TRACC CFD Training at Three U.S. Sites in Virtual Classrooms Using Internet2

Argonne National Laboratory´s Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center (TRACC) conducted a three day computational fluid dynamics (CFD) training course on April 27 -29, 2009, using Internet2 technology to create a virtual classroom with video and content sharing between three sites in the U.S. The TRACC Collaboratory was the host site for the CFD training course, and the two remote virtual classroom sites were the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia and the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Nebraska. Two large screens at each site showed views of the three classrooms and the technical course material. The Internet2 video, audio, and data links provided the technology for group discussions of course material with the remote sites. A highlight of the course was a set of hands on tutorial problems in which participants at all three sites used CAD geometry and STAR-CCM+ CFD software to, for example, build a bridge geometry, set up the physics for bridge flooding conditions, and run the CFD software to compute flood forces on the bridge under the guidance of instructors Dr. Steven Lottes and Dr. Tanju Sofu at TRACC. When students ran into problems in a tutorial, they were able to transmit their laptop screen content to the other sites allowing instructors at TRACC to help them resolve problems. Participants at all sites were able to see and hear how problems were resolved. Course participants without Internet2 access at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Iowa were able to watch and listen to the course using Adobe Connect in an internet browser.