News 10-15-2002
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Stanford Law School Launches Center for E-Commerce
Stanford Law School last week launched the Center for E-Commerce, a forum for
scholars, policymakers, lawyers, and industry executives to explore electronic
commerce law. Faculty of the Center will collaborate on interdisciplinary research
and policy making. The center also will host conferences, including its Oct.
23 inaugural meeting on the topic of: "Burst of the Bubble: Lessons and Opportunities
from the Dot-Com Collapse." Alexander Alben, vice president of RealNetworks,
said: “The burst of the dot-com bubble has motivated many companies to reconsider
how they transact business online. Stanford University offers an ideal forum
to help corporations examine the enormous impact of the law on the emerging
business models shaped by the Internet.”
For more information, visit: Center for E-Commerce: http://lawtech.stanford.edu/ecommerce
Program in Law, Science & Technology: http://lawtech.stanford.edu
NSF's Grant Expands TeraGrid Fast Infrastructure Project
The National Science Foundation awarded the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA) $35 million to expand its TeraGrid project, an effort to
build the world's largest, fastest, distributed infrastructure for open scientific
research. The award expands the project to five sites: NCSA at the University
of Illinois; the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California;
Argonne National Lab near Chicago; the Center for Advanced Computing Research
at CalTech; and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) at Carnegie Mellon
and the University of Pittsburgh. “This expansion of the TeraGrid will provide
computing power to scientists that is orders of magnitude beyond anything we've
ever seen before," said NCSA Director Dan Reed. “At this point, we can't even
begin to imagine the discoveries that the TeraGrid will make possible.”
For more information, visit: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
Central Michigan U. Opens High-Tech Incubator
Central Michigan University has opened a high-tech incubator at its Center
for Applied Research & Technology (CART), a facility designed to offer emerging
start-up companies flexible lease options, access to a powerful supercomputer,
high speed Internet connections, geographic information systems, and data mining
technologies. Tenants of the 12,000-square foot, $1.5-million facility will
also have access to business advice and services from a corporate-university
partnership of the CMU, Dow Chemical Co., and IBM Corp. The resulting CMU Research
Corp. will provide forums, capital pre-qualification, and assistance in marketing,
financial planning, business plan development and support and technology.
For more information, visit: http://www.thecenter.cmich.edu
Baylor Institutes Research Data Management Tool
Baylor College of Medicine's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology is
working with new software that automates the research service request system
operating between researchers and laboratory personnel. Research requests are
initiated via a Web-based system and manipulated by staff members via PDAs for
faster, accurate data exchange. The research data management system, which uses
Enabler software from Stone Bond Enterprise Inc., replaces Baylor's paper-based
system with an infrastructure for lab operations, handling research requests;
entering, managing and analyzing data; and billing. Service response data and
comments are entered by researchers onto PDAs as the test procedures are executed.
The data is captured and harvested for statistical analysis, audit trails, and
billing integration into Baylor's SAP system.
Penn State Tracks Computing, Network Assets
Penn State's School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has started
using a tool that allows it to track its telecommunications and IT assets, including
laptops, desktops, network hardware, bandwidth, and software. The tool, from
NetCracker Technology, will manage details of the school’s IT and communications
infrastructure through the lifecycle of the assets, from acquisition to retirement.
The software provides access to metrics to help measure asset value, minimize
risks, address asset performance and availability, manage contracts and leases
, and help ensure higher user productivity. The software is built on the open,
Web-based J2EE platform.
WebCT Chief Vallone Receives e-Biz Honors
Carol Vallone, who built WebCT into a force in the e-learning industry, was
honored last week by the Massachusetts Electronic Commerce Association as one
of 10 New England e-business leaders who have made significant strides in the
development of information and Internet technology in business, academia or
the public sector. "The Mass eComm 10 shines a spotlight on business and technology
leaders with a focus on winning ideas, best practices and real applications
of successful e-business strategies,” said Thomas Hopcroft, president of the
Mass eComm Association. “Carol Vallone epitomizes that ideal.” In 1995 Vallone
launched Universal Learning Technology, an e-learning company that merged four
years later with WebCT and took the name to reflect both its installed base
and strategic direction.
