Submitted by:
Kent Steiner
Marketing and Sales Manager
SSESCO
511 Eleventh Avenue South, Box 212
Minneapolis, MN 55415 USA
v: (612) 342-0003
f: (612) 344-1716
e: ksteiner@ssesco.com
Categories:
Research, government
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Local commitment to network-based activities; Leverage of public funding; Partnerships between public and private sector
The Story:
Supercomputer Systems Engineering and Services Company, or SSESCO, is a small high-technology business located in Minneapolis that has been connected to the Internet through the Minnesota Regional Network (MRNet) for over two years. SSESCO produces and markets a 3-D graphics visualization product, the Environmental WorkBench, that is aimed at the environmental industry. It provides scientists and engineers one common user interface for their models and leading edge computer visualization tools to analyze their environmental model data interactively.
Because of its Internet connection, SSESCO, even as a small business in the upper midwest, can contribute its special expertise and products to the success of a large research and development project initiated in California. We are working with researchers and scientists across the country and participating in the development of a modeling system for ozone emissions in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The SARMAP project (SJVAQS I AUSPEX Regional Modeling Adaptation Project) represents the modeling and data analysis component of a multi-year collaboration between two projects – the San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Study(SJVAQS) and the Atmospheric Utility Signatures, Predictions and Experiments study (AUSPEX). The near term goal is to produce a model that can be used to examine scenarios for control of ozone emissions as required under the California Clean Air Act. The long-term goal is to lab the foundation for the development of a Comprehensive Modeling System (CMS) which could be used to simulate air quality issues such as acidic deposition, rural ozone, air toxins, visibility impairment and greenhouse warming on a regional basis.
SSESCO is one of the members of this nationwide team `of scientists and experts. Our role is to provide input on the definition of the system (hardware, software, network, communication standards) that will be developed to take maximum advantage of current technologies as well as new capabilities of the future.The SARMAP scientists and engineers are also using SSESCO’s Environmental WorkBench to display and analyze their model’s output data. This product provides a very friendly single user interface for the many different models that will be required for this project.
The Internet has played a significant role in the progress to date and its role will certainly expand in the future. It is probably safe to say that a project with this many different players locate across the country would be almost impossible to accomplish without the Internet. The magnitude and complexity of this project requires scientific expertise in specialized disciplines which must interact with each other easily and continuously. One scientist does some modelling, passes the data to the next who does his or her part and sends it on to the next. Past projects have been plagued with delays, file conversion problems and failures as tapes, files and memos were shipped via the US mail. Now with the Internet, it is relatively easy and certainly quicker for the following members of this project to use the US Internet system to work together:
- Alpine Geophysics in Colorado,
- Pennsylvania State University in Pennsylvania,
- State University of New York in New York,
- NEAR in Colorado,
- SSESCO in Minnesota
and others – all connected and working together to complete a project for our client: the California Air Resources Board in the state of California who is also now joining the Internet community!