IT Faculty hosts High Definition video seminar

The Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University hosted its first high definition video seminar as part of the Monash Undergraduate Research Projects Abroad stream (MURPA) on the 31st of July, assisted by the support of the Monash e-Research Centre (MeRC).

MURPA is a new opportunity for Monash undergraduate students studying computer science or software engineering to undertake an 8-week summer semester international research project at the prestigious University of California, San Diego (UCSD). It is modelled on the successful PRIME project (http://prime.ucsd.edu/) in which UCSD students engage in international research projects. Monash has hosted UCSD PRIME students for the past 5 years. The seminars provide an opportunity for students and staff to attend seminars from leading researchers from UCSD in the Cyberinfrastructure and e-Research arena.

Professor Larry Smarr presented this first high definition video conference on The Emerging Global Collaboratory for Microbial Metagenomics Researchers, describing the CAMERA project, a metagenomic Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in the US. His talk ranged from computer science to biology to national research strategies, and was attended by students and academics from Monash and the wider Melbourne region. professor Smarr has driven major contributions to the development of the US information infrastructure: the internet, the web, the emerging grid, telepresence, and scientific visualisation. His views have been quoted in Science, Nature, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Wired, Fortune, and Business Week, and he gives frequent keynote addresses at professional conferences and to popular audiences.

"Apart from a fascinating seminar, the presentation medium was also a first for Monash," said Professor David Abramson, Associate Director of the Monash e-Research Centre and ARC Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology. “We were able to receive a high definition video stream from the UCSD at over 140 MBits per second, which is the fastest sustained communication we have experienced to date." These speeds are a credit to both the Monash networking infrastructure, and also the international links provided by AARnet. "The definition in these videos is stunning, and provides a much richer experience than older technologies," said Professor Abramson.

Monash takes a senior lead in Australia's e-Research strategy. Its own e-Research Centre (MeRC), established in 2005, supports and promotes e-Research activities to University academics. MeRC activities span from the installation of leading edge technology (for computation and data storage) through to services and assistance to researchers. "We support and promote a range of exemplars across the entire research landscape", said Professor Paul Bonnington, Director of MeRC. "We are helping researchers in the humanities and sciences leverage the new generation of IT infrastructure. Activities like Professor Smarr's seminar are just part of Monash being at the leading edge."

Further MURPA seminars will be presented over the next month, with topics ranging from advanced computing infrastructure through to bioengineering research. "We've got some of the best US researchers available for seminars", said Professor Abramson. "This leverages our long standing collaboration with the UCSD".