-- sam - 10 Apr 2008

Selected international e-research projects

Agriculture / life sciences: Functional Genomics of Abiotic Stress

The FGAS project is studying responses of wheat and canola to cold weather with the aim of producing hardier plants, longer growing seasons and better quality crops. Advanced networking and e-research applications are critical. Researchers need methods for processing large quantities of data and performing genome analysis and results are shared across a number of Canadian universities.

http://www.genomeprairie.ca/abioticstress/

Archaeology: Digitising artefacts in the field for remote researchers

The Silchester Roman Town Virtual Research Environment collects large quantities of data during a six-week excavation period using portable digitisation hardware. Data is transferred via a wireless network to an online database that is made accessible to a range of subject experts around the UK who can discuss the data using an online conferencing system.

http://www.silchester.rdg.ac.uk/vre/

Astronomy: Charles Sturt University remote telescope

Students and teachers from primary and secondary schools in Australia and internationally can remotely access the telescope from their own classrooms and benefit from face-to-face communication with scientists through high-quality audio and video.

http://www.csu.edu.au/telescope/

Astronomy: Virtual Observatories

The International Virtual Observatory Alliance is creating a system for linking astronomical archives and databases from around the world, and integrating these with analysis tools and computational services. Twelve projects (including the Australia Virtual Observatory - http://avo.atnf.csiro.au) work together to develop common standards and infrastructures.

http://www.ivoa.net/

Astronomy: Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry

Very Long Baseline Interferometry data from the Huygens Space Probe were sent electronically over high capacity links from Australia, the US, China and other countries to the Netherlands. Data that were previously transported on hard drives can now be transferred and analysed in near-real-time. This successful transfer led to the submission of a proposal to the European Commission to connect 16 radiotelescopes around the world (with 3 in Australia) at gigabit speeds to the supercomputer at the Joint Institute for VLBI research in Europe (JIVE).

http://www.jive.nl

Biodiversity: Barcode of Life Database

DNA barcodes are short DNA sequence from an agreed genome position. International work is overseen by the consortium for the Barcoede of Life. The Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) developed by the University of Guelph offers researchers a way to collect, manage, and analyze DNA barcode data using an 'online workbench'.

http://www.boldsystems.org

Bio-informatics: Databases, services and applications through one site, Bio-Grid

Bio-Grid aims to integrate private and public genome databases, services and applications (e.g. micro-array analysis and sequence analysis) into a toolkit for a national community network of Canadian biologists and genomic researchers. The perceived benefits include collaboration between research teams located in different universities, sharing of bio-informatics resources and faster methods for processing genomic information.

http://www.teleinfo.uqam.ca:82/BioGrid/

Classics: Ancient Greek House Chatroom

Classics students at the University of Melbourne have access to an explorable, 3-d reconstruction of two fifth century B.C. Athenian houses. Students can explore the ancient houses, and interact with other students and staff who are online at the same time.

http://webraft.its.unimelb.edu.au/107134/pub/houses.html

Design: ARTGrid collaborative digital design and animation

ARTGrid is a software platform developed in Canada that enables artists to work collaboratively in teams to create a digital design. A research team then migrated this platform to a grid (consisting of resources from University of Quebec, Ryerson University in Toronto and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver) to meet the high-end computing needs of the designers.

http://www.teleinfo.uqam.ca/projets/artgrid/

Earth Sciences: Canadian and Taiwanese earthquake research collaboration

Canada and Taiwan have created a virtual laboratory with the capabilities of a larger-scale facility than the individual laboratories and used the laboratory to conduct the first transcontinental seismic test of components of a five-span bridge. Canada's CA*net 4 and Taiwan's TWAREN networks were used to linked facilities, computers and databases in real-time at three different structural laboratories in Canada and Taiwan for ground motion testing and earthquake simulation.

http://exp.ncree.org/dscft

Education: Health promotion using multi-player online games

ENJEUX-S is a bilingual pan-Canadian network of online learning games and simulations that lets multiple players play games together in real-time using voice-over-IP. Using a virtual repository of games and simulations developed as part of the Simulation and Advanced Gaming Environments (SAGE) for Learning, ENJEUX-S will focus on health promotion and education for students, teachers, health professionals, patients and community health workers.

http://www.savie.qc.ca/enjeux/ [note: website requires Shockwave player]

Environmental science: The Antarctic Lake Carbon Cycling project

A collaboration between the Australian Antarctic Division and Equator (part of the UK eScience programme) that involved setting up on Antarctic lakes monitoring devices that collect data and make them available remotely.

http://www.equator.ac.uk/index.php/articles/63

Environmental science: The Urban Pollution Monitoring Project

Carbon monoxide readings are monitored using mobile sensors that incorporate GPS receivers and are small enough to be carried on a person or bicycle. Pollution data can be visualised on demand within 3D models of the city that are created from Ordnance Survey maps, aerial photographs and calculations of building heights.

http://www.equator.ac.uk/index.php/articles/563

Health and medicine: Virtual environments for surgical training

CSIRO scientists have developed 3D environments for surgical trainees to practice procedures on virtual organs they can feel and manipulate. Two surgeons (e.g. an instructor and trainee) can work on the same model and can feel each others surgical instruments. An instructor can physically guide a students hands via the internet.

http://www.ict.csiro.au/page.php?did=24

Health and medicine: e-DIAMOND digital mammography

This multi-disciplinary project involves approximately 30-35 staff over 12 locations in the UK will create a database of digital mammograms. The project should reduce the rate of false-positive diagnosis and overcome problems created by inconsistent mammogram image formats and lost X-rays. Physicians will have access to analytical tools to help them better treat, and data-mining software will analyze stored mammograms and enable in-depth studies that can help to develop new forms of treatment.

http://www.ediamond.ox.ac.uk

Health and medicine: Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG)

This initiative aims to speed research discoveries and improve patient outcomes by linking researchers, physicians, and patients, and by building or adapting tools to collect, analyse, and share information associated with cancer research and care.

http://cabig.cancer.gov/index.asp

Health: The APEC Emerging Infections Diseases Network

Researchers from the University of Washington, the Australian Governmant Commonwealth Department of Health and the Epidemiology facility at the Australian Access Network use the the Access Grid for regular videoconferences about emerging infectious diseases.

http://depts.washington.edu/einet/about.html

Indigenous networks: Tribal Virtual Network

The University of New Mexico's Arts of the Americas Institute is using the Access Grid to work with a consortium of Native American communities to develop web-based exhibitions and databases, cultural and arts education programs in traditional languages for the tribal members; and cultural education programs for the public. The AG is used to conduct remote meetings, site visits, training sessions, educational events, and virtual tours.

http://www.unm.edu/~nasinfo/tvn/about.htm

Linguistics and ethnography: EthnoER

Ethnographic Eresearch (EthnoER) is a collaboration between a number of Australian universities that aims to create a system for annotating media online, especially video. The project will develop a methodology for collaborative research based on large digital media datasets, using advanced networks and large data repositories. One high-profile testbed project is Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC), which offers a facility for preserving endangered materials from the Pacific region, which is currently focusing on field tapes from the 1950s and 1960s.

http://ethnoer.unimelb.edu.au/ and http://paradisec.org.au/

Marine science: Coral Reef Environmental Observatory Network (CREON)

Scientists and engineers from around the world are trying to build sensor networks to remotely study coral reefs. Scientists will be able to view environments in real-time (e.g. see the ebbs and flows of reefs) and collect hundreds of data points on a reef simultaneously.

http://www.coralreefeon.org/

Marine science: Australian Ocean Data Centre Joint Facility (AODCJF) and BlueNet: Australian Marine Science Data Network

The AODCJF is a new venture between Australian Commonwealth agencies engaged in marine science. AODCJG will be a virtual data centre with web-based access, single sign-on, search tools, and real-time access to the data managed by these agencies. BlueNet will link universities into the network.

http://www.aodc.gov.au/ and http://www.bluenet.org.au/

Marine science: NEPTUNE, a Canadian underwater observatory

NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments) is a sea-floor observatory off the west coast of British Columbia and California. A network of scientific instruments, cameras and robotic devices at the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) lab sendslive data to universities and other laboratories across CA*net 4 (the Canadian equivalent of KAREN) for analysis of storms, plankton blooms, fish migrations, earthquakes, tsunamis, and underwater volcanic eruptions. Images, sounds and other data will also be used for public education.

http://www.venus.uvic.ca

http://www.neptunecanada.ca

Marine and atmospheric science: Hurricane prediction at NSURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) Program

SCOOP aims to provide information services and technologies that advance the sciences of prediction and hazard planning for US coastal populations. With a strong focus on data standards and interoperability, SCOOP enables coordinated observation and prediction of events such as hurricanes, tsunamis and climate change, and the dissemination of information from research professionals to planners and the general public.

http://scoop.sura.org/

Music: Virtual rehearsals

Through a high-quality video and audio link, the Australian composer Nigel Westlake (based at the University of Technology Sydney) was able to rehearse works with the New World Symphony (NWS) based in Miami Florida as though the musicians were in the same room. This is just one of a series of masterclasses, symposia and tutorials that NWS has run using advanced network technology.

http://www.nws.edu/AcademyInternet2.asp [note: videos require RealPlayer, which can be downloaded from the site]

Music: Canadian National Arts Centre

The National Arts Centre (NAC) uses Canada's advanced network to extend its public education programme through videoconferencing. Events have included a brass ensemble masterclass, a Music in Schools meeting with parents, youth and teachers, and a workshop on music resources offered by the NAC and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The NAC also offered videoconference sessions with Finland's Sibelius academy and conducted research work with Northwestern University in the US.

http://www.nac-cna.ca/en/multimedia/index.html

Music: The National Networked Facility for Research in Australian Music (NFRAM)

NFRAM provides a portal to hidden materials and resources related to Australian music. Researchers can submit details of website, research projects and research collections, and communicate with colleagues using a chatroom (under development). The project is a collaboration of the National Library of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive, the Australian Music Centre and three universities (ANU, Latrobe and Monash).

http://nfram.anu.edu.au

Music: Remote piano lessons in real time with MusicPath

MusicPath connects digital pianos through advanced networks like KAREN. A single pianist can play several pianos at once in real-time, assisted by videoconferencing. The program was designed to link musicians in rural areas of Canada with expert instructors.

http://musicpath.acadiau.ca/

Sciences: Australian Synchrotron

New Zealand synchrotron scientists currently travel to the northern hemisphere for beamtime but this will change with the development of the Australian Synchrotron (available in 2007). This will also boost for regional collaboration through reciprocal access arrangements with lower energy synchrotrons in Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan, which are better suited to ultraviolet and soft x-ray part of the spectrum.

http://www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au

Sciences: Canada National Microelectronics and Photonics Testing Collaboratory.

The Collaboratory consists of test laboratories at four different universities (Toronto, McGill, Queen's and Manitoba) where there is expertise in specific areas of digital systems, mixed signal systems, photonic systems and RF systems. The test labs make sophisticated test and measurement instrumentation available to more than 2300 researchers at twenty Canadian universities through both remote and on-site access.

http://www.ece.queensu.ca/directory/laboratories/lightwavelab/researchfacilities.html

Various disciplines: educational video content via Research Channel

ResearchChannel is a consortium of the world's leading research institutions and organizations whose common goal is to distribute research information to the public. AARNET (the Australian equivalent of KAREN) is a member. ResearchChannel hosts more than 3,000 full-length programs, which are delivered on demand through a live webstream.

http://www.researchchannel.org

Various disciplines: AARNet Mirror

In Australia, AARNet provides a single site for downloading large objects such as widely used software files. This serves more than 5,000GB of data per month, saving international capacity and providing superior performance.

http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au