Amber Reynolds, live from Oklahoma, presents preliminary research
results to her peers in Boulder over the AccessGrid on 22 July 2004.
Atzel Drevon, leg in a cast, gives a talk on his research methodology
to SOARS protégés on 22 July 2004.
SCD's Darin Oman runs the AccessGrid for the 22 July SOARS seminar.
SCD's Brian Bevirt mentors protégé Tanya Craft on
her research paper.
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This summer, SCD helped two
students in the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and
Science (SOARS) program give face-to-face presentations to their peers
and mentors — even though they were thousands of miles away.
Three days before SOARS protégé Atzel Drevon was set
to fly to Boulder from Puerto Rico, he broke his leg. After undergoing
surgery, he received doctor's orders not to travel for six weeks. Meanwhile,
Amber Reynolds, a third-year SOARS protégé, was gaining
valuable experience working offsite at the National Severe Storms Laboratory
in Norman, Oklahoma.
But through the magic of the AccessGrid, both were able to attend
the 24 June 2004 SOARS seminar in which protégés defended
their summer research proposals.
Darin Oman, a Visualization
Lab operator in SCD's Visualization and Enabling Technologies Section
(VETS), spent hours on the phone with each of them, setting them up
for a virtual meeting over the AccessGrid. The AccessGrid uses multicast
technology to allow people in different locations to see, hear, and
speak to each other in real time.
"Atzel was already technically enabled," says SOARS director
Raj Pandya. "He had a SWIKI [collaborative web technology], a
webcam, the ability to do conference calls. Nevertheless, it wasn't
an easy thing to arrange — I'm guessing that not a lot of people
are trying to connect to the Grid from their home laptops. Darin had
to find a way to make the data feed work. He discovered a software
package from that worked over a cable modem; he researched mikes, picked
them up at the store, and mailed them out — he did an amazing
job."
At the June seminar, Atzel and Amber were able to defend their proposals,
listen to presentations, and participate in Q&A with the other
protégés — and Atzel even showed off his cast.
"It was a great collaboration between SCD and SOARS,"
says VETS manager Don Middleton. "We used emerging collaboration
technology to keep the protégés in touch with their peers
and program. Cool stuff!"
SOARS used the AccessGrid again on 22 July, when Amber, still in
Oklahoma, joined her peers to present the methodology and preliminary
results of their summer research.
Happily, Atzel was able to attend this time in person.
Helping protégés with computing fundamentals
SCD's support of SOARS started early in the summer when SCD organized
a series of seminars in computing fundamentals for protégés
to help them focus more efficiently on the science aspects of their
research projects. Siddhartha Ghosh, a consultant in SCD's User Services
Section, gave an introduction to UNIX, while Steve Worley, manager
of SCD's Data Support Section, described NCAR's massive research data
archive from the perspective of a new user. Sylvia Murphy of NCAR's
Climate and Global Dynamics Division gave an overview of NCAR Command
Language (NCL), an SCD-supported software package for data analysis
and visualization. The University of Colorado's Mark Petersen talked
about using Fortran for scientific research.
"SCD has been wonderful," Raj says. "The seminars
were relevant because all the protégés are working in
a UNIX environment using scientific datasets from NCAR. The presentations
were great; hopefully we'll expand them next year, if SCD is willing."
Dick Valent, assistant manager of SCD's User Support Section, worked
with Raj to coordinate the seminars. "SCD got together with the
protégés this year to find out what they wanted; it's
important we look at each incoming class and see what their needs might
be," he says. "We intend to develop a relationship with SOARS
for the future. This isn't a one-time deal."
Other SCD staff working with the SOARS program this summer are writing
mentor Brian Bevirt, community
mentor Susan Cross, and science mentor Tom Engel.
More information
The SOARS program offers support in scientific research and writing
for students pursuing careers in the atmospheric and related sciences.
SOARS is dedicated to increasing the number of African-American, American
Indian, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian-American students enrolled in masters
and doctoral degree programs. SOARS works to increase ethnic diversity
in the scientific community of the future.
For more information, see the SOARS
web page.
— Lynda Lester
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