1. The Coast-to-Coast Seminar and Remote Mathematical Collaboration Jonathan Borwein, David Langstroth, Mason Macklem, and Scott Wilson D-Drive, Dalhousie University Veselin Jungic IRMACS, Simon Fraser University

2. Outline Describe Coast-to-Coast (or C2C) Seminar series Describe Coast-to-Coast (or C2C) Seminar series Discuss origin and development Discuss origin and development Discuss benefits of remote seminar series Discuss benefits of remote seminar series Detail additional upcoming seminars Detail additional upcoming seminars

3. C2C Seminar Structure: Structure: – 1-hour presentation – Held every two weeks – Alternating origin: East Coast/West Coast – Attendance through a number of remote sites located at various universities Steadily increasing number of participating universities! Steadily increasing number of participating universities! – Wide range of Mathematical and Computational topics, intended for a broad mathematical audience – Speakers physically located at their local university, simulcast via AccessGrid to all remote locations

4. C2C Seminar: History Starting Point: Starting Point: – CoLab (Simon Fraser University): Designed to experiment with communicating mathematics in an interactive environment Further Developments: Further Developments: – WestGrid: Shared computing resources between Western Canadian universities – IRMACS: New ambitious research institute at SFU – D-DRIVE: CoLab-style research lab at Dalhousie University (Halifax, East-Coast of Canada)

5. SFU: CoLab (Collaborative Lab) 4 tiled touch-sensitive monitors

6. WestGrid Stations Shared computing resources between Universities throughout Western Canada Goal: One ‘GridRoom’ (CoLab-style room) per university, to enable “in-person” collaboration between universities!

7. IRMACS: Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences

8. D-Drive: Dalhousie Distributed Research Institute and Virtual Environment

9. C2C Original Test Locations “Connected” IRMACS (SFU) and D-Drive (Dalhousie)

10. C2C Locations: 2006-2007 14 Different Universities “connected”!

11. C2C Seminar: Past Talks Learning Infrastructure and Content Authoring Learning Infrastructure and Content Authoring – Ron Fitzgerald (President, Math Resources, Inc., Halifax) Computational Biology of Plants Computational Biology of Plants – Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz (Computer Science, University of Calgary) Solving Checkers Solving Checkers – Jonathan Schaeffer (Computing Science, University of Alberta) The Inverse Protein Folding Problem The Inverse Protein Folding Problem – Arvind Gupta (Computing Science, Simon Fraser University) The Riemann Hypothesis The Riemann Hypothesis – Peter Borwein (Executive Director, IRMACS, Simon Fraser University) Learning Strategies for Underachievers in Mathematics Learning Strategies for Underachievers in Mathematics – Sherry Mantyka (Director, Mathematics Learning Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland) Mathematical Visualization and Other Learning Tools Mathematical Visualization and Other Learning Tools – Jonathan Borwein (D-Drive Director, Computing Science, Dalhousie University)

12. C2C Sample Presentation: From D-Drive Presenter VideoPresentation Video Remote Audience Video

13. Camera Placement: Audience View of audience from behind camera

14. Camera Placement: Presenter Back-left of labBack-right of lab

15. Technician’s Desk: D-Drive Local technicians at all sites in contact via messaging software

16. C2C Sample Presentation: From IRMACS Local PresentationRemote Presentation Presentation Slides SpeakerRemote Audience Local Camera Placement

17. Additional Layout: IRMACS Technician’s Desk Presentation Camera

18. Minimum Requirements for Participation Webcam Webcam Microphone (for questions) Microphone (for questions) AccessGrid (software for audio and video) AccessGrid (software for audio and video) Local Technician (best-case scenario) Local Technician (best-case scenario) Participants can attend (or even present) from their own office! Participants can attend (or even present) from their own office!

19. Technical and Organizational Details Two recent publications outlining process of technical requirements and organizational lessons learned: Two recent publications outlining process of technical requirements and organizational lessons learned: – Borwein, Jungic, Langstroth, Macklem and Wilson, “The Coast- to-Coast Seminar”, Communicating Mathematics in the Digital Era, AK Peters, 2007 – Borwein, Jungic, Langstroth, Macklem and Wilson, “The C2C Seminar: Five Years of Experience with the AccessGrid”, High Performance Computing Symposium 2007 Preprints for both are available in the D-Drive DocServer: Preprints for both are available in the D-Drive DocServer: http://docserver.cs.dal.ca

20. International Collaborations Halifax: North America, South America, Western Europe and Africa Within 5-hours! Vancouver: North America, South America, Japan, Australia All same-business-day!

21. How To Join! Contact David Langstroth dll@cs.dal.ca or Veselin Jungic vjungic@sfu.ca for more details!

22. Acknowledgments ACEnet, WestGrid, CFI, CANARIE ACEnet, WestGrid, CFI, CANARIE IRMACS, D-Drive IRMACS, D-Drive Canada Research Chair programme, NSERC, Killam Trusts Canada Research Chair programme, NSERC, Killam Trusts All participating universities All participating universities All of the C2C speakers All of the C2C speakers