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Advanced Collaborative Environments Research Project

Scientific research is fundamentally collaborative in nature, with researchers often forming collaborations that involve colleagues from other institutions and often other countries. Modern research tools, such as high-resolution scientific instruments and sophisticated computational simulations, are providing scientists with digital data at an unprecedented rate. Thus, digital artifacts are the focus of many of today’s scientific collaborations. The understanding of scientific data is difficult because of the complexity of the scientific phenomena that the data represents. Such data is often complex in structure, dynamic in nature (e.g. changes over time), and poorly understood (little a-priori knowledge about the phenomena). These issues are exacerbated when such collaborations take place between scientists who are working together at a distance.

The Advanced Collaborative Environments (ACE) research project studies the impact of distance on artifact-centric scientific collaboration. It utilizes a multi-dimensional research approach, considering scientific collaboration at multiple points along the methodological (qualitative/quantitative research methods), cognitive (encoding/decoding), community (many/single research groups), group locality (collocated/distributed), and technological (prototype/production) dimensions.

Collaborative environments have the potential of truly supporting distributed teams but there are a number of barriers preventing seamless collaboration. These barriers are a result of problems in the following four domains: 1) a lack of understanding of the tasks that people perform when they are collaborating; 2) a lack of understanding and fulfillment of users' needs during collaborations; 3) the high complexity of the collaboration task; and 4) limited access to the technologies required to support these collaborations.

The primary focus of this project is the exploration of collaborations based around scientific discovery, and in particular around the use of scientific visualization for discovery. To this end, the ACE group is exploring the use of collaborative visualizations tools to provide an advanced capability for collaboration based around complex scientific data sets.

Researchers

  • Principal Investigator
    • Brian Corrie, Simon Fraser University (bcorrie at sfu dot ca)
  • Current and Past Collaborators
    • UBC-Okanagan
      • Todd Zimmerman
    • National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa
      • Andrew Patrick (NRC)
      • Kenneth Emig
      • Janice Singer
      • Bruno Emond
      • Khalil El Khatib
      • Stephen Marsh
      • Siraj Sabihuddin (student programmer)
      • Changhua Wu (student programmer)
    • Communications Research Centre (CRC), Ottawa
      • Sylvie Noel
    • Media LightPath Project
      • Richard Levy, University of Calgary (PI)
      • Jim Bizzocchi, Simon Fraser University
      • Tom Calvert, Simon Fraser University
      • Marek Hatala, Simon Fraser University
      • Ron Wakkary, Simon Fraser University
      • Rob Woodbury, Simon Fraser University
      • Jonathan M. Borwein, Dalhousie University
      • Pierre Boulanger, University of Alberta
      • Gilbert Paquette, Tele-Universite

Funding & Support

Funding and support is gratefully acknowledged from the following sources:

  • Canadian Foundation for Innovation (equipment and operations)
  • BC Knowledge and Development Fund (equipment and operations)
  • Silicon Graphics Canada
  • National Research Council of Canada
  • Communications Research Centre
  • CANARIE

Publications

  • Corrie, B. (2010) Human communication channels in distributed, artifact-centric, scientific collaboration, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Victoria, 2010 (Online Dissertation)

  • Corrie, B., and Zimmerman, T. (2009) Build It: Will They Come? Media Spaces in the Support of Computational Science, in Media Space: 20+ Years of Mediated Life (ed. S. Harrison), Springer (SpringerLink)
  • Corrie, B., and Storey, M.A. (2007) Towards Understanding the Importance of Gesture in Distributed Scientific Collaboration, International Journal of Knowledge and Information Systems, Volume 13, Number 2, October 2007, Springer. (Online paper)
  • Leigh, J. et al (2006) The Global Lambda Visualization Facility: An International Ultra-High-Definition Wide Area Visualization Collaboratory, Journal of Future Generation Computer Systems, 22(8), October 2006, Elsevier
  • Corrie, B. and Storey, M.A., (2005) Towards Understanding the Importance of Gesture in Distributed Collaborative Environments, Workshop on Multimodal Interaction for the Visualization and Exploration of Scientific Data, October 3, 2005, Trento, Italy.
  • Corrie, B., Zimmerman, T., Patrick, A., El-Khatib, K., Singer, J., Noel, S., and Storey, M.A., (2005) Technology, Technology, Everywhere, Workshop on Advanced Collaborative Environments (WACE 05), Sept. 8 - 9, 2005, Redmond, Washington.

Presentations/Demos

  • Human communication channels in distributed, artifact-centric, scientific collaboration, Ph. D. Defense, July 2010 (PowerPoint Show)
  • The Social Dynamics of Scientific Collaboration, Presented at the AccessGrid Retreat 2008, May 28-30, 2008, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. (PDF) (PowerPoint Show)
  • Lightpaths for advanced visualization and interaction: A demonstration at the Annual BCNet conference, April 2006. Live remote computational steering, visualizaton and remote display on a large screen passive stereo display at the BCNet conference. Remote, collaborative haptic interaction between Dalhousie and the BCNet conference. The demos made use of a dedicated gigabit lightpath from Dalhousie (Halifax) to SFU (Burnaby) and SFU Harbour Centre (Vancouver) where the BCNet conference was held. The demonstration also made use of the WestGrid core network to link the computatio (UoA) to the visualization server (SFU). (Presentation).
  • Panel on High Resolution Visualization Tools for AccessGrid Collaboration, SC Global Showcase Track, Supercomputing (SC) 2005, November 12 - 18, 2005, Seattle, USA. Included a live remote multi-pipe visualization demonstaration between Vancouver and Seattle using a dedicated gigabit lightpath (Presentation)
  • Towards Understanding the Importance of Gesture in Distributed Collaborative Environments,. Workshop on Multimodal Interaction for the Visualization and Exploration of Scientific Data, October 3, 2005, Trento, Italy.
  • The Solutions Server over Media Light Paths: A GLVF Demonstration, iGrid 2005, September 26 - 29, 2005, San Diego, USA. Solutions Server is a suite of tools that couples live computational simulation with visualizations. The Solutions Server, combined with SGI's VizServer software, streams visualizations to computer consoles of distantly located scientists and engineers over the WestGrid dedicated Gigabit network. The Media Lightpaths project seeks to move toward configurable lightpaths to support on-demand visualizations among non-WestGrid collaborators. Ultimately, the goal is to integrate the User Controlled LightPath (UCLP) technology with the Access Grid. At iGrid, we will be demonstrating a live computational steering application, with computataion running at the University of Alberta, live computations being sent to the visualization server at Simon Fraser University, and the visualization being streamed to the iGrid show floor and displayed on a high-resolution passive stereo display. This demonstration utilizes both the WestGrid core network as well as a dedicated light path from Simon Fraser University to CalIT2. Simon Fraser University and the University of Alberta are participants in the Global Lambda Visualization Facility (GLVF).
  • Technology, Technology, Everywhere, Workshop on Advanced Collaborative Environments (WACE 05), Sept. 8 - 9, 2005, Redmond, Washington. (Presentation)
  • AccessGrid Venue Customizer, Access Grid Retreat, April 26 - 29, 2005, San Francisco, California.
  • The Visualization Server Shared Application., Access Grid Retreat, April 26 - 29, 2005, San Francisco, California.
  • Collaborative Visualization., Invited talk for the UK Access Grid Support Centre Training Seminars, July 14th, 2005, Manchester, UK (delivered via AccessGrid remotely from SFU). (Presentation)

 

Deliverables

  • AccessGrid software (used in the Media LightPath project)
  • Media LightPath deliverables
    • UCLP-AccessGrid Integration Project Documentation
    • BCNet LightPath demonstration, BCNet Conference, April 25-26, 2006
      • Remote computational steering, passive stereo display
      • Collaborative control of haptic device, SFU to Dalhousie
      • Lightpath from UoA -> SFU-HC -> SFU-DT and Dalhousie -> SFU-DT
    • SC2005 demonstration: remote computational steering, UoA -> SFU -> Seattle
      • Lightpath from UoA -> SFU -> Seattle
    • iGrid 2005 LightPath demonstration, September 26-30, 2006, CalIT2
      • Remote computational steering, passive stereo remote display
      • Lightpath from UoA -> SFU -> CalIT2

 

More Information

For more information please contact:

Brian Corrie
Technical Director, IRMACS Centre
Collaboration and Visualization Coordinator, WestGrid
IRMACS Room 10905, Applied Sciences Building
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada.
V5A 1S6

Email: bcorrie at sfu dot ca
Phone: 778-782-6978
Fax: 778-782-7065