Full HTML for

Basic foilset Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research

Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at Computer Science Seminar on August 27 1999. Foils prepared September 13 1999
Outside Index Summary of Material

Computing technology is changing rapidly with powerful Web and distributed object technology layered on pervasive communication links, enabling the construction of large scale systems. Industry moving at breakneck speed is driving much innovation.
  • There are several implications, some of which have broader significance than just changing research and course contents. We describe some of these including:
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.

Table of Contents for full HTML of Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research

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1 Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research
2 Abstract of FSU Presentation
3 Simplistic Object Web View
4 Basic Multi Tier architecture
5 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium
6 Traditional Computational Science
7 Conventional Computational Science
8 Information Track of Computational Science
9 Information Track of Computational Science
10 Beginnings of Internetics
11 Detailed Course Contents
12 What is Internetics ?
13 Internetics and Computational Science
14 Computational Science and Syracuse Degrees
15 Synergy of Parallel Computing and The Grid Internetics as Unifying Principle
16 Proposed Internetics Core Curriculum
17 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: K-12
18 Sample 1999 Java Academy Certificate
19 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Undergraduate
20 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Graduate
21 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Graduate Electives
22 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium
23 Impact of IT Worker Shortage on Physics and Engineering education
24 Internetics and Physics I
25 Internetics and Physics II
26 Internetics and Communicating Science
27 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium
28 Why use Distance Education?
29 Traditional Model of Instruction
30 Better Model of Instruction
31 New Enterprise Models for Universities?
32 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium
33 What is Web-based Collaboration?
34 Simplest Shared Object is Client Side Java Applet
35 Architecture of Tango Distance Education
36 Courses at Jackson State
37 NPAC is Popular with AltaVista .....
38 So putting these ideas together for Distance Education
39 Shared Simulations -- Fluid Flow and Planetary Motion
40 Applications of Web-based Collaboration
41 Shared Event Model of Collaboration?
42 So what do we have now--TangoInteractive
43 Next Generation TangoInteractive
44 A Collection of Shared Place Components
45 Shared XML Page Architecture
46 Applications of Shared XML Content Pages
47 XML and Universal Access I
48 XML and Universal Access II
49 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium
50 Portal View of invoking a program
51 Scientific Programming Environments
52 Commodity Software Approach to HPCC
53 HPcc as Multi-Tier Commodity Software Model
54 Proxy -- Proxy -- Backend Capability
55 Earthquake Science 3-Tier Computing Architecture
56 Gateway Architecture
57 WebFlow over Globus for NCSA Alliance Quantum Chemistry Application View
58 WebFlow on Globus -- LMS at CEWES
59 Example of a custom Web User Interface (Portal) Land Management System
60 XML for GEM (Earthquake Prediction) Community?
61 ScienceML
62 Objects defined by XML Interfaces but instantiated in CORBA or Java
63 WebFlow in Gateway
64 Gateway Programming Model
65 What have we gained from all this?
66 Why and What could one Do?

Outside Index Summary of Material

HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 1 Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Presentation at Florida State University Aug 27 99
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/fsuaugust99
Geoffrey Fox
Syracuse University NPAC
111 College Place Syracuse NY 13244 4100
3154432163
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 2 Abstract of FSU Presentation

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Computing technology is changing rapidly with powerful Web and distributed object technology layered on pervasive communication links, enabling the construction of large scale systems. Industry moving at breakneck speed is driving much innovation.
  • There are several implications, some of which have broader significance than just changing research and course contents. We describe some of these including:
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 3 Simplistic Object Web View

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
The Object Web Signifies the merger of Distributed Object and Web technologies
The Pragmatic Object Web asks us to take the best of CORBA (Industry Standard) COM (Microsoft PC Standard) Java (Web Software Infrastructure) and W3C (XML)
An "object" is an entity that can be
  • registered, addressed, located
  • has properties and methods
The most common object is a Web Page and the richest available object model is the Web Document Object Model or DOM
  • JavaScript is language to manipulate this DOM
  • Web Browsers render this object
  • Web Servers broker this object
Computers, Computer programs, databases, networked instruments are other objects but these are all viewed through a web page ......
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 4 Basic Multi Tier architecture

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Objects (at "logical backend") can be on client of course
Front end can define a generic (proxy for a) object. The middle control tier brokers a particular instantiation
Broker or Server
XML
Result
XML Query
Rendering Engine
Browser
Rendering Engine
HTML
Universal Interfaces
IDL or Templates
XML Request for service
followed by return of XML result
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 5 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 6 Traditional Computational Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
1991
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 7 Conventional Computational Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
At Syracuse built around a two course sequence and associated application, computer science and math courses
CPS615: Introduction to Computational Science
  • Technology and its projection, Computer Architecture, Application Motivation, Performance Analysis, Programming Models, MPI, (F90, HPF), (Java for Science)
  • and practical algorithms such as: particle dynamics, PDE's with CFD as example, Random numbers, Monte Carlo
CPS713: Case Studies in Computational Science
  • Detailed studies of 3 areas such as Numerical Relativity, Optimization, Computer Graphics, Condensed Matter, Experimental Physics Data analysis
These form 2 course certificate in simulation track of computational science
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 8 Information Track of Computational Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
1995
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 9 Information Track of Computational Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Grew at Syracuse into 4 Core Courses offered as a certificate now called Internetics
  • earlier version (1997) "Internet Applications Development" offered over summer to local industry added introduction to object oriented programming and subset of courses below
  • http://www.webwisdom.org
CPS406(undergraduate)/606(graduate) Introduction to Web Technologies
CPS616 Core Web and Distributed Object Technologies
CPS640 Internet Infrastructure
CPS714 Advanced Topics and Case Studies in Internetics
Graduate
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 10 Beginnings of Internetics

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Spring 1995 --- first "special topics" course in web technologies
Spring 1996 -- first Undergraduate Java and web technology course (will become CPS606) and first official CPS616/714 courses
Spring, 1996 --- Undergraduate course (spanning Java and MPI) offered from Syracuse University to Harbin Institute of Technology in China by Xiaoming Li and Fox
  • Material translated into Chinese by Harbin and this course originates Internetics concept
Spring 1997 -- First offering of CPS640 Internet Systems
Spring, 1998 --- A graduate course in Internetics at Peking University by Prof. Xiaoming Li and International Collaborative Web University proposed by Li and Fox
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 11 Detailed Course Contents

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
CPS406/606: CGI, Java, Introduction to CORBA/RMI/JDBC
CPS616: More on CORBA/RMI/JDBC; Database discussion as necessary; Advanced Java (Servlets, Javabeans, Enterprise Javabeans, Frameworks); Security; Introduction to XML; JavaScript and Dynamic HTML; in the past VRML and Perl
CPS640: Network and Internet Service Architecture; Quality of Service; Multimedia Servers; Compression technology
CPS714: Whatever is important this semester done as a projects course; XML (for scientific information and to build PSE's); Distributed Computing using CORBA/Web; Java Grande; Advanced Security; How to build a Portal; Collaboration; Electronic Commerce; High performance Web Servers; Latest W3C Initiatives
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 12 What is Internetics ?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Emerging field centered on technologies services and applications enabling and enabled by world wide communication and computing grids
The contents come from Computer Communication and Information science fields but with an applied flavor so forms critical knowledge needed by many application fields such as scientific computing, telemedicine, electronic commerce, digital journalism and education
Students with an interdisciplinary background will be encouraged
The applied focus with many totally new and rapidly evolving technologies makes Internetics unique
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 13 Internetics and Computational Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Computational Science is Interdisciplinary field in between Computer Science and "large scale Scientific and Engineering simulation-based" applications
  • Academic fields: Aerospace engineering, physics etc.
Internetics is Interdisciplinary field between CS and Both Simulation and Information-based applications
  • Bioinformatics, Public Communication ...
  • As information applications dominate commercial world, internetics has an information flavor (analysis of physics data is an "information" application; QCD Monte Carlo is a simulation application)
Enrollment in Classic Computational Science at Syracuse has dropped from 50 to 10 (per year); enrollment in Internetics has risen from 6 to 120 per semester (95-99)
Current Internetics Curriculum starts with High School Java Academy;undergraduate and graduate programs, through the four course continuing education certificate
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 14 Computational Science and Syracuse Degrees

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Essentially nobody is interested in the available (computational science) named certificates and Masters degrees
Unfortunately students outside computer science are mainly interested in a masters in computer science as this is known to be a "Ticket to a Green Card".
  • Students enroll in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and take the CS Masters "on the side". They then leave .....
Many students do attend the courses and the Computer Science PhD students like the Computational Science PhD written qualifying exam ( you must take and pass 3 exams in areas such as algorithms, AI, operating systems/architecture, logic )
Computational Science is an allowed exam area and students chose one of the two tracks
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 15 Synergy of Parallel Computing and The Grid Internetics as Unifying Principle

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
The two forms of Large Scale Computing Scale Computer for Scale Users in Proportion Power User to number of computers
Parallel Distributed Information Systems Computers Computational Grids
<--------------- Internetics Technologies --------------->
1% market
99% of market
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 16 Proposed Internetics Core Curriculum

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Developed at K-12, Undergraduate and Graduate level by Li and Fox and some of this material developed and offered at Syracuse and Peking.
Proposed collaboration to offer between universities in USA China and England fall 99 failed due to conflicts in semester timing and natural "size" of course
Graduate level similar to Syracuse courses
Note here K-12 offering
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 17 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: K-12

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
K-12 is in practice Middle and High School Students
These 2 courses must be passed to obtain Certificate
  • Introduction to the Web (Not offered by NPAC)
  • Introduction to Programming using Java (assumes no programming experience)
Latter implemented as NPAC's Java Academy at http://www.npac.syr.edu/projects/k12javaspring98/ while
the 1999 version was offered using TangoInteractive to students at Boston, Houston, Starkville and Syracuse http://www.npac.syr.edu/projects/k12javaspring99/
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 18 Sample 1999 Java Academy Certificate

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 19 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Undergraduate

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
These 4 courses must be passed to obtain Certificate
  • Introduction to Internetics
  • Basic Web Technologies
  • Infrastructures
  • Basic Services and Applications (including introduction to high performance computing)
Some combination of first two offered at Syracuse each year
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 20 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Graduate

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Graduate and Continuing Education have same curriculum with 4 core and 2 electives needed for certificate
Core Courses (total 4 courses)
(There will also be a "booster course" offered to students who have taken the Undergraduate certificate so they can "place out" of graduate core course)
  • Introduction to Internetics (Peking)
  • Basic Web Technologies including Java (roughly CPS 606)
  • Infrastructure including Networking (roughly CPS 640)
  • Basic Services including Security, Servers, JDBC and Web-Databases (roughly CPS 616)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 21 Internetics Certificate Curriculum: Graduate Electives

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Need to take 2 electives chosen from:
Computer Science Electives
  • Advanced Technologies e.g. VRML, advanced Java
  • Advanced Services Multimedia, Collaboration
  • Distributed Computing Technologies
  • Distributed Objects and Components
  • High Performance and parallelism from Compilers to Web Servers
Application Electives:
  • Education and Information Systems
  • Commerce
  • Computation and Visualization I and II e.g. Computational Science, including Datamining, distributed simulation, metacomputing
  • Computational Physics or Aerospace Engineering including advanced mathematical methods
  • (This has analogies in other Engineering fields, Chemistry etc.)
Roughly CPS714
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 22 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 23 Impact of IT Worker Shortage on Physics and Engineering education

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
So depending on the source, one finds a shortage of 100,000 to 300,000 workers in Information Technology today -- this is forecast to grow with 1 million more jobs created by industry by year 2004
So physics and "physical technology" aspects of engineering (e.g. aerospace engineering) could compete with this trend and try to attract good students from this field
My suggested alternative is to note that IT work typically requires the technical and problem solving skills abilities associated with physics or engineering and often NOT taught in Computer Science
Thus set up new curricula opportunities within the general IT educational arena that we call Internetics
  • IT minor with a basic physics/engineering education
  • Engineering/physics/math methods minor within an IT education
Note IT job opportunities are in applications -- perhaps more so than in "basic systems"
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 24 Internetics and Physics I

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Physics departments are facing problems in many Universities as the number of majors is dropping at both undergraduate and graduate level.
How do we re-invigorate physics with revised curricula?
Classical Computational Science appears not to be a complete answer but Internetics offers some interesting attractive academic programs combining computing and the "technical sciences"
  • IT minor with a basic physics/engineering education
  • Engineering/physics/math methods minor within an IT education
Physics is in many ways a BETTER educational background than computer science to today's major computer science challenge -- designing and building distributed systems
  • We can quite easily train people to program in Java but it is not so easy to design what should be programmed and how it fits together
  • Physics trains students to look at systems from a fundamental point of view and to analyze quantitatively
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 25 Internetics and Physics II

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
A combination of Physics and a minor in Internetics is an interesting background for many areas such as:
  • Systems Engineer designing global information systems
  • Experimental physicist designing new data analysis systems
  • K-12 science teacher
Further comparing "books" with the Web, we see that the Web offers opportunities for "technical people" as well as those with good "communication skills" (of a traditional kind)
  • Java applets combined with numerical algorithms or physics experimental instrument connected to Web may sometimes be more effective than streams of beautiful English words and nifty drawings
This implies a "Computational Science/Internetics" minor including base information technology and optional elective in "science communication" prepared by physics/engineering
  • At Syracuse, attractive as Newhouse School of Communications gets excellent students
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 26 Internetics and Communicating Science

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Proposed new Syracuse course Phy 300 aims to teach principles of ways presented by the Internet for communicating science and quantitative ideas to laymen as well as to technically trained people.
The course is designed for students with interests bridging science and communications: prospective science, journalism, and education majors.
It offers an introduction to the tools required to communicate using the internet, as well as case studies of successful and unsuccessful approaches to communicating science with this new medium. Includes concepts of information and scientific visualization
Students should be co-enrolled or have previously completed a calculus course, MAT 285 or MAT 295
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 27 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 28 Why use Distance Education?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New and rapidly changing Academic Curriculum suggest the use of distance education as it will allow a few experts to deliver instruction to more students and this
  • addresses shortage of trained faculty
  • cost of developing new curriculum QUICKLY requires many students to amortize cost
Assume future of all education and training is "web-based" (even if taught in conventional organization) and that base Web Technology supports self paced asynchronous learning
  • Database (linked to web) allow management and assessment
  • Synchronous(Interactive) and Project based learning enabled by Web Collaboration systems
Both delivery mechanism and identification of knowledge nuggets (such as Internetics or computational science) that are smaller than a traditional degree suggests different approaches to certification
  • Courses are given, graded etc. by multiple organizations -- University integrate degrees?
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 29 Traditional Model of Instruction

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Professors
Students
Common Shared Books and Such Resources
Done separately for each class at each university
Usually
Low
Quality
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 30 Better Model of Instruction

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Professor at HVU
(Houston Virtual University)
with team of authoring specialists in nearby boats
Outside
Students
(dominant clientele)
Common Shared Books Web based Lecture Material
and Similar Resources
Institutions focussing on particular disciplines, teach a given class
to Students from Universities which provide beds and mentors
Possible local Students
INTERNET
Classes are
given by
HVU
to students
around
the state
(world)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 31 New Enterprise Models for Universities?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Distance Education is technically sound -- both synchronously and asynchronously -- today with very robust clear implementations available over next 2 years
Separate teaching mentoring and dormitory role of University
Teaching and grading naturally performed by centers of excellence which need at least an order of magnitude more customers than a single faculty in order to be able to justify investment in course preparation and maintenance
Continuing Education of growing importance and natural area to attack first -- corporate training is serious competition here and commercial deliverers have advantage?
Not obvious that will save large amounts of money as students will need more not less mentoring in today's information-overrich world -- quality of educational experience will become more uniform and better
Unfortunately too many universities in North East -- easier to implement in South where student body growing faster?
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 32 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 33 What is Web-based Collaboration?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Collaboration means sharing objects
Web-based Collaboration implies use of Web to share distributed objects accessible through the Web
  • Shared Web Pages; Resources accessed through Web Servers or Brokers; Client-side applications with programmatic interfaces
Specify Page
Receive Identical Page
Web Site
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 34 Simplest Shared Object is Client Side Java Applet

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Web Pages are an example where there is a single copy of an object; perhaps simpler is the replicated object model used in chat-rooms and more generally shared applets where sharing is maintaining consistent state of replicas
Server Shares Events
Java Chat Rooms (applications or applets). Share text typed by users
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 35 Architecture of Tango Distance Education

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
NPAC Web Server
JSU Web Server
Java Tango Server
.......
Share URL's
Audio Video
Conferencing Chat Rooms
White Boards etc.
Address at JSU of Curriculum Page
Teacher's View of Curriculum Page
Student's View of Curriculum Page
Participants at JSU
Teacher/Lecturer at NPAC
.......
Java Sockets
HTTP
Java Control Clients
All Curricula placed on the Web
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 36 Courses at Jackson State

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Taught using Tango since fall 97 over Internet and defense high performance network DREN twice a week from Syracuse
  • Course material based on Syracuse Senior Undergraduate class CPS406(Web Technologies) and graduate classes CPS615/616(Base Computational science/Internetics)
  • Curricula, Homework, Grading, Facilities done by Syracuse
  • Students get JSU NOT Syracuse Credit
Jackson State major HBC University with many computer science graduates
Do not compete with base courses but offer addon courses with "leading edge" material (Web Technology, modern scientific computing) which give JSU (under)graduates skills that are important in their career
  • Job fair employers liked Java Programming!
Needs guaranteed 30 (audio) to 100 (video) kilobits per second bandwidth
  • Use a proxy server or mirror site
  • Actually get around one megabit/sec Syracuse to Jackson State
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 37 NPAC is Popular with AltaVista .....

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 38 So putting these ideas together for Distance Education

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
We have curricula authored in some fashion and placed on the Web -- it is shared by sharing specification of current Web Page
  • At simplest this is URL but also supported using JavaScript API and Shared Web Page Events are:
  • Shared Scrolling position
  • Shared Pointer as DHTML layer
We have shared client side C++ object -- the digital audio-video conferencing subsystem
We have several shared Java applets
  • One or more Chat rooms
  • Whiteboard
  • "Raised Hand" / Quiz applets for specialized teacher-student interactions
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 39 Shared Simulations -- Fluid Flow and Planetary Motion

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
These educational resources are
shared replicated client side objects
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 40 Applications of Web-based Collaboration

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Multi Player Games: Use Chat Rooms and digital VTC to establish context
  • Share Java, JavaScript, VRML etc. games
  • Tango has Card Games, Othello, Chess, Snakes and Ladders
Crisis Management: Again use general tools (including whiteboard) and add shared maps and multimedia situation reports
Command and Control: Military, Test and Evaluation -- any real time control of complex system
  • support distributed experts who can be on call remotely and shared object is visualization of test results
Collaborative Computing and Engineering: Here specialized shared objects are CAD, simulation and planning tools
Socializing .....
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 41 Shared Event Model of Collaboration?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
So if all clients want exactly same view at all times, then the "shared event" model is a waste.
Might as well, just share the display produced on originating client (cf. Microsoft NetMeeting)
In fact, shared event typically enables each client to get the same view but instead one shares the object but has different presentation layers on each client
For instance, share a single XML document but apply different style sheets on each client
Again in command and control, basic application is a 3D map (Geographical Information System) but not so interested clients can present a simple 2D view
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 42 So what do we have now--TangoInteractive

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
http://www.npac.syr.edu/tango
Largely Java system enabling collaboration between general client side objects
  • If client side object is a Server proxy, then this ruse enables sharing of server side objects
  • Has API for Java applet/application, C++, JavaScript
API Enables sharing of events in applications
  • This is just a fancy way of saying it forwards messages
API Enables applications to find out about participants
Currently ONLY deployed for Netscape version 4.5 as uses LiveConnect to connect JavaScript to Java
  • Internet Explorer version not fully debugged
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 43 Next Generation TangoInteractive

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
So let us imagine that we can redo all of this and assume that
  • There are plenty of conventional (HTML, XHTML) web pages but full support for XML and W3C DOM in browsers
  • XML can be used for control pages and specialized pages such as those produced by web-linked databases and education portals
Collaboration implies sharing of electronic objects and is needed in Asynchronous (most commonly used access to Web Pages) and Synchronous modes
Then we can integrate concept of portal with collaboration and use XML to define portal structure (curricula pages, quizzes, glossary etc.) and also allow one to define collaborative nature of each document component (who is in charge, how to synchronize etc.)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 44 A Collection of Shared Place Components

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
<placedef> <protocol> .... <groups> .... <place_acces> ...
. .
</placedef>
SPDL is XML language to define collaboration
Web browser
Regular content
Web page
Shared objects
So Web Page is defined as a set of Nodes
-- You choose which nodes (and their children)
that you wish to share and then events are exchanged
maintaining state consistency
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 45 Shared XML Page Architecture

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Content Server
Shared by next generation Tango
Events
Trapped by XML Shared Browser
Master
Nonmaster
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 46 Applications of Shared XML Content Pages

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Support of Collaboration between PC client, Palmtop and high graphics devices such as CAVE's
So in education, can support a mix of wireless palmtops and laptops in the class, with distance PC's
  • Laptops and PC's get all the information including shared PowerPoint/Web Curricula pages etc.
  • Palmtops just get quizzes, chatrooms, whiteboard etc.
Linkage of geographically distributed researchers is necessary to support collaborative computational science
  • One researcher may be in a 3D virtual environment
  • Others will be looking at traditional scientific visualization on workstations
A common XML specification of visualization is mapped according to display capabilities of client device
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 47 XML and Universal Access I

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
It is essential that collaborative technologies support all users independent of their hardware and physical capabilities
Hardware issues are essentially illustrated by palmtop to CAVE example on previous foil
Suppose we wish to teach a class where some students and/or teachers have impaired sight and hearing.
Then we need to share same object content but render it differently on each client.
  • Possibly want to render a given object in multiple ways on a given machine
Essential to share content (as in XML JSSB) and this enables you to choose right presentation for given client
  • Typical HTML layout aimed at fully capable users and needs to be redone for physically impaired users
Concepts of XML JSSB for universal access developed with Al Gilman from Trace Center
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 48 XML and Universal Access II

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Assume that all education will be web-based
Assume that we need to provide web resources of equal quality for all citizens
This will not work if one has to translate each course from material for "regular user" to that for "user for different access capabilities"
Thus only chance is to define curriculum in XML and produce customized presentation layers
One will need a powerful indexing/abstracting scheme to be able design appropriate navigation schemes for all users and clients
  • Natural framework is XML based Education Portals with SPW implementing collaboration (a.k.a. teaching)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 49 Interdisciplinary Computer/Computational Science in the Next Millenium

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
New curriculum for computer science centered on Internetics and its implications for science communication and teaching.
Changing definitions of interdisciplinary programs (such as computational science) and implications for traditional fields such as physics, which see more competition for best students
New approaches to distance education which could change the roles of educational institutions and personnel in areas from K-12 through lifelong learning.
Relevance of distance education to curriculum changing with "Internet Time".
New approaches to computing environments which will enable more productivity and hence accelerate integration of computation into many fields.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 50 Portal View of invoking a program

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Similar to invoking a web page
Java CORBA or WIDL (pure XML CGI specification)
Object Broker
Fortran Simulation Code on Sequential or
Parallel Machine
Convert Generic Run Request into Specific Request on Chosen Computer
Fortran Program
invoked from wrapper object
and Globus
W3C Web Page
(XML/XHTML) Rendering of Backend Object
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 51 Scientific Programming Environments

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Technical (scientific) computing and especially high performance computing (HPCC) is typically viewed as having "unfriendly software environment"
CS community has developed good research ideas but cannot implement them as solving computing's hardest problem with few percent of the funding
  • HPCC applications are very complex and use essentially all computer capabilities and also have synchronization and performance constraints from HPCC
We have learnt to use commodity hardware either
  • partially as in Origin 2000/SP2 with consumer CPU's but custom network or
  • fully as in PC cluster with fast ethernet/ATM
Let us do the same with software and design systems with maximum possible commodity software basis
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 52 Commodity Software Approach to HPCC

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
We will "just" add high performance/scientific computing capabilities to this commodity distributed object web infrastructure
  • Respecting architecture of the object web, should allow us to naturally use improved software as it produced
  • The alternative strategy starts with HPCC technologies (such as MPI,HPF) and adds links to commodity world. This approach does not easily track evolution of commodity systems and so has large maintenance costs
Java can be critical here as not likely to be many Fortran programmers in the future and C++ has not been terribly successful in HPCC
Java Grande Forum addresses issues in use of Java in Grande (large scale) applications
  • Numerical Performance of Java
  • Scientific Libraries and frameworks in Java
Term HPcc: High Performance commodity computing which builds systems in opposite direction to conventional wisdom:
Distributed Computing Metacomputing (finally)parallel computing
--->
--->
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 53 HPcc as Multi-Tier Commodity Software Model

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Essential idea is consider a three tier model
  • Top tier is the client
  • Second tier are servers coordinated by object web commodity technologies such as the Web and CORBA and communicating via HTTP(Web), IIOP(CORBA), RMI or custom Java sockets.
  • JWORB is a nifty server built by NPAC which understands all object models
  • Use middle tier component/container model -- Enterprise Javabeans or equivalent technology
  • Third tier are services such as databases, parallel computers and scientific library engines (NetSolve)
Preserve the first two tiers as a high functionality commodity information processing system and confine HPCC to the third (lowest) tier.
  • MPI becomes the high performance "machine code" for message passing which you use if HTTP, IIOP or RMI have insufficient performance
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 54 Proxy -- Proxy -- Backend Capability

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
The Proxies and actual instantiation are linked by messages whose semantic content is defined (best) in XML
The lower system level format can be HTTP RMI IIOP or ...
The client proxy is for rendering input and output including specification of object
The middle tier proxy allows choice of backend provider and functional integration (the user can specify integration at client proxy level)
Real Capability
XML
XML
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 55 Earthquake Science 3-Tier Computing Architecture

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Application Integration
Visualization Server
Seamless Access
Collaboration
Security Lookup
Registration
Agents/Brokers
Backend Services
Middleware
Bunch of
Web Servers
and Object
Brokers
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 56 Gateway Architecture

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 57 WebFlow over Globus for NCSA Alliance Quantum Chemistry Application View

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 58 WebFlow on Globus -- LMS at CEWES

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
WebFlow
server
WebFlow
server
WebFlow
server
EDYS
CASC2D
Data Retrieval
High Performance SubSystem
CASC2D
proxy
IIOP
Web Browser
Data Wizard
WMS interface
Toolbar
HTTP
WMS
File Transfer
File Transfer
GLOBUS
Internet
WebFlow modules
(back-end)
WebFlow
middle-tier
WebFlow applet
(front-end)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 59 Example of a custom Web User Interface (Portal) Land Management System

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Navigate and choose an existing application to solve the problem at hand. Import all necessary data.
Retrieve data
Pre/post-processing
Run simulations
Select host
Select model
Set parameters
Run
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 60 XML for GEM (Earthquake Prediction) Community?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
XML is the web distributed object model or
  • XML is ASCII format for database export or
  • XML is universal object serialization technology
If not XML, would need to design lots of database schema, "CORBA/Java Interface Definitions ..."
XML is just a generalized HTML (or a simplified SGML)
<faultsegment id="park101" date="Jan 1 2000" author="" source= .. Lat1="" lat2="" long1="" long2="" depth="" ..>Part of the Parkfield System</faultsegment> <stress type ="prediction" fault="park101" source="Multipole Simulation">(2.3,7.7,-7.2)</stress>
There are/will be wonderful tools to produce access edit and display XML
Need to design GEM specific XML tags
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 61 ScienceML

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
This we define as a group of defined formats that support scientific data, note taking and sketches
XSIL (Scientific data Interchange) from Caltech defines metadata needed to specify scientific data files including high level parameters and methods needed to read data
VML is Vector Graphics Mark up Language
DrawML is designed to support simple technical drawings (easier than VML but VML should be able to do this?)
VRML (3D scenes) reimplemented in XML as X3D
MathML Mathematical Expressions
ChemML Support Chemistry
Above exist already but each field needs to get to work on:
technicalfieldML Supports special needs of each discipline technicalfield (e.g. botanyML supports plants, ChemML molecules etc.)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 62 Objects defined by XML Interfaces but instantiated in CORBA or Java

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 63 WebFlow in Gateway

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
WebFlow server is given by a hierarchy of containers and components
These are CORBA objects written in Java acting if necessary as proxies to backend resources
WebFlow server hosts users and services
Each user maintains a number of applications composed of custom modules and common services
WebFlow supports both object based and dataflow computing model with visual interface at client and both tasks and their interrelationship defined in XML
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 64 Gateway Programming Model

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Computing abstracted as a set of hierarchical Toolbars Toolbars are defined in XML and rendered in HTML for user interface. XML interpreted on middle tier as some suitable service.
Toolbars can access a direct middle-tier service or a "good-old HPCC tool" accessed via a middle-tier proxy (debugging, performance etc.)
Computing Toolbars include user profile, application area (user choice), code choice (application specific), results, visualization (where "command" could be AVS), collaboration, programming model, (HPF, Dataflow specialized tools), resource specification, resource status,
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 65 What have we gained from all this?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
Anything done at the middle tier uses commodity technologies and likely to be highly functional visual environment
  • So metacomputing extensions of HPCC will not as many think be difficult
We can take some services and move some or all of their capability to middle tier
  • visualization, scheduling, collaboration, application integration -- anything "coarse grain"
We can view parallel computing as a special case of distributed computing and generate more attractive parallel computing development environments
HPF HPJava HPC++ compilers and issues of decomposition and fine grain synchronization remain at backend and a focus of HPCC specific work
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 1999

Foil 66 Why and What could one Do?

From Integration of Information Technology and Computational Science in Education and Research Computer Science Seminar -- August 27 1999. *
Full HTML Index
One can integrate best information technology and leading physics and engineering research into new curriculum with both existing and new educational programs and outreach activities
This will invigorate traditional majors; integrate them into interdisciplinary education and improve broad based science understanding
One needs Internetics as key information technology curriculum
One needs good curricula authoring tools with universal Web API
One needs to advance technology and standards to enable universal access to web-based curriculum
One needs synchronous and asynchronous tools to broadly disseminate
One needs outside collaboration (such as NSF PACI EOT) to ensure integration with national agenda
One needs interdisciplinary teams of researchers and teachers to design and develop new curriculum materials
One needs innovative universities interested in new "enterprise models for education" and willing to experiment
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