Published every two weeks, October 24th, 2001

NU's Critical Role in the NSF Advisory Committee's Successful First Use of Multipoint Videoconferencing Technology

By Larry Amiot AT-IT

Last week Northwestern hosted the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Advisory Committee meeting at NU's Rebecca Crown Center. One of the important and successful features of this meeting was the fact that a number of Committee members and staff, unwilling or unable to travel because of recent events, attended via videoconferencing from remote sites across the United States. Approximately twenty Committee members and staff traveled to Northwestern while the remainder of the twenty-four Committee members and their staff attended via videoconferencing in the Committee's first use of interactive, multipoint videoconferencing in one of their bi-yearly meetings.

This year the CISE Advisory Committee meeting at Northwestern included presentations and interactive discussions from Committee members, both at the Northwestern site as well as nation-wide remote sites. Joining remotely were participants from the Stanford Research Institute, Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the University of Washington, CALTECH, and the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. Staff of the Bureau of Labor Statistics also participated as interested observers from a remote site in Washington D.C.

The ability of the CISE Advisory Committee to contribute information promptly to the National Science Foundation is crucial. The CISE Advisory Committee supplements NSF knowledge by providing up-to-date information on the state of the field, by performing specialized policy-informing functions, by facilitating the Foundation's response to rapid changes in the CISE sub-disciplines, and by identifying situations requiring policy attention.

Northwestern University's Information Technology played a critical role in making the Advisory Committee meeting possible. NUIT provided the Multipoint Control Unit that controlled and handled the switching of video for the conference and provided network support in Rebecca Crown Center's Hardin Hall. Additionally, NUIT provided streaming of the meeting on the Internet, and all the audio/video instrumentation, control and switching for the meeting.

Of the eight sites that were remote to Northwestern, six used the H.323 videoconferencing protocol that uses the Internet for connectivity and two used the H.320 videoconferencing protocol that uses ISDN telecommunication lines for connectivity. A gateway that is a part of Northwestern University's enterprise videoconferencing system provided a means for the H.323 and H.320 sites to interact in a single conference.

If you have any questions about the use of Videoconferencing at NU, please register for the "Utilizing Videoconferencing Services at NU" presentation on November 8th, or contact Larry Amiot at amiot@northwestern.edu.