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Additional Funding
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DISTRIBUTED MULTIMEDIA
From the current allocation of Intel equipment, a new project has emerged. It involves a three-way partnership between Cox Interactive, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and the College of Communication. The project centers on the establishment of an online "magazine" that focuses on the Multimedia/Computer industry in Austin. Participating in the project are Rosenthal Alves, (Knight Chair in Journalism), Neal Burns (Professor of Advertising and Director of the Account Planning program), Gene Kincaid (Lecturer in Advertising), Martha Russell (Assistant Dean for Technology) and myself, Gary Wilcox. Students in Professors Alves, Burns, and Kincaids classes will produce a beta version of the "zine" and present it to Cox Interactive and the Austin Chamber of Commerce in late April. The project is also supported by frogdesign, inc and RoadRunner.
The Intel workstations will play a key role in the development of the student's on-line content and web site. Intel sponsorship will be noted on the beta web site as well. In addition, several research projects that have been discussed by Assistant Dean Russell should also emerge from this highly visible community project.
Digital Video Telecommunications Research and Teaching
Al Bovik (PI)
Grants Directly Related (Leveraged)
- "Objective quality assessment for high quality digital video," Unrestricted Research Grant, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, $30,000, 1998-1999.
- "Automatic assessment of compressed digital video quality using human visual criteria," Dell Computer Corporation, $38,320, 1999-2000.
- "Wireless video coding," Lucent Technologies, $30,000, 1999-2000.
- "Web-based instruction of digital signal, image and video processing," TxTEC Consortium Curriculum Grant, $11,700, 1999-2000.
- "Web-based instruction of digital signal, image and video processing," TxTEC Consortium Faculty Incentive Grant, $4,000, 1999-2000.
- "Standards-compliant high-quality low-bitrate video communications using the TMS320C62x processor," Texas Instruments, Incorporated, $198,712, 1999-2001.
- ":Foveated Wireless Video Communications," Texas Advanced Technology Program, $197,000, 2000-2002.
The Distributed Multimedia Computing Laboratory is the result of resources provided by several federal and industrial organizations, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, AT&T, Lucent Bell Laboratories, Dell, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory (MERL), Novell, and Sun Microsystems.
The following is a list of some of the recent grants and awards received by Harrick Vin (PI):
- ``A Flexible and Robust Global Data Infrastructure,'' Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Advanced Technology Program, $142,604, 1/1/00 - 12/31/01.
- ``Fundamental Problems in Designing Next Generation Internet,'' Intel, $75,000 + equipment grant ($19,297), 1999-2000.
- ``Fundamental Problems in Designing Next Generation Internet,'' Microsoft, Software Grant ($11,982), 1999-2000.
- "Beyond Browsers," Novell at UTAustin Program, $183,800, 1999-2000
- "Video Phone Development Lab," Intel, $7,000 + equipment grant ($21,523), 1999
- IBM University Partnership Program Faculty Development Award, $40,000, 1998-1999
- "InfoWeave: A Visual Learning Environment," Dell, equipment grant (quad-processor servers, $40,000), 1998
- "System Support for a Hierarchy of Distributed Applications", NSF CISE Research Infrastructure Award, $998,578 (with $579,567 in university matching funds), 1996-2001
- "Designing an End-to-End Architecture for Distributed Multimedia Systems", NSF CAREER Award, CCR-9624757, $200,000, 1996-2000
- "Efficient Storage and Retrieval Techniques for Multimedia Servers," NSF Research Initiation Award, CCR-9409666, $85,399, 1994-97
- "Multiresolution Information Archival and Analysis System," NASA NAGW-4247, $720,000, 1995-98
- "Multimedia Delivery Systems", Intel, Equipment grant ($399,353), 1997-2000
- "InfoWeave: A Visual Learning Environment", Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Advance Technology Program, $132,000, 1998-99
- "Digital Course Delivery: An Experiment in Distance Learning and Self-paced Education", AT&T and Lucent Foundation Award, $20,000, 1996-97.
- IBM Faculty Development Award, $100,000 + Equipment grant ($185,000) towards the acquisition of a 4-node IBM POWERParallel SP-2 system ($90,000 in university matching equipment funds), 1995-97
- "System Support for Designing Distributed Multimedia Computing Environments," Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), $225,000, 1994-1998
- "Network and Operating System Support for Multimedia", Intel, $188,000 + Equipment grant ($150,000), 1995-97
- Equipment grant for establishing a "Multimedia Systems Teaching Laboratory", Intel, $190,000, 1996
Virtual Museum Project1999-2002 National Science Foundation Grant to Tim Rowe (PI): A Digital Library of Vertebrate Morphology Using High-Resolution X-ray CT (IIS-9874781), $500,000.
Project Summary:
This project is an intensive application of high-resolution X-ray Computed Tomography scanning (X-ray CT) to the study of vertebrate morphology. We will build an unprecedented digital library of high-resolution X-ray CT images and 3-D models. The library will enable far more detailed and comprehensive analyses of vertebrate structure than ever before possible, by a global networked audience of researchers, educators, and students. We will examine the skeleton in all of its forms, from fossils to embryos and adults of living species. We will survey a broad taxonomic diversity that includes important laboratory and research species, and that samples the smallest four orders of vertebrate size-magnitudes. We envision an interactive digital library that will accelerate education as it fosters fundamental new research discoveries in vertebrate structure, function, embryology, bioengineering, and evolution. Approximately 150 specimens will be chosen for scanning, based on their importance to ongoing research and educational programs. This project is a collaboration among 24 researchers at leading research universities and natural history museums around the world.The library core will be distributed over the Web. We will also expand our partnership with distinguished academic publishers of books and journals, to distribute selected high-resolution datasets on CD-ROM, via established peer-reviewed mechanisms that reach large professional societies and educational audiences. We believe that our prototype library design will be readily exportable across the community of engineers, physicians, and natural historians already using CT and other types of 3-D tomographic data.
This project also aims to test and improve the performance of high-resolution X-ray CT technology in general, and to build an infrastructure that will speed access to this powerful instrument across the many scientific, medical, and engineering fields with potential applications. We will develop an infrastructure for high-resolution CT by training undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and visiting researchers in CT scanning techniques, in computational methods for data handling and interpretation, and in digital library development. These students and visitors will learn techniques while performing many of the data-processing tasks required in building the completed library.
We believe that the digital library may eventually transform the study of vertebrate morphology. We expect it to foster fundamental new discoveries, accelerated communication and education, the formation of collaborations among widely distributed individuals, and new digital alliances among engineers, scientists, and publishers.
Multimedia Navigation SystemsRussell Pinkston (PI)
- Microsoft has donated $60,000 to CASA to support faculty research through a program called "CASAbatical," which will free one or two COFA faculty members from teaching for one semester during 1999-2000.
- Professor Pinkston has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition for 1999-2000. This will be devoted primarily to the creation a new VR work on the new CASA VR system.
- Professor Wiley has received a FASTEX grant to support her work on the CASA Vocal Arts Lab.
- Professors Pinkston, Schentker, Sharir, and Wiley have all received grant support from CASA for their work related to the Intel project.
Distributed VisualizationChandrajit Bajaj (PI)
- "Modeling and Visualization with algebraic surfaces and splines"; National Science Foundation
- "Data Intensive Visualization"; National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- "Data and Display Intensive Visualization"; Sandia National Laboratories
- "Terascale Data Visualization"; National Science Foundation
- "MetaBuffer: Combining Realtime Parallel Graphics with Multiresolution VR Display"; Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Leveraging from other projects we have obtained the following necessary equipment utilizing funds from NSF/KDI, and DOE-ASCI grants: Additionally we plan to obtain the following: (1.) 6 Extron 112+ (2.) 3 flat panel displays
(3.) Altinex 8 x 4 RGBHV matrix switcher
(4.) 3 electrohome 9500projectors with fast phosphor
(5.) 3 extended range stereo emitters and 3 active LCD stereo glasses
(6.) an 8 port KVM Switch allowing a single control point to an 8 machine cluster.
(1.) An additional cluster of 6 Merced based Intel machines(as they become available.) (2.) an 8 port Myrinet switch
(3.) 8 Myrinet NICS for the Intel PCs
(4.) 4 Top of the line 21" monitors or flat panel digital displays
Virtual Laboratories and ExaminationsDr. John Kappelman's project on Virtual Laboratories and Examinations has received recent support from the National Science Foundation. In June 1998 the National Science Foundation (Division of Undergraduate Education, Course and Curriculum Development) entitled, "Developing Computer-Based Multimedia Examination Formats for the Sciences," provides $225,000 to support the work in building the Virtual Examination program. This award also receives generous support from UT's College of Liberal Arts. A beta-version of the program is currently being used on the UT campus in several courses. The VExams program is described in the Current ACITS February 1999 newsletter (Vol. 32 (6), pp. 3-5).
In October 1998 Kappelman was awarded a second grant from the National Science Foundation (Division of Information and Intelligent Systems) under the Digital Libraries Initiative Phase 2 entitled, "Virtual Skeletons in Three Dimensions: The Digital Library as a Platform for Studying Anatomical Form and Function." This grant totals $354,000. This award has also received generous support from UT's College of Liberal Arts. The purpose of this grant will be to build an interactive web site for studying the anatomy of humans and other primates in three dimensions.
ADVANCED MODELING & SIMULATION
Reservoir Simulation& Subsurface Modeling
The Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded more than $3 million by the National Petroleum Technology Office of the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct research on advanced oil recovery technologies.
Two Intel-related projects that received grants are:
- Drs. Mojdeh Delshad, Kamy Sepehrnoori, and Pope were awarded $880,000 to improve the simulation of chemical and microbial methods for oil recovery. These researchers have developed a computer model of these processes called UTCHEM, which is widely used to study both oil recovery and ground water cleanup methods. This model will be further developed and applied to better understand and predict the complex phenomena associated with improving oil recovery.
- Drs. Mary Wheeler, Pope, and Sepehrnoori were awarded $252,000 in additional funds to continue the development of a new generation framework for parallel reservoir simulation. This project will develop the next generation of computer simulators for oil reservoirs on massively parallel computers and clusters of PCs. "Parallel" simulators achieve greater speed by doing the calculations simultaneously on a large number of processors. The ability to store and process huge amounts of information will allow this oil reservoir model to achieve an unprecedented level of geological and process detail and realism in its results, and thus better predictions.
Real-Time Process ControlThe Intel project grant has been augmented through a donation of $118,000 of hardware and software to Thomas Edgar (PI) and the Department of Chemical Engineering from Fisher-Rosemount Systems (FRS). The FRS Delta V system is a new pc-based real-time process control operating system based on a client-server architecture, which is beginning to replace the traditional UNIX-based distributed control system commonly used in the chemical industry. The equipment is being donated to the Separations Research Program (SRP), where one of the real-time control projects will be carried out. This project is focused on multivariable control of a reactive distillation process, where reaction and separation are carried out in the same column. This column is currently under construction, and is expected to be operational in June, 1999. In addition to the SRP project, the Delta V software is being implemented on a second column, which operates in a batch distillation mode. This column is located in the unit operations laboratory of the Department of Chemical Engineering. A comparable donation of hardware and software ($100,000) has been made for this facility also.
Wireless & High Performance Telecommunication Networks
The PI (Gustavo de Veciana) and affiliated faculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering have received the following related grants:
Related Funded Projects
NSF Grant Adaptive Resource Management for IP/ATM Hybrid Switching Systems PI: San-qi Li NSF Career Award Analysis and Design of Hierarchical Source Routing and Embedded ATM Networks PI: G. de Veciana Southwestern Bell Corp./ Technology Resources Inc Traffic Control and Management PIs: S.-Q. Li and G. de Veciana National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research provide additional support for Prof. G. Xu's research DoD Joint Services Electronics Program, AFOSR F-49620-95-C-0045 PIs: E. Powers Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Advanced Technology Program grant for 2000-2001. ``Development of Wideband Vector Channel Models and Testbed for 3rd Generation Wireless Mobile Systems" PIs: G. Xu, H. Ling, and Dr. Heinrich Foltz at UT Pan American
ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS & MANAGEMENT
Computational Finance(PI: Patrick Jaillet)
Collaboration:
- Algorithmics: www.algorithmics.com - Full suite of software packages for portfolio tracking and risk management applications(worth $1.5 million)
- SciComp: www.scicomp.com - SciFinance: code generating software, originally developed for fluid flow problems, geared towards generating option pricing code
Enterprise Systems Management (PI: Larry Leibrock)
Attached is an National Institute of Standards and Technology "accepted" paper for the development of the Advanced Encryption Standard.
This paper will be formally accepted for review and made part of the proceedings of the Second Advanced Encryption Standard AES Candidate Conference to be help in Rome Italy on March 22-23, 1999. http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/round1/conf2/aes2cfp.htm
I want to personally thank Dell, Microsoft and Intel for supporting this computer security research work. The recent LARIAT provided - Dell 610 Pentium III was clearly central to this research and resultant paper. I wish to thank Intel for the Pentium III and Microsoft for the use of NT and Visual C++. We will post additional AES materials to our Business School Information Security Web Site at http://niim.bus.utexas.edu
Another collaboration effort is entitled A High-School Outreach Project (AMIGOS). The UT Business School is completing this 2nd high school project in Laredo, Texas. The project is on an Intel server at http://amigos.bus.utexas.edu/.
Enterprise W2K Dell/Business School Project:
The Business School/Dell Spring Summer internship involved 12 MBA students working with Microsoft Solutions Framework in planning for Microsoft 2000. Detailed reports, statements of work were completed and the project was a success for both UT-Business School and Dell. The project is now complete. We have now moved to Windows 2000 RC1 and are planning a Q1 deployment on 4 - 8 way SMP servers.