Minutes of APAN Education WG Meeting

1^st February 2001, 1300 - 1400 Hours

Present:

Tan Hock Soon (Chair) hocksoon@tp.edu.sg Temasek Polytechnic,SG

Lim Seow San seowsan@tp.edu.sg TP, SG

Loh Yeow Meng yeowmeng@tp.edu.sg TP, SG

Azlan Osman azlan@cs.usm.my USM, MY

Louis Fox lfox@u.washington.edu Univ. of Washington, US

John Silvester silvester@usc.edu USC, US

Tawee Sribuddee tawee@uni.net.th Uninet of Thailand

Wipaporn Wongsrisuchan wipaporn@uni.net.th Uninet of Thailand

Tang Chin Hooi hooiye@network2.cs.usm.my USM, MY

Yong-Jin Park park@nclab.hyu.ac.kr Hanyang Univ., KR

Guo Qiao qguo@bit.edu.cn Beijing Inst. of Tech., CN

Zhang ShiYong szhang@fudan.edu.cn Fudan Univ. Shanghai, CN

George McLaughlin george.mclaughlin@aarnet.edu.au AARNET

Bill Jensen wej@doit.wisc.edu UW Madison

Agenda

lRecap: Vision & Charter

lStatus Update of Activities (Sep 2000 – Jan 2001)

–Demo & Exht.

• In Adv. E-Biz. Applications Competition (8/12/00)

•Tech 2000 Games (8, 15/9/00)

•Using VR Applications in E-Commerce & Education (11/9/00)

–Paper Publications

–MOU with Mocha3D.com

–RESONATE, Temasek Poly (SG), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)

–Teleconferencing over IP Multi-cast Network, Hanyang Univ., (KR), Temasek Poly (SG)

–Video Broadcast, SNU (KR), TP (SG)

–IWE – Language Project, TP (SG), HUT (Finland)

lStatus of New Project Proposal

–VEMAT (collaboration with Manufacturing WG)

lFurther discussion with APRU on collaboration

lAOB/Call for collaboration

1. Recap of WG Vision & Charter

Chair s recaps WG Vision and Charter and asks members if there is a need to fine-tune or revise them.

Members agree to retain the present Vision and Charter.

2. Status Update & Activities

Chair update the members on progress of current projects.

lPrize Presentation Ceremony, Adv. e-Biz Applications Competiton (8^th Dec 2000) attended

by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, MP for Jalan Bersar GRC

lTech 2000 Games (8, 15 Sep 2000), http://eicu.tp.edu.sg/Archive/Tech2000/vr.htm

lSeminar (11 Sep 2000)

, Using VR Applications in E-Commerce & Education

http://eicu.tp.edu.sg/Archive/Talks/Eon/Eon.htm

Web site for download of free software: http://www.eonreality.com/downloads.htm

lPaper Publications

Tan H.S. (2000). Remote Sharing of Operation and Training Environments (RESONATE), Proceedings of

the 6th International Conference on Modern Industrial Training, Beijing, pp. 243-249.

Lee K.H., Tan H.S. & Lie T.J.(2000). Virtual Operator Interface for Telerobot Control, Proceedings of the

6th International Conference on Modern Industrial Training, Beijing, pp. 250-258.

Kor A.S.G. (2000). Virtual Training in the New Millennium at Temasek Polytechnic, Proceedings of the 6th

International Conference on Modern Industrial Training, Beijing, pp. 49-52.

Hong G.H. (2000). A Paradigm Shift in Student Internship and Industrial Projects: Think Different, Act

Different, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Modern Industrial Training, Beijing, pp. 429-

432.

lMOU with Mocha3D.Com (28 Sep 00)

In collaboration with Manufacturing WG

Jointly collaborate on the following

a. Collaborative Design System

b. Digital Warehouse/Library 3D Content

c. Web Centric Visualization Technologies

Ref: http://eicu.tp.edu.sg/Archive/MOU_Mocha/mou_mocha.htm

lRESONATE

Remote Sharing of Operation and Training Environments

Allow Institutions to share training facilities through broadband

Temasek Poly (SG), Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (HK)

National University of S’pore (SG)

Update from Singapore

(11th Oct 00) Operation of FDM in HK by students in SG

(13th Oct 00) Operation of Robot in SG by engineers in HK

(3rd Jan 01) Testing of Web Controlled Pan Tilt Zoom Camera

Update from Hong Kong, Demos conducted for:

Hon. Tung Chee Hwa, Chief Executive, HKSAR

Prof. Cheng Si-wei, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of PRC

Mr. Kwong Ki-chi, GBS, JP, Secretary of Information Technology and Broadcasting, HKSAR

Mr. Francis Ho, Director General of Industry

Mr. Joseph Wong, Secretary for Education & Manpower of HKSAR

Members of Legislative Council of HKSAR

lTeleconferening over IP Multicast Network

Hanyang Univ., KR, SNU & Temasek Polytechnic, SG

Purpose:

To test IP multicasting & measure network performance to transfer real-time multimedia data between KR and SG.

Acquire & share network technology on multicasting multi-media teleconferencing applications

Distribute lectures/seminars/training programs (explore IP/TV tools).

Status

(17th Aug 00) Problem in Connection

(17 Aug - 22nd Sep 00) Further Tests

(25th Sep 00) Successful Tests

Summary of Findings

Video Streaming Performance

KR-TP (110-130kbps), TP-KR (60-115kpbs)

Jerky

Audio Streaming Performance

Good audio signals, clear

Application Streaming via VIC

Discoloration

More tests to be conducted (graphic cards?, memory?)

Connectivity on 25th Sep onwards was good as there were no interruptions or breaks compared to previous

sessions. Managed to discover/confirm factors affecting the streaming performance.

Suggests further tests on streaming applications and educational applications.

lIWE (International Writing Exchange)

TP (SG) & Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Finland

Provides an online platform for developing writing skills via Web-boarding and video-conferencing

Students to be able to communicate on-line with fellow learners and instructors remotely

International ‘classroom without walls’

Built into Core-curriculum for students studying TCS (Technical Communication Skills) in TP

http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/index.htm

Preliminary Tests in Sep – Oct indicate that video stream and audio is still jerky

Project postponed from November as key member of the team (Mike Vallance) was involve in job transfer.

3. Status of New Projects Proposal

VEMAT (Virtual Environments for Manufacturing & Training)

A joint proposal for APEC TEL funding was put up by Manufacturing WG (Tan Kim Cheng) & Education

WG (Tan Hock Soon) and submitted on 15th September 99

Partners in this project will include:

NUS (National University of Singapore)

PolyU (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Progress Report of project:

TELWG/22/DCSG04

http://www.apii.or.kr/apecdata/telwg/22tel/dcsg/DCSG-04VEMATpro.htm

Proposed Funding amount: US$100,000

http://www.apii.or.kr/apecdata/telwg/22tel/chair/CHAIRMAN22_f.htm

(APEC TEL Chair Report)

4. Further discussion with APRU

John Silvester from USC updated Education activities in APRU. Details can be found in

http://www.usc.edu/ext-relations/news_service/apruwww/APRUNetActivities.html

John informs members regarding APRU's 2nd Annual Distance Learning and the Internet Conference to be

held in Kyoto University, May 8-11, 2001.

John advise that at the moment, there is no particular theme for Education in APRU but he added that they

should be discussing about this issue soon.

It was decided that John and Education Chair would update each other on their activities to see if there were

similarities to start a project. In the meantime, members are encouraged to start projects with APRU.

5. Any Other Business/Collaboration

Chair updates members on visit by Prof. Halimatun from UNIMAS in September 2000 as follow up from last

meeting in Beijing. She expressed interest in collaboration in Virtual Environments.

Prof. Zhang from Fudan University updates on the Distance Learning Model Project currently implemented in

China which involves 8 universities in 5 cities. Software and Content were developed by these universities and

shared. They also use video conferencing and video on demand facilities.

Prof. Guo Qiao from Beijing Institute of Technology updated members on her work in Distance Education.

She would like to discuss collaboration for VE (Virtual Environments) projects.

Prof. Park from Hanyang University agrees that for the Multicast project, the WG should be going for

application testing next.

6. Meeting Closed

With no other matters raised, meeting was closed at 1400 hours.