First Brazil … then the world!

Parabéns! (congratulations!), to the Science Studio team for beating other platforms from around the world to be chosen as the remote experiment-management platform for Brazil’s national synchrotron.

Science Studio, led by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, is a CANARIE-funded Network-Enabled Platforms project. Science Studio is already in use at Canada’s national synchrotron facility, the Canadian Light Source, in Saskatoon. The Brazilian synchrotron will also deploy the underlying software used by the Canadian Light Source, and will continue to collaborate with Canadian researchers.

Looks like Australia’s next …

The Science Studio team also deserves a big “good on-ya” after impressing researchers in Australia with this innovative platform during a visit to Australia in 2010 to provide an overview and remote demonstration. Given Australia’s vast geography and dispersed population (much like Canada’s) there was great interest from scientists who attended the sessions in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Discussions are underway about the potential to adopt the Science Studio platform Down Under.

As if global recognition of excellence wasn’t enough, IBM has also given a resounding vote of confidence to the Science Studio platform. IBM is providing a $2.5M contribution to the Brockhouse beamline at the Canadian Light Source, and has specified that Science Studio software be installed at the end station.

Science Studio supports timely scientific research in fields such as metallurgy, materials science and geochemistry, permitting new insight into the effects of chemical and mechanical stresses on materials. It enables rapid bio-and-geochemical assessment of chemical elements and crystal structures in mine wastes, contaminated soils, and deposits in waterways to understand how our biosphere is changing over time. Lastly, it eliminates travel costs, greatly reduces wait times for use of research facilities, and leverages Canada’s investment in “Big Science” facilities like the synchrotron.

More information on Science Studio may be found at sciencestudioproject.com.

Users’ Forum Participants: Your Message Was Heard!

More than 80 passionate voices calling for an integrated Canadian digital infrastructure came together at the CANARIE Users’ Forum, held in Toronto in late November.

Consensus on the need to move forward with a vision and a plan for implementing an integrated digital infrastructure in Canada was pervasive. One group described the movement to consensus as “viral.” The group clearly gave a mandate to CANARIE and its sister organization Compute Canada to proceed – and to do so quickly.

Following the Users’ Forum, CANARIE and Compute Canada initiated discussions aimed at building a stronger partnership designed to ensure that High Performance Computing and High Performance Networking are recognized and supported as infrastructure fundamental to research and innovation.

Both organizations serve Canada’s research and education communities, support research excellence, and contribute to the ability of Canadians to do world-leading research. Recent meetings have explored how CANARIE and Compute Canada could work better together to create efficiencies, enrich services, and improve access and use of the infrastructures they design, implement and operate.

Participants at the Forum came from all 10 provinces and two territories, including representatives from industry, network organizations, computer consortia, university IT administrators, university research administrators, government and university researchers, and government funding agencies.

Quick Riffs on a Fast Network

Music students in Ottawa are taking their cue from world-renowned jazz masters through the National Arts Centre’s Manhattan on the Rideau program, which connects Canadian students to musician-mentors via live, high-quality videoconferencing powered by the CANARIE Network. This program, offered four times a year, provides an extraordinary learning experience to students from Humber College, University of Toronto and McGill University and their instructors from Manhattan School of Music.

But there’s a whole lot more music buzzing along those fibre optic cables, including almost weekly sessions with students and instructors at schools across Canada and the US. Maestro Pinchas Zukerman, Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, is a champion of the distance education program, lending his name, time and expertise to the Pinchas Zukerman Program at Manhattan School of Music. Violin students enrolled in this program receive half of their instruction via videoconference with Zukerman, and half with instructors onsite at the school.

“Students and teachers often tell me that they find the technology quickly disappears, leaving just the interaction between students, their mentors, and of course the music,” says Zukerman. “This isn't TV; it's live, it's high-fidelity and it's completely interactive.”

All of these initiatives are part of the National Arts Centre’s Hexagon Project, which applies next-generation networks to deliver interactive outreach education programs. “The CANARIE Network’s national and international scope, high bandwidth and low latency were recognized early as a way for us to realize our national mandate,” says Maurizio Ortolani, Producer, New Media at the National Arts Centre. “The quality of the participants and scope of our programs are a testament to how digital technologies are transforming and enriching arts education.”

On February 8, CANARIE hosted a reception and welcomed Industry Minister Tony Clement and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson to the first session of this year’s Manhattan on the Rideau program. Wycliffe Gordon, acclaimed jazz trombonist and former member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, mentored three students over the course of the two-hour masterclass. The next Manhattan on the Rideau session is scheduled for April 5, with instructor Jamie Baum, saxophone player and flautist.

CANARIE helps tech firms soar with DAIR

CANARIE’s Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research – DAIR – was recently launched as a research-and-development environment to support small and medium-sized companies in creating and demonstrating new, complex, large-scale products.

Slated to be operational in late March 2011, the environment will also appeal to ICT researchers investigating next-generation Internet technologies. The aim of the DAIR Program – initially a pilot program – is to significantly reduce the time required to develop and verify new products and ideas particularly in large scale.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, this research and development environment removes the need to develop a sophisticated – and costly – product development and test environment, freeing up capital, space, power and people resources to focus on product innovation and testing.

DAIR will add additional computing and storage resources to the existing CANARIE national network and make these resources available through the provincial networks (Optical Regional Advanced Networks, or ORANs).

It will also provide additional network access mechanisms to allow users more flexible ways to access the R & D environment including WiFi, Macro Cellular and virtual private networks (VPNs) over the internet.

More information on DAIR may be found on the CANARIE website. CANARIE will begin accepting applications to use DAIR in early March.

Stay tuned!

CANARIE Project Leader Honoured

Congratulations to Professor Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa of the University of Alberta, Principal Investigator on the CANARIE GeoChronos project. He has been chosen by the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation (ASTech) as a 2010 Honouree. Professor Sanchez-Azofeifa was selected for his breakthrough innovation, Enviro-Net, which uses ground-based wireless sensor networks for continuous observations of ecosystems.

Researchers around the world now have access to a vast amount of previously inaccessible environmental information that relates to the impacts of climate change in subarctic, boreal and tropical environments.

Disasters Are Unpredictable …
Effective Disaster Response Isn’t

The recent massive flooding in Australia shows how quick and effective response to disasters can literally mean the difference between life and death.

The CANARIE-funded Disaster Response Network Enabled Platform team has created a suite of software tools to evaluate risk, response and recovery strategies in disaster situations. To help increase Canada’s capability to respond to natural and manmade threats and to extend Canadian expertise, the team is collaborating with international experts. Disasters and emergencies are complex problems and do not have a predictable pattern, so studying cases from several parts of the world enhances overall preparedness, response and recovery capabilities.

The Canadian team, led by Dr. Jose Marti at the University of British Columbia, is working with partners in Italy to strengthen both countries’ systems. The Canadian tool incorporates human decision-making factors, together with physical infrastructure interdependencies. The Italian tool aims to integrate weather forecasting, climate and seismic data assessment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications, and domain-specific simulators (i.e., power systems, rail transportation and telecommunications).

Integration and coordination of disaster recovery activities with experts away from the disaster zone can result in better decisions. And in such high-stress environments, robust digital infrastructure and sophisticated software tools play a key role in coordinating effective disaster response.

By integrating complementary elements in the two systems, both teams strengthen their simulation and modelling tools, and take the first steps towards an internationally integrated disaster-simulation network that can support disaster sites from remote locations and better support the delivery of rapid and effective aid to people in desperate situations.

The Canadian team will soon be working with partners in Chile, Thailand, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago.

R U Ready 4 IPv6? We R!

IPv6 is the future standard for all network operations. Full IPv6 functionality supports global connectivity to digital leaders such as China, India and South Korea, and enables better performance when accessing IPv6 commercial content.

CANARIE and the provincial networks are demonstrating strategic and technical leadership in evolving Canada’s research and education networks to the IPv6 platform.

CANARIE support for the transition to IPv6 includes direct funding of transition activities and a robust training program. The IPv6 Working Group, launched in 2010, focuses on sharing detailed deployment plans, technical expertise and lessons learned. Bolstering this group is a series of ten training webinars organized by CANARIE, to be delivered to technical staff from the provincial networks and universities across the country.

These training sessions focus on concrete, deployment-oriented issues and strategies, and will be recorded and archived for ongoing reference.

What's on the Calendar?

CANARIE will be participating in the following events over the next few months:

IPv6 Workshop
Clemson, SC
February 2 – 4, 2011 http://www.internet2.edu/workshops/ipv6/

GLIF Technical Working Group
HongKong
February 21 – 25, 2011
http://www.glif.is/list-archives/controlplane/msg00002.html

ORION R & E Summit
Toronto, MaRS Centre
April 18 – 19, 2011
http://www.orion.on.ca/summit.html

CANARIE Tweets — It’s a Natural!

You can now follow CANARIE on Twitter at CANARIE_Inc. and on Facebook at CANARIE Inc., for the most up-to-date news and examples of how Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network enables educators, researchers and innovators to transform how Canadians learn, discover and invent.

All you "tweeters" out there might want to know that Minister Clement is a regular user of Twitter. Why don’t you let him know what you’re doing on the CANARIE Network?

Calling All Digital Innovators!

Have we got the blog for you! Announcing Digital Innovators, the official blog of Canada’s advanced network alliance (that’s CANARIE and the twelve provincial and territorial advanced networks). Here’s your chance to join the conversation and be part of a community of advanced network users, developers, visionaries and champions.

Be sure to bookmark www.digitalinnovators.wordpress.com

New Faces at CANARIE

With all of the new programs and initiatives announced by CANARIE over the past few months, it’s no surprise that we have added some human resources to support our digital resources.

Cindy McCabe has joined CANARIE as Director of Finance, and Wynn Anne Sibbald has joined CANARIE as Manager, Communications.

James Sutton joins CANARIE as Manager, Project Administration, replacing Julie Totten who is on maternity leave.

Eric Bernier, Senior Director, Network Architecture and Services at CANARIE, has taken paternity leave to enjoy time with his newborn son. Eric will return to CANARIE in April 2011.

News we can use?

Please forward newsworthy items or feedback on the content or format of this newsletter, to Kathryn.Anthonisen@canarie.ca.