Carleton Immersive Media graduate student Philam Nguyan, left, and fourth-year student Morgan Ip Tang. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Two groups of Carleton University students will make history this evening by showcasing the commercial potential of high performance grid computing in the architectural industry.

The students from the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) will be linked via computer with other students from their school who have traveled to the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the University of California in San Diego.

Led by Prof. Michael Jemtrud, director of CIMS, the Carleton students will work simultaneously via computer network lightpaths on a highly detailed, complex three-dimensional digital replica of the famous Salk Institute for Biological Studies on Sept. 26 from 9:30-11 p.m.

The massive quantities of data required for the CIMS students' design will travel on User Controlled LightPaths, or fibre-optic linked networks, at speeds of one gigabit per second. This transmission is the equivalent of sending all the music on 1.5 compact discs in a second, an entire DVD movie in about four seconds or 20,000 web pages in one second.

"What we are doing today signals a paradigm shift in the world of architectural design and CIMS is leading the way," says Prof. Jemtrud, who accompanied the student team in San Diego.

"We are showing that the technology now exists to quickly link architects, designers, engineers and construction teams together in a seamless real-time digital work environment for flawless execution in a fraction of the time of traditional processes."

The Carleton students' project was selected as an opening night presentation of the global iGrid 2005 showcase. Their demonstration will take place from 9:30 to 11 p.m., and also from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 and 28.

The CIMS teams are using CA*Net 4, which will be linked to other high speed research networks as part of the Global Lambda Integrated Facility, an international virtual high speed computer research network. CA*Net 4 is Canada's high-speed national research and education network established by Ottawa's CANARIE Inc.

"It is exciting to see CA*Net 4 transforming not only what people do, but how they do it," says Andrew Bjerring, president and CEO of CANARIE. "CIMS is demonstrating the practical utility of lightpath capabilities and the power of the network to allow them to create new collaborations and achieve innovative results."

In addition to CANARIE, the CIMS demonstration involves the support of a number of partners, including the Communications Research Centre, the National Research Council and corporate partners, such as IBM, Cisco Canada and Alias Wavefront.