<<September 10, 2000>>
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G. Robert (Bob) Converse <bob.converse@mauicc.Hawaii.Edu>

R. Daniel Hague, BSEE, FE <dhague@umich.edu>

James R. Sheats <sheats@hpl.hp.com>

Kimberly K. Obbink, Ed.D. <kobbink@montana.edu>

Dear Bob Converse:
==================

(1) Many thanks for your msgs (ATTACHMENT I and II) with amazing progress of
your various projects.

(2) I am very happy to know that the construction of your new $13.5 M
Distance Ed and Information Technology Complex is now being completed.

(3) As mentioned to you when you invited me (and my wife) in February of
last year, I am very much interested in the use/control of Faulkes
telescope via Internet by K-12 students around the world.

This would definitely require broadband Internet.

I have been thinking how to help this project with our Global University
System (GUS), Global Broadband Internet (GBI) and Global Service Trust
Fund (GSTF) projects, so that the K-12 students in remote/rural areas of
developing countries have the privilege of using the telescope to view
the wonder of the universe and galaxies.

Digital Town Centers of LINCOS project in the middle of rain
forest in Costa Rica may do the job with 40 Mbps digital satellite Internet linkage.

This LINCOS project was mentioned in my last listserve
distribution UNESCO Man And Biosphere (MAB) program --
September 9, 2000" which will soon be retrievable at the web
site mentioned at the tope of this msg.

BTW, have you heard about Jason Project? It was initiated by Dr. Ballad
(out of Billings, Montana) who discovered Titanic. The project let K-12
students explore deep ocean with real-time conversation with scientists
in a submarine. You may ask more about this to Kim Obbink. If you have
both of Jason and Faulkes, your kids can explore the both of deep universe and ocean.

(4) Once such a broadband Internet linkage is made to the telescope, it
would also be used for accessing to your Higher Performance
Supercomputer Center -- to construct web site of 3D or walk-through
building (as you showed us of your center at our Tampere event last August).

(5) Congratulations for the Quizecenter on-line testing program being
purchased by Discovery School Channel!!

Pls convey my best personal regards to Tom Wright -- I hope his health has improved.

Dear Daniel:
============

(6) Many thanks for your info (ATTACHMENT III).

This is very exciting -- incidentally, I heard about it from the
president of the University of Sriname during our Manaus workshop last May/June.

As talked with him, the problem is how to get from the coastal cities to
in-land -- particularly in developing countries in Latin America.

Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I

Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 17:21:45 -1000
From: Bob Converse <Bob.Converse@mauicc.hawaii.edu>
Organization: University of Hawaii, Maui Community College
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
Subject: Up-date

Tak - thought I'd give you an up-date on MCC and what I've been up to..
We have submitted a preliminary proposal to NSF for funding for a two
year associate degree program in High Perfomance Computer
Technology...it will be another branch of our Electronics and Computer
Engineering Technology Program. Maui Community College is the lead
institution - I am the PD/PI, we have three other community colleges and
their supercomputer partners in our consortium as follows: Wake
Technical Community College and the North Carolina SuperComputer Center;
Pellissippi State Technical Community College and the Oak Ridge National
Labs in TN; Contra Costa College in Ca and their partner Livermore Natl
Lab. Our partner is Maui High Performance Computing Center...the
curriculum addresses both supercomputing and PC-cluster (Beowulf)
platforms with many web-based courses being developed (some of these
courses are currently being developed as a result of another grant I got
- we will have also added more nodes to our Beowulf Cluster under this
grant; we were successful with our Title III proposal and have funding
for our Media Arts Technology Program (5 years) - I'm Project Director;
These programs and ECET will be housed in the new $13.5 M Distance Ed
and Information Technology Complex (the one I had the animation of) which
is now under construction. We are working with the Center for
Excellence in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Mgt as well as the
Pacific Disaster Center on Maui on a two year program in Disaster
Mgt..I'm i charge of that program...Discovery School channel has
purchased our Quizcenter on-line testing program that was developed by
Tom Wright at the MRTC under the old NSF Grant; This fall the UH
Community College System will offer a complete Liberal Arts Associate
Degree Program on-line; I'm off to the mainland Monday for some meetings
but will return around June 15...take care...Bob
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 09:04:15 -1000
From: Bob Converse <Bob.Converse@mauicc.Hawaii.Edu>
Subject: Up-dates
To: Utsumi@columbia.edu
Organization: University of Hawaii, Maui Community College

Hi Tak - thought I'd bring you up-to-date on what we are doing

We recived a positive review from NSF on our High Perfomance Computing
Technology proposal - in fact NSF suggested we look into the possibility
of becoming a National Center for High Performance Computing Technology
and have regional centers at the other consortium members...Contra Costa
in CA, Pellissippi in TN and Wake State Tech in NC. MCC will also serve
as a regional center (in addition to the National Center) with Alaska,
and the Pacific as our servioce area..including Samoa, Guam and the
Maruiannas). We have begun construction on our new computing/media
arts/distance education building and it is about half finished. ECET
program is going strong and have several positive external evaluations
(including yours) which I am submitting with the final report later this
month. Faulkes telescope base funding is part of the UH Foundation fund
raising effort and should be fully funded soon. Telscope is still under
constrcution. We are going to re-tool an infrared filte from another
scope to fit the 2-meter Faulkes so we can have continuos (day/night)
viewing with MCC as control center and actual control of the scope
direction being accomplished through the internet. We are also starting
to work on the media arts technology degree program and the disaster
management degree program. Thats about it for now...best to Ben and all
Bob
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III

Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 05:19:19 -0400
From: "R. Daniel Hague" <dhague@umich.edu>
To: Tak Utsumi <utsumi@friends-partners.org>
Subject: PROJECT WILL EXTEND HIGH-SPEED NETWORKING TO LATIN AMERICA

PROJECT WILL EXTEND HIGH-SPEED NETWORKING TO LATIN AMERICA
Abilene and other high-speed research networks in the U.S. and
other countries will reach Latin American universities and
research organizations by mid September as the result of a $30
million backbone network project. Americas Path, a new
consortium created by the Florida International University in
Miami and Internet communications firm Global Crossing, is
supplying fiber-optic cable and high-speed circuits to link over
250 Latin American universities and research facilities to the
high-speed networks. The project will benefit researchers around
the world by facilitating the flow of information. For example,
the Gemini South telescope in Chile, which generates some of the
best images available to astronomers today, will be easily
accessible to scientists from any location. Without the
high-speed networks, researchers have been forced to conduct
scientific exchanges via satellite and standard Internet
connections that lack sufficient bandwidth. To complete the
Internet gateway to Latin America, Global Crossing is providing
10 high-speed circuits and installing fiber-optic cable along
most of Latin America's coast. Meanwhile, Lucent and Cisco are
providing high-speed switches and routers.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 14 Aug 2000)
****************************************
List of Distribution

G. Robert (Bob) Converse
Project Director/Principal Investigator
National Science Foundation
Advanced Technology Education Project
Maui Community College
310 Ka'a Humanu Ave.
Kahului, Hawaii 96732
USA
Tel: +1-808-984 3447
Fax: +1-808-244 0862
bob.converse@mauicc.Hawaii.Edu
http://www.ecet.mauicc.hawaii.edu
ttp://www.ecet.mauicc.hawaii.edu/ecet/presentations/

R. Daniel Hague, BSEE, FE
Director of Video Services
Information Technology Division
The University of Michigan Health System
4251 Plymouth Road #2235
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105-2785
734-763-0698
Fax: 734 615-1727
Video: 2x64 734.615.2756/57
dhague@umich.edu
dhague@netscape.net
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dhague
http://www.ns.itd.umich.edu/groups/Engin/Digital_Video/digvid.html

James R. Sheats
Program Manager, World E-services
Hewlett-Packard Co.
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Tel. 650-857-5987
Fax 650-813-3152
sheats@hpl.hp.com

Kimberly K. Obbink, Ed.D.
Director
Burns Telecommunications Center and Extended Studies
128 EPS Building,
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717-3860
USA
Tel: +1-406-994 6550
Fax: +1-406-994 7856
kobbink@montana.edu
http://btc.montana.edu
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education) *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************

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