ENGINEERING

SAN DIEGO, CA -- The Access Grid Technical Retreat 2002 will be held March 4 and 5, in San Diego, CA. The events will immediately precede the NPACI All-Hands meeting, which will be held March 6-9 in San Diego. Registration and housing information will be posted soon on the technical retreat website, www.mcs.anl.gov/fl/accessgrid/ag-retreat-2002/index2002.htm. Planners are seeking papers for the retreat as well as proposals for exhibits and technical demonstrations. Authors of papers should submit extended abstracts of no more than 1,000 words (not including figures or references) by Feb.1 to ag2002@mcs.anl.gov. Authors should submit their abstracts electronically. They will be notified of acceptance by Feb. 15. Exhibit and technical demonstration proposals should include a two- to four-page description. These proposals also must be submitted by Feb. 1 to ag2002@mcs.anl.gov. The Technical Retreat 2002 will be a forum allowing members of the Access Grid (AG) community the chance to present information about future technical directions for the AG and about research related to the AG. The retreat will focus on future technical directions for the AG and related collaborative projects. The retreat will allow the AG community to gather to discuss the status of the AG project, present new technical proposals, and plan events that will help refine and improve the AG. It will include invited talks, contributed presentations, panel discussions, and birds of a feather meetings. Topics to be covered at the retreat are being discussed by the retreat program committee and are subject to the committee's approval. Current topics under discussion include the following: *AG 2.0 release status *AG documentation project *ACE Global Grid Forum Research Progress Report *Automated NCSA AG scheduler *Linux: open source solutions for high-quality video *Implementation resources *Self-supportive, self-testing AG nodes or communities *Building AG tools, applications, and contributed software *Globus Web integration services *Grid integration *Efficient resources to support the AG community *Commercial packaging