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The Inauguration of the TANet2
On
December 22, 1998 TANet2 (Taiwan Academic Network/Internet2)
became a member of the vBNS community. An Opening Ceremony
was held at the Information S&T Exhibit Center in Taipei
to celebrate this milestone event. It was well attended by
dignitaries, academics, IT professionals and the press. The
Opening marks the official linkage of Taiwan, the Republic
of China, to the very high-speed Backbone Network Service
through the Science Technology and Research Transit Access
Point (STAR TAP) in Chicago. The inaugural began with
greetings sent by friends and partners from around the world.
Dr. Steven Goldstein and Dr. William Chang of the National
Science Foundation (US) were instrumental for the virtual
presence of well wishers including themselves. Kind words
and encouragement were delivered by: Dr. Thomas A. DeFanti,
Director for STAR TAP; Dr. Andrew Bjerring, President and
CEO of CANARIE; Dr. Francis Yeoh, Director of SingAREN; Dr.
Michael McRobbie, U.S. Director of APAN; and Dr. Valerii Vasenin,
Head Russian MirNET Co-Director.
The
installation of the new T3 (45 Mbps) also signifies a major
upgrade for TANet, which now serves about 600,000 users. It
is urgently needed to remedy the worsening congestion problems.
A third of the bandwidth is allocated for the vBNS, according
to Dr. Ruey-beei Wu, Director of the National Center for High-performance
Computing. The NCHC is responsible for implementing the vBNS
link. It serves as a Network Operation Center and a GigaPOP
as well. With the high-speed link between the US and Taiwan,
more scientists will be able to conduct collaborative research,
which is otherwise not possible.
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Inaugural Speeches --The R&E Trio Sharing the Podium
In
its push to become a technologically advanced nation, Taiwan
is fortunate enough to have far-sighted leaders who view a
high-speed Internet as critical to scientific research and
development. Three men who share this view are at the helms
of institutions of advanced research and higher education.
Without their joint sponsorship such a major undertaking could
not have occurred so soon. Dr. Jenn-Tai Hwang, Chairman of
the National Science Council, Dr. Ching-Jiang Lin, Minister
of Education, and Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee, President of Academia
Sinica are the trio who graced the podium as co-hosts and
to express their views on the Inauguration Day.
Dr.
Hwang pointed out that linking up to the vBNS is but the first
course towards the Next Generation Internet. Last May, the
NSC initiated an ambitious National Telecommunications Development
Program that would partly support technical development in
high-speed Internet. He stated that the availability of high-bandwidth,
low latency Internet should invigorate current research and
bring out new innovations. Dr. Lin reminded the audience of
the dramatic development of the TANet. Linking to the Internet
at Princeton only in 1991, it has been doubling in traffic
every year. The bandwidth is now 672 times the original.
As a whole, Academic users in Taiwan seem to have voracious
appetites for bandwidth. Back when the NSF was keeping track
of the NSFNET traffic, Taiwan consistently ranked among the
top twelve in the world.
Nobel
laureate Yuan-Tseh Lee likened the development of the Internet
to that of the neural networks of a baby. Between birth
and the age of three is the most critical period, he said.
Exposing the newborn to all kinds of stimuli ensures the formation
of healthy neural networks; past this stage and you miss laying
down proper connections. Taiwan must join the Internet community
at an early stage lest she misses the opportunity for a healthy
development. For the Academia Sinica, the top research institution
that he leads, this new link to the vBNS permits scientists,
including the high-energy physicists and astrophysicists who
participated in the exhibits, to engage in collaborative research
with their peers in other parts of the world.
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Showcasing Telemedicine, Distance Learning and High-Energy Physics
The
highlight of the inaugural was the exhibit of state-of-the-art
applications that demonstrated the power and function of the
high-speed network. VIDA (Volumetric Imaging Display and Analysis),
an advanced physiological evaluation tool using high-resolution
CT and high-speed computing, was the prime showpiece. In collaboration
with Dr. Eric Hoffman, Dr. Heng-Shuen Chen and Dr. Yeun-Chung
Chang, both of the National Taiwan University, staged VIDA
to highlight telemedicine. Scanned images from any patient
suspected of suffering from emphysema or other lung diseases
can be transmitted over the vBNS to Dr. Hoffman for volumetric
analysis and diagnosis. Surgical intervention, if neeeded,
can then be performed based on his sensitive methods of detecting
emphysema. Dr. Geoffrey McLennan then demonstrated 3D
renderings of airway bronchial lumen. This is the kind
of quantitation that one can rely upon to build custom stents
and design laser interventions. It was a very successful
presentation. Their efforts had sufficiently demonstrated
the feasibility of carrying out such project.
Dr.
Hoffman is responsible for the development of VIDA at the
Division of Physiologic Imaging, Department of Radiology,
University of Iowa. Dr. Geoffrey McLennan, Head of Bronchoscopy
at the Department of Internal Medicine, is a collaborator
of Dr. Hoffman. Dr. Chen is from the Department of Medical
Informatics and Family Medicine at the NTU. Dr. Chang
is at the Department of Radiology, NTU Hospital.
Dr.
Chen also demonstrated distance learning (teaching).
It is a project he collaborated with Dr. Shi-kuo Chang of
the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Groupe of the University
of Illinois at Chicago, and Dr. David H. Du of the University
of Minnesota. Using Dr. Du's multimedia ixJet system, Dr.
Chen presented a distance learning course detailing how a
paraplegic could rely on a microprocessor to assist his motions.
A wheel-chair-bound patient, with the help of the chip, was
able to stand up and move about.
Collaborating
with researchers at the Collider Detector at Fermilab is a
group of high-energy physicists led by Dr. S. C. Lee of the
Academia Sinica. The famous Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
in Batavia, Illinois is the site where the top quarks were
discovered in 1995. Upgrading its accelerator and detector
has made CDF even more powerful. The demonstration illustrated
its power and how signals from jets of top quarks and gluons
as well as other particles produced through collisions between
protons and anti-protons could be analyzed. Another showcase
presentation by the same group is the real-time transfer of
files, obtained from the Fermi Lab, of observations made by
the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. A multinational cooperative
program led by Nobel laureate Samuel C. C. Ting of MIT will
use the detector to search for dark matter and antimatter
in the cosmos.
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Other Exhibits Featured at the Inauguration
Several
booths were set up by many potential users of the vBNS to
show their applications. Active participation by the biomedical
group attracted much attention. In addition to the telemedicine
showcase, two other types of medical applications were exhibited.
The National Health Research Institute had a booth up showing
bioinformatics, biostatistics, genomics, biotechnology and
pharmaceutical research. Dr. Jack Li, a dermatologist at the
Taipei Medical College demonstrated a distributed knowledge-acquisition
shell for medical-decision support. The Taiwan Forestry Research
Institute showed off the Taiwan Ecological Research Network,
which links sites that are investigating major ecosystems
throughout the island.
Dr.
Jeremy Lim of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
at the Academia Sinica showed the observations made of the
Antenna galaxy using the BIMA telescope, which is the product
of a collaborative effort by the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland-Association.
The Central Weather Bureau was there to show off the FX-net,
a prototype project developed by the Forecasting System Laboratory
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA).
The FX-net query system will be used for disseminating information
about weather. Several projects were also presented by the
Center for Space and Remote-Sensing Research of the National
Central University. One of which is an online query system
for users to access and search for many of its image databases
and libraries.
The
National Center for High-performance Computing showed off
tele-immersive virtual environment and applications. AT&T
had a booth showcasing Virtual Presence, the company's offering
of high-quality conferencing and collaboration (HQCC). The
latter permits a customer to have instant access to resources.
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