Access Grid Conference Facility History

The first Access Grid (AG) node at Boston University was assembled in the summer of 1999, in a small conference room in the basement of 111 Cummington Street. Over the summer, the node was used at least twice a week for test sessions and small, mostly impromptu meetings.

Our AG node had its first significant use during Alliance Chautauqua 99, a series of two-day conferences on computational science organized by the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance). The week of August 9, 1999, Boston University staff participated in a Chautauqua at University of New Mexico using the AG; staff also participated via AG in a Chautauqua at University of Kentucky the week of August 23, 1999. Boston University Access Grid staff traveled to New Mexico and Kentucky for these events, and helped to run the AG nodes at these locations.

In preparation for Allliance Chautauqua 99 at Boston University, our AG node was moved from its small conference room setting into the George Sherman Union conference auditorium, which seats 250 people. This move took place the weekend of September 11-12, 1999, and required substantial changes in many major systems.

Our AG node was used extensively during Alliance Chautauqua 99 at Boston University, September 14-15, 1999. SItes joining the conference via AG included

• Alliance Center for Collaboration, Education, Science and Software (ACCESS);
• Argonne National Laboratory;
• Maui High Performance Computing Center;
• Moscow State University;
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA);
• University of Kentucky;
• University of New Mexico; and
• University of Utah

After the conference, our AG node was dissassembled for a few weeks, then reassembled in a small office using a slightly different hardware configuration (primarily meaning that we used only one projector). This mini-node was used for a good number of meetings and demonstrations.

Our AG node made its next public appearance at Supercomputing 1999 (SC99), when it was shipped to Portland, Oregon and reassembled in the Boston University booth. An additional mini-node was set up at Boston University, allowing Boston University to participate in the Access Grid from both coasts. During SC99, a number of AG nodes both on the show floor and across the country were used for demonstrations and training; these AG nodes were run by a number of different particpating organizations.

Our AG node was again dissassembled after SC99, this time shipped back to Boston University. It was reassembled in January, 2000, in the room now known as the Access Grid Conference Facility (room B17 in the basement of 111 Cummington Street). Since being reassembled, it has been used regularly for a variety of events: tutorials, workshops, conferences, and meetings both large and small, both formal and informal. Please see our Events page for a list of upcoming tutorials and conferences.