Institution Name:       Florida State University
Work Package Title:     ASC CY5 IC
Project Title:          I/C Core Support
POC:                    Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox
Email:                  bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu
Phone:                  315 443 3857 850-644-4587
Fax:                    315 443 1973
CTA or PEI:             Information and Communications

Project Description:

This project supports the core activities involved in FSU's work in
the Info/Comm area, including those related to Training and to the
Gateway project.

Project Objectives:

Support the basic level of FSU involvement in Info/Comm activities at
ASC.  This includes reporting, participating in meetings, technology
tracking and advising in areas relevant to Info/Comm, Training
technologies, portals and metacomputing.

In accord with our emphasis on I/C technologies in support of training
and education, we have worked with national colleagues to define the 
concept of a collaborative education portal. This is currently best
described at http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/pajavaapril00/
and http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/internetics2/
We will evaluate rapidly changing Internet technologies in this
overall long term architecture and so ensure that ASC has a coherent
training approach that however evolves with technologies moving at
Internet time.

For our metacomputing activities ("Gateway") to be successful it is
critically important that we stay abreast of the latest developments
in this area, participate in standardization efforts and related
activities which Gateway can subsequently leverage to provide better
interoperability and functionality.  Of particular relevance are the
activities of the DATORR (Desktop Access To Remote Resources) effort
and the "computational grid" of the DOE, NASA, and Alliance.
(These are now called the Computing Portals and Grid Forums respectively)
They can be found at http://www.computingportals.org/ and http://www.gridforum.org
We believe this work is of primary importance to DoD as it defines
the architectures and standards which Gateway must observe to be able
to be cost effectively supported and easily make use of new 
capabilities produced by non PET academic or commercial activities.


One special effort is support of a web-based, database-backed system to
support training course administration. This was developed in years 3
and 4.

Deliverables:

1) Periodic reporting, as required by PET management
2) Participation in Reviews, Planning Workshops, and other meetings
   sanctioned by PET management
3) Attendance at international meetings in areas of I/C and education
   technologies and exchange of ideas with leaders in the field
4) Attendance at international meetings in areas related to I/C and
   metacomputing and exchange of ideas with leaders in the field
5) Technology tracking and advising, including training portal architecture
   and metacomputing/computing portal architecture
6) Support for Training Database
7) Participation in MAPINT 2000 conference and input into future such
   conferences

Customers/End Users:

The immediate "customer" for most of these core activities is the rest of
the PET program, however MSRC users also benefit directly from
productivity improvements resulting from our I/C activities.

The database system will be used primarily by on-site MSRC and PET staff, but
also by training instructors and training recipients (MSRC users).

Benefit to Warfighter:
This effort will ensure PET and the MSRC keeps up to date with
The database system will reduce the human effort required to oversee routine
training activities, and thereby allow staff additional time to devote
to other MSRC and PET activities which benefit the warfighter.

Project Dependencies and Scope:

This project underlies all other FSU activities at ASC.

Risk Element:

There is minimal risk associated with this activity.