National Computational Science Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance From Chautauquas to Cyberarts: An Access Grid User Perspective Jennifer Teig von Hoffman Boston University Alliance All Hands Meeting May 25, 2001

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Overview Overview of AG-based events at Boston University Successes Challenges Wish List

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance AG-Based Events at BU Five PACS Alliance Chautauquas – the first major exercise in AG deployment, as well as an Alliance outreach event –1999: University of New Mexico; University of Kentucky; Boston University –2000: OSC; University of Kansas

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance AG-Based Events at BU (2) PACS Training events –Asynchronous MPI course focus group –PETSc workshop –MPI workshop Other Alliance-sponsored workshops and lectures –Globus workshop by Argonne National Laboratory –Lecture series by ACCESS-DC –Lecture series by University of Kentucky –Paradyn/Condor Days from University of Wisconsin

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance AG-Based Events at BU (3) Remote collaboration by organizations within and outside of the Alliance (partial listing) –Alliance Chemical Engineering Team –Alliance Czars –Boston University Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable –Distributed Rap Sessions, sponsored by Coalition to Diversify Computing –EOT NSF site review –Institute for African-American E-Culture –PACS –SC Global planning group

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance AG-Based Events at BU (4) Boston Cyberarts Festival –“Soft, Fluffy, and Virtual,” in collaboration with Cindy Ludlam –“Tracer,” in collaboration with Deborah and Richard Cornell

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Successes Enabled many interactions which would not have been likely (or possible) without remote collaboration technology –Boston University Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable benefited from OSC and ANL presentations –Distributed Rap Sessions –PACS Training workshops

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Successes (2) Good feedback and evaluations from event participants –BU Participation in Chautauqua 2000 at KU –85% of respondents said they would participate from an AG site again; the remainder said they “probably” would –PACS Training PETSC workshop –“The AG was almost like being there.” –PACS Training MPI workshop –Workshop: 4.64 out of 5; technology: 4.65 out of 5 –Evaluation summary:

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Successes (3) 400+ local participants; 900+ remote Demonstrations as Alliance outreach, and to encourage further AG deployment –Local: More than 100 participants –Including representatives of Charles University (Prague), Harvard, MIT, Northern Crossroads (NoX), SGI, Society for Minority Engineers, SARA –Remote: More than 400 participants

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Challenges Day-to-day scheduling and meeting administration –At the sites, communications often suffer between meeting planners and node managers/operators –Communications breakdowns certainly happen in planning face-to-face meetings too; using remote collaboration technologies simply introduces additional necessary preparations (at this stage of the tech)

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Challenges (2) Human Factors not yet sufficiently addressed or understood –Bridging in other technologies brings this to light (i.e. H.323, immersive visualization environments)

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Wish List More resources available for development and support (not necessarily all under one roof – remember, the AG is an open-source project) –Need better frame rate on video streams –Need to more fully address question of H.323 bridge –Need improvement of Distributed PowerPoint –Need more “help desk” support –Need more documentation and training materials –Need more scientific visualization tools –Need more desktop sharing tools

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance Wish List (2) IP multicast fully debugged everywhere –End the need for the Multi-Session Bridge (multicast-unicast) –Improve bandwidth efficiency –Improve ease-of-use for node operators

Boston UniversityNational Computational Science Alliance... And a few URLs Access Grid Conference Facility at Boston University Access Grid Documentation Project