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Published on March 17, 2008

Researchers will soon share their studies and discoveries more easily across borders thanks to grid-computing infrastructure and applications.

A group of researchers at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thon Buri have been working on a grid application called Virtual Research Centre (VRC).

Tiranee Achalakul, the project leader, said the VRC project will develop virtual spaces over a grid-computing network to serve three main uses - to enable virtual classrooms, online conferencing and virtual laboratories.

VRC will develop a set of Web-based applications, designed for the Windows platform, to run over grid-computing networks. Initially, the VRC application was designed for a virtual laboratory, which requires huge bandwidth for sharing research activities in real time, across laboratories in various locations.

Inside the three main applications there are eight tools which allow users to collaborate online in real time. The tools included are chat, webcam, conferencing, presentation viewing, whiteboard sharing, file sharing, video playback, browser access and sharing applications such as CAD/CAM and electronic maps.

Users first need to download and install a client engine on their computers. The system is designed to give multiple users access to all three applications at the same time.

"Since the applications will eventually be deployed over a grid network, they were designed to serve a huge number of concurrent users as well as to smoothly support rich applications, as well as video playback," Tiranee said.

The idea is part of grid-application development undertaken by the Thai National Grid Centre (TNGC) to promote grid computing.

"We were funded by TNGC with Bt1 million for six months," Tiranee said.

The application is past development and will be tested for two months across six sites - King Mongkut's University of Technology Thon Buri, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok, Kasetsat University, Chulalongkorn University and the National Electronics and Computer Technology.

The university will implement the virtual-classroom module in the Engineering Department in the next semester for a trial period.

The field tests will be conducted over six months to get feedback and improve the applications, which will finally be launched to run over the TNGC grid free of charge.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation