RCMI Center for Information Architecture in Research Holds First Access Grid® Session

Clockwise from left: José G. Conde, Deb Agarwal, Rajesh Narayan and Monika Rabarison.

The Center for Information Architecture in Research (CIAR) at the Medical Sciences Campus held its first Access Grid® session on March 30, 2005. The meeting was a multipoint conference with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Jackson State University. Participants included Deb Agarwal, PhD, Staff Scientist at Berkeley Labs; James L. Perkins, PhD, Director of the Office of Research, Industrial and Community Relations, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University; Byron Matheson, Chief Executive Officer, Clear Nova; Rajesh Narayan, Vice President, Professional Services, ClearNova; Monika Rabarison, Systems Administrator, Scientific Visualization Laboratory, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University, and José G. Conde, MD, MPH, Director, CIAR. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange information related to the development of informatics resources in support of the RCMI Translational Research Network under development.

The Access Grid (http://www.accessgrid.org) is an ensemble of audio and video resources used to support group-to-group interactions across the Internet. Each institution has one or more nodes, or "designed spaces" that combine the necessary technology to provide a high-quality collaborative environment. The Access Grid has over 1,500 users worldwide.

CIAR staff had tested the technology several times. This is the first time the Center, or any other unit at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, uses this Access Grid in a real meeting. CIAR will soon have a dedicated space to deploy its own Access Grid node.

We thank our colleagues at Berkeley Labs and Jackson State for the opportunity to participate in this Access Grid meeting.