the country. 

The ceremony was performed in each institution and physically, through
videoconferencing, with the participation of others. Promoting the
integration of health professionals in the area and improving the
infrastructure to facilitate this exchange of information are the main
objectives of the University Network of Telemedicine, which is
coordinated by the National Network of Education and Research (RNP),
also responsible for organizing Brazilian academic Internet. With Ruth,
the institutions belonging to the network have the opportunity to
intensify its activities in three main areas: service, research and
teaching. 

Over time, the trend is that new partnerships point to a further
intensification of activities, both contributing to the empowerment of
students and health professionals, but also to the strengthening of
research in this area and spread and intensification of care at a
distance. 

Another example of integration between the health professionals are
promoted by Ruth sigs (Special Interest Groups, or Special Interest
Groups) in which the health professionals of the institutions belonging
to the network up an agenda of videoconferences to discuss specific
topics. Currently there are already more than 20 sigs working in areas
such as nursing, dentistry, Trauma and Orthopedics, Dermatology and
Clinical Toxicology, among others. All nuclei that Ruth inaugurated
today are part of at least one of these groups. 

Read full article at: http://www.rnp.br/noticias/2009/not-090326a.html

For more information about RNP, visit: http://www.rnp.br 


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