VCU researchers to be part of international internet conference

By Pamela Lippincott

RICHMOND, Va. — Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University will log on to the Internet for the largest ever Internet2 multi-site conference. VCU is participating with more than 50 national and international research institutions and networking organizations in the Internet2 Fall Meeting scheduled for Oct. 11-13 in Seattle, with simultaneous broadcast over the Internet.

The Megaconference event will be a continuous multi-site H.323 Internet video conference. H.323 Internet2 has larger band width capability than the more commonly used Internet. It supports the high-speed transmission of large amounts of data, an essential feature for researchers.

"Our current Internet is saturated with email and commercial activities and there is a need for Internet2 for the development of a higher speed network to support medical research and education," said Phyllis C. Self, Ph.D., VCU vice provost for academic technology and VCU’s Internet2 representative. "We need to be able to facilitate physician and patient consultations over the Internet and to support them with audio and video images. This conference will test Internet2 and demonstrate its capabilities."

Participating sites will log on from their respective locations and engage in live demonstrations of H.323 video conferencing. Each institution will address the conference participants, describe their deployment of H.323, and talk about and showcase H.323 applications at their site. Ronald C. Merrell, M.D., F.A.C.S., chairman of VCU’s Department of Surgery and director of VCU/NASA’s Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium, and Carol Hampton, associate dean for faculty and instructional development in VCU’s School of Medicine, will describe how Internet2 will support their telemedicine and distance education initiatives.

In addition, students from VCU’s dance department will give a live dance presentation for conference participants. Martha Curtis, chair of the VCU School of the Arts Department of Dance and Choreography, and Bruce Berryhill, producer/director of Video and Distance Learning for Henrico County Public Schools, will lead the demonstration over Internet2 on Oct. 12 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Using live examples, they will discuss the challenges of capturing the kinetic, three-dimensional elements of dance through the camera's eye.

"It’s incredible to have VCU’s School of the Arts involved in testing the technology of the future," said Self. "This presentation will help us see if Internet2 can really support dynamic movement, like that of a dancer."

VCU’s participation is made possible through a collaboration with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. VCU presentations will be telecast live from Virginia Tech’s Internet2 studio in Richmond, located at 11 South12th St., first floor. The Megaconference also can be viewed in room 448, VCU’s James Branch Cabell Library, 901 Park Ave., Oct. 11-13, from 11:00 a.m.- 9:00 p.m. For more information, call (804) 828-6535.

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