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This case study is a prototype for a new course referred to informally as CPS714 which is focussed applications supporting CPS616 which is a new course offered first as CPS600 in Spring 95 and then CPS616 in spring 96
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CPS615 is Computational Science for scientific and Engineering Applications
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CPS616 is proposed as Computational Science for Information-oriented applications.
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CPS615 and CPS616 are aimed as base technology courses and CPS713 fulfills the application requirement for the Syracuse University Computational Science Academic Curricula.
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We have chosen from the CPS616 Curricula, four broad topics for the Case Study III) of CPS713 this fall
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The Four Topics are:
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A: Introduction to the future NII (National Information Infrastructure) and its current prototype -- the Internet
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B: Parallel Rendering and Geographic Information Systems
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C: Parallel and Distributed Databases and related issues such as Data Mining
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D: How to Organize Information in a Multimedia Geographically Distributed High Bandwidth World.
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This case study is a prototype for a new course referred to informally as CPS714 which is focussed applications supporting CPS616 which is a new course offered first as CPS600 in Spring 95 and then CPS616 in spring 96
|
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CPS615 is Computational Science for scientific and Engineering Applications
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|
CPS616 is proposed as Computational Science for Information-oriented applications.
|
|
CPS615 and CPS616 are aimed as base technology courses and CPS713 fulfills the application requirement for the Syracuse University Computational Science Academic Curricula.
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We have chosen from the CPS616 Curricula, four broad topics for the Case Study III) of CPS713 this fall
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The Four Topics are:
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A: Introduction to the future NII (National Information Infrastructure) and its current prototype -- the Internet
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B: Parallel Rendering and Geographic Information Systems
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C: Parallel and Distributed Databases and related issues such as Data Mining
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D: How to Organize Information in a Multimedia Geographically Distributed High Bandwidth World.
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The conference proceedings "R and D for the NII: Technical Challenges" obtainable from EDUCOM (nii-forum@educom.com) is one useful general resource. It would be important to collect other useful general and specialized reference books for either teachers and/or students. There are currently 10 modules listed below. Possible material for each module will be found in the next sections.,
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1) The Internet and Specialized Testbeds as Prototypes of the GII (Global Information Infrastructure)
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2) Physical Network
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3) The Consumer Multimedia Enterprise: Multimedia Videogames, PC's, Settop boxes, and Workstations
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4) Digital Media: Audio, Video, Graphics and Images
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5) User, Application and Service Interfaces
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6) Client and Server High Performance Multimedia Computer Requirements and Architecture
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7) Base Software and Systems Architecture of the GII
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8) Pervasive and Niche Applications for the GII
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9) Generic Services and Middleware on the GII
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10) The Emerging GII Enterprise in Industry, Academia and Society
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1) Local Home Delivery -- THE GII Offramps -- Copper pair, coax, fiber, wireless, Cellular, ADSL
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2) Trunk Transmission -- fiber, Satellite
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3) Switching -- ATM, ISDN
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4) Architectures: Cable and Telephone Company, Distributed, Centralized, Multivendor, Military (Global Grid)
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1) CD-ROM
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2) Settop Box
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3) CD-I, 3DO, Nintendo, Sega, Atari(Jaguar)
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4) Specialized Hardware: DVI, Video Accelerator cards
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5) SGI and other high end systems
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6) Multimedia Authoring
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7) Edutainment
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8) Anatomy of selected videogames and Multimedia titles: SIMCITY, MYST, NBA Jam, Crash and Burn, Mortal Kombat, Encarta
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1) Early (successful) commercial services
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2) Convergence of industries
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3) Convergence of Academic Fields ** CPS 713 Topic A
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4) Convergence of Computing and Communication ** CPS 713 Topic A
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5) What (if anything) will happen to society from the GII -- Quality of Life, Jobs, Education --are there important negative implications? ** CPS 713 Topic A
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6) Intellectual property rights on the GII
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7) What information is available now (free or more money) and what could be made available ** CPS 713 Topic D
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8) Current Internet Assets ** CPS 713 Topic D
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9) Kodak Picture Exchange
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Geographic Information Systems (called GIS) are of growing importance in areas such as
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Defense where they underlie Mission planning and related systems
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Commercially for City Planning and with companies such as Power Utilities whose business involves spatially labelled assets such as gas lines, health care clinics etc.
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NASA's Mission to planet Earth will dramatically increase the availability of data such as that gotten today from Satellites such as LANDSAT and SPOT. Their multi-spectrum data can be used for many applications such as studying state of environment, crop growth etc.
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GIS will overlay such Satellite data on a background map
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Other GIS functions are often typical "scientific computing" algorithms such as Image Processing and solution of scheduling problems which can use optimization methods we will study in Case Study I).
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Note that the GIS is natural multimedia Interface to Spatially labelled data (E.g. video footage for tourism arranged by vacation location). This contrasts with Mosaic as natural multimedia document interface
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The magazine GIS World has a wealth of information about real world GIS applications and companies
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Map data is available (almost free) from the USGS (Geological Survey) and with additional features from several commercial companies. (See memo by Paul Coddington)
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Rendering refers to process of creating images from a model of them
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We will only look at case where image is of three dimensional world but much of our analysis will be generalizable
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We intend to use such a 3D renderer to produce a 3D Image of New York State which can be navigated by children and teachers to provide a virtual field trip
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This "New York State -- The Interactive Journey" is part of our Living Textbook project which will link remote host parallel machines to client PC's and Macintosh's in 6 schools linked to NPAC by high speed ATM network NYNET.
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Current GIS systems tend only to support two dimensions properly with 3D either done crudely or in non real time mode. The Living Textbook project intends to use power of parallel machine to produce full 3D GIS.
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Rendering and Map data will be on host parallel machine.
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GIS Front End will be on Macintosh or PC in Schools
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Much rendering research uses ray tracing and optimizes for the best possible Image quality
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We will study texture mapped polygon method which is much faster and can give you ability to trade-off performance versus Image quality and guarantee real time constraint met.
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Databases contain data which is converted to Information by Datamining
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This use of a database is often called a Data warehouse
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You extract data and the apply Decision Support tools which are essentially Optimization systems to extract Information
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High Visibility Commercial Applications are:
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Using customer purchase information to optimize store layout. Which products should be placed where, when.
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Using Credit card data, plan optimal mailings with "offers" which customers are likely to accept. For instance credit cards may show customer is a football fan who likes to spend Xmas in Florida.
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August mailing will discount combination of Florida trip with Syracuse University Football tickets
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Using Medicare data to identify fraudulent practices identified as being anomalous (e.g. Doctors claiming to see unusually many patients in a day etc.)
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Optimization tools will be those we study in Case Study I)
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Thinking Machines produced a package (called Darwin originally) featuring Genetic algorithms, Neural Nets etc.
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A traditional book is a relatively consistent set of information arranged in modules (paragraphs and chapters) and typically read in a linear fashion from beginning to end.
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An encyclopedia on the other hand arranges information in modules of chapter to paragraph size but one expects to read "randomly" or nonlinearly as each module "points" you to other modules.
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The world wide web is similar to encyclopedia generalized to dynamic rather than static links and with information spatially distributed and accessed by Network.
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Note that looking at commercial CD-ROM products, my family evaluates the electronic encyclopedia's (Encarta, Compton, Grolier) as superior by far to electronic (illustrated) books.
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One must enforce standards to allow linked modules to address information in a consistent fashion
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For instance, a distributed physics information resource should use common notation and equations.
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We refer to our Information enterprise as the "Encyclopedia Galactica" to reflect the importance of the nonlinear model and the prescience of the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy.
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Abstract * Foil Index for this file
See also color IMAGE
