MODEST-9c

Using Virtual Worlds for Interactive Simulations
of Star Cluster Evolution

    

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Japan
(NAOJ; http://www.nao.ac.jp)

National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan
(NII; http://www.nii.ac.jp)

This informal workshop will focus on the use of virtual worlds, such as Second Life and OpenSim, the open source version of Second Life, as venues for running and visualizing simulations of star cluster evolution. The meeting is sponsored by MICA, the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics, based in Second Life, and will be held in two different locations in Real Life: at NAOJ, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and NII, the National Institute for Informatics, both in Tokyo, Japan.

MODEST-9c will take place from September 7 - 11, 2009. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday, September 7, 2009, NII:   AstroSim Introduction and Testing
  
  
  • 14:00: AstroSim Presentation and AstroSim II Introduction, by Arturo Nakasone
  • 14:30: AstroSim II Experiment explanation, by Arturo Nakasone
  • 14:45: AstroSim II Environment Setting, by Arturo Nakasone
  • 15:00: AstroSim II Testing and Discussion, moderated by Piet Hut
  • 16:00: End of first day
  
  
• Tuesday, September 8, 2009, NII:   Algorithms for Star Cluster Dynamics
  Meet at the entrance of NII at 10 am. The discussion will take place in room 2006 (20th floor).
  If you arrive after 10 am, please go directly to room 2006.
  
  
  • 10:00: Introduction by Steve McMillan
  • 10:30: Progress report on GRAPE-DR, by Jun Makino
  • 11:00: Progress report on AMUSE, by Simon Portegies Zwart
  • 11:30: Progress report on GPU use, by Keigo Nitadori
  • 12:00: Lunch
  • 14:00: General discussion about algorithms
  • 16:00: Evaluation of general discussion, led by Steve McMillan
  • 17:00: End of second day
  
  
• Wednesday, September 9, 2009, NII:   AstroSim Open Forum
  A more detailed program from NII can be found here.
  
  
  • 14:30: AstroSim and AstroSim II Applications - Objectives and Main Features, by Arturo Nakasone
  • 14:45: NAREGI Version 1 and Cyber-Science Infrastructure, by Kenichi Miura
  • 15:00: Introduction to MICA, a virtual astronomy department, by Piet Hut
  • 15:15: Drinking from a Fire Hose: using virtual worlds to visualize supercomputer simulations, by Jun Makino
  • 15:30: MODEST & MUSE: coordinating global collaborations, by Steve McMillan
  • 15:45: Summary of CosmoGrid, by Simon Portegies Zwart
  • 16:00: Astrosim II and Beyond: multi-year vision, by Arturo Nakasone
  • 16:15: Discussion about visualization setup, user interface, and data analysis, moderated by Piet Hut
  • 17:00: End of third day
  
  
• Thursday, September 10:   Informal discussion
  
  
  • 11:30: Meet in the lobby of Hotel Villa Fontaine, 1-30 Jimbou-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
  
  
• Friday, September 11, NAOJ:   CosmoGrid meeting
  
  
  • 10:00: Meeting starts
    ...
  • 5:00: Meeting ends