SC|05, the international conference for high performance computing networking and storage, announced today that it is incorporating an online phase in its Education Program, to be delivered through the Sakai Project, a landmark venture to create open-source course management, collaboration and online research support tools for the higher education community. SC|05, sponsored by ACM and IEEE, initiates the online feature beginning in October, a month before the actual conference, which runs from November 12-18 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, WA. The online Education Program will continue through June 2006. The Sakai Project originated as a collaboration between the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It utilizes the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE), an open source software environment located at Michigan, to host content on a variety of topics ranging from Introduction to Computational Science to advanced concepts such as submitting jobs to TeraGrid like environments. Participants will use Sakai’s collaboration tools to foster community building. The SC|05 Education Program draws participants from diverse geographical locations who team up throughout the year to integrate their knowledge. as they gain a greater understanding of high performance computing. “These multi-disciplinary teams work on projects that apply High Performance Computing (HPC) in nanotechnology, life science, and other technical fields,” said Gary Bertoline of Purdue University, chair of the SC|05 Education Program. “Sakai is significantly advancing our ability to reach our goal impact education at various levels.” Joseph Hardin, director of the Collaborative Technologies Laboratory at the University of Michigan, sees advantages in Sakai’s partnership with SC|05. “The Sakai Project provides curriculum developers with a variety of content delivery tools. It is an open source system, so advanced technologies can be easily integrated, and it is designed for large projects that often have highly distributed participants, like the SC|05 Education Program,” he said. ACM President David Patterson, who will address the opening session of SC|05 on November 14, views the conference as a demonstration of ACM’s commitment to advancing computing as a science and a profession. “Sakai’s cutting edge approach to learning enables the SC|05 Education Program to apply tomorrow's technology to a broader appreciation of supercomputing’s impact on society,’ he said. For registration, program, exhibit, and travel information on SC|05, visit its Web site.