[AG-TECH] UPDATE: URGENT CALL for Access Grid Expertise from PRAGMA site

[Teri Simas]

Dear All -

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, a message from Dr. Fang-Pang Lin of the 
NCHC in Taiwan was received requesting immediate technical assistance 
due to the SARS disaster.  The same evening, a VTC was held with the 
PRAGMA-4 Program Committee, to include Dr. Lin, where a more urgent 
request was issued.  Shortly after 10pm on May 15, 2003, the subject 
message "URGENT CALL for Access Grid Expertise from PRAGMA site" was 
sent out from the UC San Diego PRAGMA Team to the PRAGMA community, 
reaching participants in 12 countries throughout the Pacific Rim.

The response was immediate.  Initial offers to assist and take action 
came from CNIC at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Argonne National 
Laboratory (ANL), Indiana University (TransPAC), AIST in Japan, and 
NCSA, with replies from other institutions following (e.g. Rajesh 
Chhabra at the QPSF MetaCentre Facility in Australia).  The initial 
message for assistance was forwarded to the access grid community 
(Rick Stevens, Terry Disz of ANL) and the Global Grid Forum (Charlie 
Catlett and Mary Spada), and additional replies followed, offering to 
send gear, remote expertise, and Chinese speaking support staff. 
While UCSD staff coordinated efforts from the PRAGMA community, Terry 
Disz of ANL took immediate action and coordinated responses from the 
access grid community.  The initial efforts, and deployment of inSORS 
and access grid technology to Taiwan, took less than 12 hours.

On Saturday, May 17th, at 5:15pm (PST) an emergency VTC was held with 
participants from UCSD (Peter Arzberger, Philip Papadopoulos, Teri 
Simas, David Lee) and NCHC  (Fang-Pang Lin, Steve Shiau, and many 
others), with ANL (Terry Disz, Ivan Judson, Tom Uram), and inSORS 
(Jim Miller) participating by telephone. The discussion surrounded 
issues regarding the AG v2 unicast bridge, along with other logistics 
for implementation of AccessGrid network within 3 Taiwan hospitals.

Once successful, they hope to expand to 7 area hospitals.

In addition, information was exchanged in regards to the  technology 
surrounding the exchange of medical files, in particular, x-rays of 
patients afflicted with the SARS virus.  They are hoping to allow 
doctors remote viewing and collaboration of patient x-rays and other 
information to provide expert diagnosis and analysis to combat the 
SARS crisis. An additional concern surrounded the size of their 
database, which limited the amount of data they are able to 
accommodate.  At present there are 3,000 patients, each requiring a 
minimum of one x-ray per day, for 30 days.  The size of each file 
(x-ray) ranges from 1MB-20MB.  UCSD is able to immediately assist 
with this storage problem via the SRB. David Lee (UCSD) responded to 
their immediate portal needs and will continue to assist with the 
user interface, while the staff at ANL and inSORS were able to 
immediately ship the new codes required to update their AG server. In 
addition, Mark Ellisman (UCSD) offered any immediate telescience 
portal assistance needed (per telephone conversation earlier in the 
day).

At present we are awaiting an update from the staff from NCHC for 
more specific needs, and appreciate everyone's concerns and 
willingness to help.  We will continue to coordinate efforts and will 
update you as progress is made.

Warmest regards,

Teri Simas
PRAGMA Program Manager
University of California, San Diego
San Diego Supercomputer Center, 0505
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093-0505
USA
http://www.pragma-grid.org
Phone:  (858) 534-5034
Fax:  (858) 822-5407