CENIC News

The last time networks revolutionized society, universities as early adopters played the role of pioneers during the founding and early days of the Internet. The Internet of course grew out of academia and was initially focused on facilitating science and research. During the evolution of the Internet, colleges and universities began using e-mail routinely long before corporations and individuals did so.

Now, I believe we are again at the tip of an era where networks will once again be the engines of change. The interest in and in some cases mandate to reduce carbon emissions in combination with budgetary constraints on expenditures like travel and infrastructure development are creating opportunities to exploit the kind of high-performance, advanced networks currently available to education and research entities. Global sustainability and budget concerns are both after all about the same thing: the thrifty use of resources. In both cases, we must imagine and build a more efficient infrastructure and leverage that infrastructure to benefit the maximum number of people.

Cloud computing, virtualized servers, and similar technologies create opportunities for more efficient use of power. Use of these technologies can therefore significantly reduce power consumption and carbon footprints and costs. Of course, such technologies must be developed and made available for use by means of reliable, high-bandwidth networks, which means that such networks will become an even more vital part of our global infrastructure.

Adding to the trend toward using networks to help address budget and energy efficiency goals are opportunities to place shared compute and storage resources at locations where power is not only inexpensive but more "green," dependent upon hydroelectricity or geothermal energy for example, and perhaps in moderate-to-cold climates where less cooling and hence less power is required. Once again, without high-bandwidth networks, such a dream to leverage the most efficient compute and storage resources literally worldwide would remain only a dream.

And as with e-mail several decades ago, the research and educational community has greater access to such networks, including regional networks such as CENIC's CalREN and national networks such as Internet2's and NLR's. In fact, researchers and educators have been creating and using such networks for over a decade.

The high-capacity, relatively inexpensive, networks available to the research and education community are empowering the development of technologies that cut both cost and carbon, and they will be crucial to making those technologies available to the largest number of people. This suggests to me that once again, research and education will be out in front as our energy-hungry compute and compute-related activities evolve into less expensive and more "green" shared facilities more quickly than will the typical industry. Our community will once again be at the forefront of a new era in technology delivery. Let's check back in five or so years and see if I'm right.

In addition to the five upgraded circuits for California's K-12 System listed in the past issue of CENIC Today, the month of February saw the following circuits upgraded to Gigabit speeds: Lake County Office of Education to the CalREN backbone node site at Oakland, Napa Valley Unified School District to Solano COE, Amador COE to Calaveras COE, and Calaveras COE to Tuolumne COE.

Provisioning and related site preparation activities are continuing in preparation for the next group of Gigabit connections for California's Community Colleges.

On February 26, luminaries from the world of orthopaedics came together from UCLA, the College of Southern Nevada, Brown University, and the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas thanks to high-quality videoconferencing over CalREN and controlled by the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Under discussion was the topic of nanotechnology, how it has improved orthopaedic research and treatment, and where the most promising paths to the future lie when these two arenas of research mingle to their mutual benefit.

Gerald Finerman, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA's Geffen Medical School acted as moderator. He, Bjorn Rydevik of the University of Gothenburg and SIROT President, Jeffrey Wang of the UCLA Comprehensive Spine Center, and Lawrence Lenke of Washington University and President-Elect of the Scoliosis Research Society participated from the College of Southern Nevada's Cheyenne Campus. Joining them from UCLA's California Nanosystems Institute was André Nel, Professor and Chief of Nanomedicine at UCLA, Thomas Webster, Professor of Engineering from Brown University, and the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas in Mexico.

After Dr. Finerman's opening remarks, he introduced Bjorn Rydevik, whose presentation (dedicated to his mentor and spine research pioneer Alf Nachemson) covered the high points of past 75 years of spine research, beginning with the famous 1934 study on spinal disc herniation by Mixter and Barr. The presentation looked at the development of modern techniques such as minimally invasive surgery using lasers and endoscopy, and the advent of dynamic spinal reconstruction, where the spine can be treated and retain a wide range of motion, as opposed to more traditional techniques that may fuse it into a single entity. Nanofabricated surfaces were discussed as a significant advance in spinal research and treatment, improving implant fixation greatly and speeding recovery times. Dr. Rydevik's talk concluded with an invitation to interested parties to attend the upcoming SICOT/SIROT Conference to be held in 2010 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The next presentation, focused specifically on nanomedicine, was given by André Nel from the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA. In his presentation, Dr. Nel began with a valuable definition of nanotechnology: that which exploits the sometimes radically changing behaviors of materials at very small scales. Most traditional medicine (and indeed, science) is centered on changing behavior by changing the chemical properties of a substance; however, changing the length scales of a given material can cause it to behave radically differently, especially related to the integration of implant materials into the body. Bone implant healing, the creation of scaffolding for tissue growth, tissue engineering, encapsulated drug delivery (known as nanopharmaceuticals) and more have all been greatly advanced by use of nanomaterials.

The following two talks concentrated on current spine research, with Dr. Wang's presentation centering on kinetic MRI technology, which allows for the imaging of the spine in non-recumbent, non-static positions quite different and often more revealing than those assumed in traditional MRIs. In his presentation, Dr. Wang revealed that many problems can be missed by traditional single-position recumbent MRI techniques; for example, stenosis and disc herniations can be underestimated by as much as 19% using recumbent MRI. New kinetic imaging techniques allow medical professionals to detect these problems by viewing the body in motion; however, these techniques can present new challenges since, as Dr. Wang phrased it, they permit doctors to "see more than [they] can understand." Particularly puzzling is the finding using new imaging techniques such as kinetic MRI that many people who present no pain or other symptoms are affected by disc herniations or similar problems that cause pain in others.

Dr. Webster's presentation focused on another use of nanotechnology in orthopaedic medicine: implants. Artificial knee, hip, and spine implants made of titanium are familiar to most people, and nanomaterials promise to be one of the single biggest advances in this technology. As Dr. Webster states, "The body itself is a nanomaterial; why not implant nanomaterials where we've been using micromaterials?" With the traditional titanium and new tantalum implants, creating surfaces that exhibit roughness at nanometer scales has allowed for huge improvements in the growth of new bone around an implant site and the implant's integration into the body, up to and including anti-bacterial properties that stave off infections, catastrophic for any bone implant. Dr. Webster's presentation put forth evidence that even many materials thought to have no particular anti-bacterial properties, such as the ubiquitous titanium, may become anti-bacterial when nanofabricated.

Anodization was also discussed as a "shortcut" to nanofabricated surfaces, and nanotechnology to improve the fixation of soft tissues like ligaments and tendons to orthopaedic implants was examined.

The Telehealth Video Resources Center (TVRC) at the Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) in Columbus, OH provided the network linkage that made the event possible.

Tomorrow is the last day of online registrations for the CENIC Annual Conference, RIDING THE WAVES OF INNOVATION, to be held next week at the Hilton Long Beach on March 9-11. If you've signed up to attend, you'll enjoy three days of presentations, demonstrations, meet-and-greets with the CENIC corporate sponsors listed below, addresses by prestigious Keynote Speakers Guru Parulkar and John Windhausen, and presentations by the winners of the 2009 Innovations in Networking awards.

This year's winners include:

Educational Applications: Alternate Endings

Alternate Endings is a high-definition comedy-mystery movie that allows its audience to choose the direction of the plot through one of 16 separate paths. The movie itself is streamed from the Trojan Vision television studios in the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts on the USC campus and is merged at the various decision points with remote hosts located elsewhere on campus at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, and sent via high-performance networks to remote audiences. Audience feedback is used to guide the characters' decisions. Characters' guilt, innocence, and even survival were determined by audience feedback.

Gigabit/Broadband Applications: Redwood Coast Connect

The exhaustive Redwood Coast Connect study was carried out by Redwood Coast Rural Action, a regional network of community leaders in partnership with the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), with the aim of providing broadband providers, telecommunications carriers, service providers, elected officials, and any other interested parties with precisely the kind of hard data on people, places, and technology needed to propose and implement effective solutions to the unique networking challenges facing the rugged and often heavily forested California Redwood coast.

Experimental/Developmental Applications: Project GreenLight

Researchers at Calit2 have initiated Project GreenLight to discover creative ways to ensure that the next generation of data centers supports a sustainable lifestyle and that the research sectors that use them are aware of the issues surrounding carbon-thrifty computing. Not only will the hardware and software itself be studied to determine how best they can be optimized, but the equally crucial factors of cooling and structural engineering will be studied in depth along with applications from a myriad of data-intensive disciplines. Project GreenLight will also analyze how best to share the insights that will result to enable as many other researchers to benefit from them as possible.

High-Performance Research Applications: iWarp-Based Remote Interactive Scientific Visualization

Sending frame after frame of high-definition video reliably from one place to another, possibly located on another continent, is enough of a challenge to merit its own recognition. When the individual on the far end of the fiber-optic cable expects to rotate, grow or shrink, and otherwise manipulate the video images in real time and experience no latency, that challenge becomes even more daunting. And yet this is precisely what Scott Friedman of UCLA's Office of Information Technology achieved with with iWarp-Based Remote Interactive Scientific Visualization. As part of the project, cluster-based high-performance interactive visualization resources are available to remote researchers by leveraging the latest high-speed wide-area networking technologies.

Monday's 11:00AM Keynote Address by Guru Parulkar will focus on the Clean Slate Design for the Internet project centered at Stanford University. Tuesday's Keynote Address by John Windhausen will focus on a "blueprint" for big broadband, the obstacles to achieving truly ubiquitous broadband penetration in the US, and how they might be overcome.

And of course, the CENIC Annual Conference would not be possible without the generous support of corporations who proudly stand as valued allies in bringing the benefits of high-performance networking to the Golden State.  We gratefully acknowledge the following corporate sponsors and encourage you to visit their booths at the conference:

• Titanium Sponsor: Cisco Systems
• Platinum Sponsors: AT&T and Juniper Networks
• Gold Sponsors: Brocade and Qwest Communications
• Silver Sponsor: Level3 Communications and Comcast

US & World Networking News:

NLR and members ABQG University of New Mexico and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) provided the ultra high-speed network linking a DreamWorks/Cerelink digital media studio in Rio Rancho with Hollywood. The demonstration, on February 17, showcased how large, 3D animation files can be created in New Mexico and delivered quickly, securely and reliably to Hollywood studios.

NLR provided a 1-Gigabit FrameNet circuit between the New Mexico and the Los Angeles points-of-presence (PoPs).

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson referred to the demonstration as a "major advance in digital media production."

Learn more ...

The Board of Directors of The Quilt, Inc. is pleased to announce the selection of Jen Leasure to serve as the organization's President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Leasure was appointed to the position of President and CEO by a unanimous vote of the Board on Thursday, January 29.

The Quilt, Inc., a coalition of 30 advanced regional network organizations, enters its second year as an independent organization. The Quilt provides a dynamic forum where leaders from the advanced research and education network community build on the intellectual capital and best practices of network service providers worldwide.

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah.

But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in rural Kern County to learn a different trade.

If you search the words "stimulus package" and "education," you'll find results for more than 14 million Web sites. Of course, most people don't scroll past the first or second page, but even then, you're digging through about 20 possible resources.

The resources linked to above and presented by Converge Magazine can help explain how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will affect education.

CANARIE, Canada's advanced network organization, is pleased to announce its intention to invest $3 million in a Green IT pilot program to demonstrate the technological feasibility and business advantages of an internationally distributed zero carbon cyber-infrastructure facility to be located in Canada.

The main objective of the pilot program is to develop and test possible business models that would measure and trade the carbon credits generated by reduced use of Green House Gas (GHG) producing non-renewable energy for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) activity.

This pilot project will be a collaborative research project undertaken by academia and industry.

More than 600 people turned out for the festive dedication of Sutardja Dai Hall — a 141,000-square foot, state-of-the-art building where the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Dado and Maria Banatao Institute@CITRIS Berkeley will be headquartered.

About CENIC and How to Change Your Subscription:

California's education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC's Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

CENIC is governed by its member institutions. Representatives from these institutions also donate expertise through their participation in various committees designed to ensure that CENIC is managed effectively and efficiently, and to support the continued evolution of the network as technology advances.

For more information, visit www.cenic.org.

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