AAA/SWITCHSUC innovation and cooperation project 2008 – 2013, final publication

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Publication detailsPublished by SWITCH; Manager and Editor: Anja Eigenmann (anja.eigenmann@switch.ch); Editorial Committee: Roland Eugster (roland.eugster@switch.ch), Petra Kauer-Ott (petra.kauer@switch.ch), Christoph Witzig (christoph.witzig@switch.ch); layout: Carmen Schickli, Zurich; photography: Domink Aebli (dominik.aebli@switch.ch), (p. 5, 32), Frank Brüderli, Stallikon (p. 1, 8, 14, 20, 26, 30, 34); illustrations Julien Eichinger, Fotolia.com (p. 23), Christoph Frei, Bern (p. 3-4), Institut für Schnee- und Lawinenforschung SLF (p. 16), remaining pictures supplied by the corresponding projects; printed by Sihldruck AG, Zurich; lithography: Roger Bahcic, Zurich; English editing/translation: Barbara Evans, Landquart, and Mark O’Neil, Zurich; French and Italian translation: Agentur der Dolmetscher- & Übersetzervereinigung, Zurich.

Print run: 3,100 copies

Address: SWITCH, Werdstrasse 2, P.O.Box, CH-8021 Zurich, phone +41 44 268 15 15, fax +41 44 268 15 68,

Front and back cover: Christoph Witzig, Petra Kauer-Ott, Christoph Graf

Contents

Overview

All the projects at a glance ..........................................3

Drei Buchstaben im Dienste der Kooperation

Ein Projektfazit ..........................................................5

Trois lettres au service de la coopération

Conclusion du projet ...................................................6

Tre lettere al servizio della cooperazione

Bilancio del progetto ..................................................7

AAA

Introduction to the domain ..........................................9

The sample projects:

Kerberos ............................................................... 10

A4mesh ................................................................. 11

AMAAIS ................................................................. 12

StrongAuthN .......................................................... 13

Grid

Introduction to the domain ....................................... 15

The sample projects:

SMSCG .................................................................. 16

Selectome .............................................................. 17

VM-MAD ................................................................ 18

Grid Data Management ............................................ 18

MUSIC ................................................................... 19

E-Learning

Introduction to the domain ........................................ 21

The sample projects:

ITSI ........................................................................22

PLE .......................................................................23

SEB ....................................................................... 24

DICE ...................................................................... 24

Mobile Uni App ........................................................25

Moodle Extensions ...................................................25

VO

Introduction to the domain .......................................27

The sample projects:

ShanghAI Lectures ..................................................28

SWITCHtoolbox .......................................................29

B-Fabric .................................................................29

Interview with Raymond Werlen, Rectors’ Conference of

the Swiss Universities (CRUS)

«SWITCH manages projects professionally.» ............... 31

Ausblick .................................................................32

Perspective ............................................................32

Prospettive ............................................................33

Thanks .................................................................34

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AAA projects by domain

AAA

Monitoring & Accounting

AMAAIS (Accounting and Monitoring of AAI Services)Allow inter-institutional monitoring and accounting

A4-Mesh (Authentication, Authorisation, Accountingand Auditing in Wireless Mesh Networks)Develop a wireless mesh infrastructure

Exchange performance data Exchange assessment results between institutions

WC3 (Web Campus Card Charging)Recharge campus cards via web interface

leihsAllow inter-institutional rent of equipment

CINDOS (Cross INstitutional Document Output System)Develop concept for inter-institutional use of campus cardsfor printing

AAA PrintingAllow inter-institutional printing

Authentication Methods & Assurance Levels

StrongAuthNAdd assurance levels and strong authentication methods

Portal MyUNILEnable delegation within AAI

KerberosDevelop new login handler for Shibboleth IdP

GridNational Grid Infrastructure

SMSCG (Swiss Multiscience Computing Grid)Establish and operate a national grid infrastructure

SwissEx integration in SMSCGEnable the environmental sciences project SwissEx to access SMSCG

Multi-Site ARC servicesExtend SMSCG with new node, integrate XtremWeb-CHplatform and deploy applications

Virtual EZ-GridProvide secure and inexpensive PC gridinfrastructure with high availability

Condor infrastructureInterface Condor campus grid to SMSCG

Ubelix GridExpand cluster and make it accessible to grid users

Grid Data ManagementCreate a grid service for analysing images for medical and physics sciences

Campus Grid Development & Connecting to National Grid

GridUNILEstablish campus grid covering multiple scientificdepartments

UZH GridEstablish campus grid infrastructure

USI Desktop GridEstablish desktop campus grid

USI Virtual GridProvide persistent & sharable pool of virtual machines

Grid Application & Cloud Support

Swiss Grid Portal Offer a fully functional grid portal user interface

MUSIC (MUlti-Disciplinary DiStributed Computing) Provide support and framework to gridify, deploy andexecute scientific applications

Chemistry-Grid integrationProvide dynamic access to applications services for chemistry

SelectomePositive Darwinian selection on the grid

RSNAS (Remote Scalable Network Attached Storage) Develop & test remote storage setup

VM-MAD (Virtual Machines Management and AdvancedDeployment)Establish repository of virtual machines and relatedmeachanisms

Academic Compute CloudExplore cloud extensions of clusters

VO

Communication & Collaboration Support

B-Fabric Extend/generalise B-Fabric and make it available to otherinstitutions

ShanghAI Lectures Test and apply tools and processes for global teaching

Evaluation of VO Tools Evaluate tools for distributed workgroups

TINA (Tools for Innovation Actors in Living Labs) Specify requirements of inter-institutional living labs

RSNA (Research Social Networking Applications)Evaluate existing and define requirements for a researchsocial networking application

The different project phases for the individual projects are summarised in these presentations.

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AAA/SWITCH 4

E-Learning

E-Assessment

SIOUX (Secure Integrated Online eXam) Provide secure exam environment

MEASURED (Media-rich Electronic Assessment with Secure Delivery)Expand secure modular and flexible exam environment

SEB (Safe Exam Browser) Allow secure exams in kiosk mode, with different applicationsand on student laptops

e-OSCE (Electronic Registration of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations) Offer mobile app for examiners

OSCE ManagerImprove and facilitate exam management

QualiAssDevelop assessments with quality assurance

movo.ch (Mobile Voting)Develop e-voting solution for the classroom

academe (acadima.ch)Provide flashcard application (learning cards)

Aufgabenbörse (Task exchange)Allow flexible work with questions/exercises & solutions

New Learning Environments & Knowledge Management

ITSI (IT-Service Integration) Integrate IT services in studies and teaching

PLE (Personal Learning Environment) Build personalised learning environment

PIIK preliminary studyCreate social network for e-learning information

E-Portfolio preliminary studySpecify needs & expectations

Mobile Uni-AppDevelop concept and prototype for mobile apps

ScienceWISEOffer ontology-based platform

LLL transfer (Life-Long Learning transfer)Develop guidelines for lifelong learning strategy development

Skill ProfilerDevelop tool for individual soft skill management

GADEMAVO (GAme about DEcision MAking Adapted toVarious Learning cOntexts) Implement serious game template

SELIN (Système E-Learning inductif – Inductive e-learning system) Develop system for inductive learning

Konzeptstudie E-Book und Tablet (e-book and Tablet Concept Study)Evaluate e-book production and use

Creation & Exchange of Metadata and Content, Portals

Annotating Academic VideoDevelop video annotation service

Individual Video TrainingProvide automated and flexible video recording & visualisationsystem

Création de cours multimédia (multimedia course creation)Record lectures & media

nanoo.tvOffer platform for digital TV recording

EducastExchange audiovisual content, build video portal

Claroline2LORExchange learning objects

Echange d’objets pédagogiques complex (Complex pedagogical object exchange)Enable inter-LMS exchange of learning objects

Sharepoint-Moodle e-learning platformFacilitate login, interconnect platforms

Didactics and Technology for the Distributed ClassroomGive advice for distributed classrooms

LMS Extensions & Additional Functionalities

ELBA 2 (Erweiterter E-Learning-Baukasten – Extended e-learning toolkit) Improve usability, offer LMS tools in kiosk mode

ILIAS AdobeConnect PluginOffer AdobeConnect functionality for ILIAS

Dateihandling in ILIAS (File handling in ILIAS)Optimise file handling in ILIAS

GISMO (Graphical Interactive Student Monitoring Systemfor Moodle) Visualise tracking data

MOCLog (Monitoring Online Courses with Logfiles) Analyse logfile data of Moodle

Moodle CustHomeProvide customisable personal Moodle page

Moodle NotificationsEnable notification functionalities

Moodle OfflineProvide offline mode for Moodle

Moodle SMS GatewayOffer SMS functionality

Moodle TextCloudsAdd text cloud functionality

Common Infrastructure & Knowledge Bases

DICE (Digital Copyright for e-learning) Support copyright management

E-xcellence.chSupport e-learning quality management

UHU (Universities Hosting United) Host a common LMS

5 AAA/SWITCH

AAA/SWITCH, auch Triple A genannt, steht für Innovations- und Kooperationsprojekte zwischen den drei Sektoren des ter-tiären Bildungsbereichs: den Schweizer Universitäten, den Fachhochschulen und den Institutionen des ETH-Bereichs. Der gemeinsame Nenner der Einzelprojekte waren die vier Domänen E-Learning, Grid-Middleware, virtuelle Organisa-tionen und AAA (Accounting, Auditing, Assurance), das gleichzeitig Namensgeberin für das Gesamtprojekt war. Letz-teres startete im April 2008 und dauerte bis April 2013. Am Schluss umfasste AAA/SWITCH 116 Einzelprojekte.

Ein kleiner Rückblick: 2004 – 2008 lief das Programm AAI. Dieses hatte die Einführung einer Authentisierungs- und Autorisierungsinfrastruktur zum Thema. Es hat sich äusserst erfolgreich entwickelt und ist heute eine flächendeckende, an-erkannte Dienstleistung. Ein System, das den Hochschul- angehörigen das Leben, Lernen und Lehren erleichtert. AAI ist quasi durch alle Ritzen des Hochschulnetzes gedrungen. Es hat fraglos Nachhaltigkeit bewiesen. Für AAA/SWITCH konnten wir auf die Erfahrungen und Strukturen von AAI zu-rückgreifen.

Beim AAA/SWITCH-Projekt hatte SWITCH verschiede-ne Rollen inne. Wir hatten einerseits Koordinatorinnen- und Enabler-Funktion. Wir haben die Community organisiert, uns aber auch an einzelnen Projekten beteiligt. Wir haben uns stark engagiert – aber auch viel profitiert von den neuen Er-fahrungen und Kontakten.

Drei Buchstaben im Dienste der Kooperation

Was bleibt nun aber nach Abschluss von AAA/SWITCH? Wie nachhaltig ist das Programm?

Sicher ist: Der Nutzen des Gesamten ist grösser als die Summe aller einzelnen Projekte. So stehen z.B. die Projekt- ergebnisse allen Hochschulen zur Verfügung. Zwischen den Partnern der einzelnen Projekte gab es Wechselwirkungen und Rückkoppelungen. Manche Projekte wiederum haben eine weitergehende Ausstrahlung, denn die Zusammenarbeit der beteiligten Hochschulen reicht über das Projektende hin-aus. Wir denken, es gibt kein schöneres Zeichen für Nachhal-tigkeit.

Im Namen von SWITCH möchten wir ein grosses Kom-pliment an die beteiligten Hochschulen aussprechen. Sie ha-ben Grosses geleistet, denn ein wesentlicher Teil der Inhalte für AAA/SWITCH wurde von ihnen beigesteuert. Sie haben Projekte verwirklicht, die ihnen wichtig waren, deren Resul-tate aber der ganzen Gemeinschaft zur Verfügung stehen. Da-durch war AAA/SWITCH so erfolgreich.

Ein herzliches Dankeschön richten wir an die Projektpart-ner, Kontaktpersonen und die Bundesbehörden. Die Zusam-menarbeit war effizient und fruchtbar. Und dann an das Pro-jektwettbewerbs-Evaluationsgremium PWEG: Es bestand aus neun Experten. Es hat sich als Evaluationsgremium für die Projekte sehr bewährt. Ganz herzlichen Dank!

Andreas Dudler Christoph Witzig

Christoph Witzig, Projektleiter AAA/SWITCH (links), und Andreas Dudler, Geschäftsführer SWITCH.

«Der Nutzen des Gesamten ist grösser als die Summe aller einzelnen Projekte. Zwischen den Partnern der Projekte gab es Wechselwirkungen und Rückkoppelungen.»

AAA/SWITCH, également appelé «Triple A», désigne des pro-jets d’innovation et de coopération entre les trois secteurs du domaine de la formation tertiaire: universités suisses, hautes écoles spécialisées et institutions du domaine des EPF. Le dé-nominateur commun des différents projets était constitué des quatre domaines E-Learning, Grid-Middleware, Organisa-tions Virtuelles et AAA (Accounting, Auditing, Assurance), qui a donné son nom au projet global. Celui-ci a débuté en avril 2008 et a duré jusqu’en avril 2013. Pour terminer, il com-prenait 116 projets individuels.

Brève rétrospective: le programme AAI a couru de 2004 à 2008. Il avait pour objet l’introduction d’une infrastructure d’authentification et d’autorisation. Ce programme a connu un plein succès dans son développement et est actuellement un service partout reconnu. Un système qui facilite la vie, l’ap-prentissage et l’enseignement aux membres des hautes écoles. AAI a quasiment pénétré toutes les fentes du réseau des hautes écoles et a indubitablement fait preuve de durabilité. Pour AAA/SWITCH , nous avons pu, chez SWITCH, avoir recours aux expériences et aux structures d’AAI.

Dans le cadre du projet AAA/SWITCH, SWITCH a eu dif-férents rôles à jouer. Nous avions d’une part une fonction de coordinateur et de catalyseur. Nous avons organisé la commu-nauté tout en participant à des projets isolés. Nous nous sommes fortement engagés – mais avons aussi largement pro-fité des nouvelles expériences et des nouveaux contacts.

Trois lettres au service de la coopération

Mais que reste-t-il après l’achèvement d’AAA/SWITCH ? Dans quelle mesure le programme est-il durable?

Une chose est sûre: l’utilité du tout est plus que la somme de tous les projets. Par exemple, les résultats du projet sont à la disposition de toutes les hautes écoles. Il y a eu des interac-tions et des échanges entre les partenaires des différents pro-jets. Et bien des projets produisent des effets qui vont plus loin car la coopération des hautes écoles participantes va au-delà de la fin des projets. Nous pensons qu’il n’y a pas de plus beau signe de durabilité.

Au nom de SWITCH, nous aimerions faire un grand com-pliment aux hautes écoles participantes. Elles ont fait de grandes choses, ayant apporté elles-mêmes une grande part des contenus pour AAA/SWITCH . Elles ont réalisé des pro-jets qui étaient importants pour elles mais dont les résultats sont à la disposition de toute la communauté. Voilà pourquoi AAA/SWITCH a si bien réussi.

Et nous adressons un grand merci aux partenaires de projet, aux personnes de contact et aux autorités fédérales. La colla-boration a été efficace et fructueuse. Et au comité d’évaluation du concours de projets PWEG qui se composait de neuf per-sonnes et a fort bien fait ses preuves comme comité d’évalua-tion pour les projets. Merci beaucoup!

Andreas Dudler, directeur de SWITCH Christoph Witzig, chef du projet AAA/SWITCH

«L’utilité du tout est plus que la somme de tous les projets. Il y a eu des interactions et des échanges entre les partenaires des différents projets.»

L’acronimo AAA/SWITCH, detto anche tripla A, indica i progetti di innovazione e cooperazione condotti dai tre set-tori dell’istruzione terziaria: le università svizzere, le scuole universitarie professionali e le istituzioni del Politecnico. I vari progetti avevano quattro campi in comune: E-Learning, Grid-Middleware, Organizzazioni Virtuali e AAA (Accoun-ting, Auditing, Assurance), che ha dato il nome all’intero progetto. Quest’ultimo è iniziato nell’aprile 2008 e si è con-cluso nell’aprile 2013. Alla fine includeva ben 116 singoli progetti.

Una breve retrospettiva: dal 2004 al 2008 si è svolto il pro-gramma AAI. Il suo scopo era l’introduzione di un’infrastrut-tura di autenticazione e autorizzazione. Questo sistema si è sviluppato con successo fino a diventare un servizio capillare e riconosciuto, che oggi facilita la vita, l’apprendimento e l’in-segnamento a tutti gli attori del ramo universitario. AAI per-mea praticamente l’intera rete e ha dimostrato la sua inconte-stabile sostenibilità. Per il programma AAA/SWITCH, SWITCH ha potuto far leva sulle esperienze e le strutture di AAI. Nel progetto AAA/SWITCH, SWITCH ha rivestito diversi ruoli. Innanzitutto avevamo la funzione di coordinatori ed «enabler». Abbiamo organizzato la community, ma abbiamo anche partecipato a singoli progetti. L’iniziativa ha richiesto un grosso impegno da parte nostra, ma ci ha apportato anche nuove esperienze e interessanti contatti.

Tre lettere al servizio della cooperazione

Cosa rimane di AAA/SWITCH ? Quanto sostenibile è il pro-gramma? – Una cosa è certa: i vantaggi dell’intero program-ma sono più grandi di quelli dei singoli progetti. Per esempio, i risultati dei progetti sono a disposizione di tutte le universi-tà. Tra i partner che hanno cooperato ai diversi progetti si è istaurata una fitta rete di interazioni e riscontri. In alcuni casi, la collaborazione tra le università coinvolte prosegue anche oltre la fine del progetto, assicurandogli così una portata più ampia del previsto. A nostro parere, queste sono prove più che sufficienti di sostenibilità!

A nome di SWITCH vorremmo rivolgere i più vivi com-plimenti alle università partecipanti. Hanno svolto un lavoro eccezionale, perché sono state loro a fornire gran parte dei con-tenuti per AAA/SWITCH . Hanno realizzato dei progetti che erano importanti per loro, ma i cui risultati vanno a vantag-gio dell’intera comunità. È questo che fa il successo di AAA/SWITCH.

Un sentito ringraziamento va a tutti i partner del progetto, le persone di contatto e le autorità federali. La collaborazione è stata efficiente e fruttuosa. E infine vogliamo ricordare l’orga-no di valutazione del concorso, che era composto da nove esperti, il cui lavoro di esame dei progetti è stato molto apprez-zato. Mille grazie!

Andreas Dudler, direttore generale di SWITCH Christoph Witzig, capo progetto AAA/SWITCH

«I vantaggi dell’intero programma sono più grandi di quelli dei singoli progetti. Tra i partner che hanno cooperato ai diversi progetti si è istaurata una fitta rete di interazioni e riscontri.»

AAA/SWITCH 7

8 AAA/SWITCH

«AAA/SWITCH transforms visions into reality: the A4-Mesh project, examining a number of use cases for wireless mesh network technologies, is one example.»Almerima Jamakovic-Kapic

Project Leader A4-Mesh, researcher, Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, University of Berne.

AAA/SWITCH 9

The three As provide the name for both the project as a whole and a single domain dealing with the accounting and auditing side of the Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI).

Text: Christoph Witzig, Project Manager AAA/SWITCH

The Swiss University Conference’s SWITCHaai cooperation and innovation project from 2004 to 2008 firmly established the federated Authentication and Authorisation Infrastruc-ture (AAI) in the higher education sector in Switzerland. Today, almost all students of Swiss universities use SWITCHaai for secure access to several hundred services. However, SWITCHaai lacks important functionalities in terms of accounting, auditing, assurance lev-els and strong authentication. The purpose of the projects in this domain was to address Swiss universities’ particular needs in this area.

16 projects were approved in the AAA domain. AMAAIS (see page 12) has developed a ge-neric monitoring and accounting infrastructure for AAI, which is now ready for deployment. A4-Mesh (see page 11) has set up an AAI-compatible meshed network with accounting func-tionalities, to be used in environmental studies or as an extension of campus networks. The ETHZ and EPFL have worked out a secure solution for exchanging students’ performance data, and the University of Lausanne has evaluated and introduced a strong authentication system for its critical services (see page 13). Several smaller projects have been conducted, mostly by the IT services departments, and their results are now available to all the Swiss universities. Projects meriting particular mention are «bridging the log-ins» between Win-dows desktops and AAI services by FHNW (Kerberos – see page 10) and a project by the University of Neuchâtel which allows students to load credits to their campus card through an AAI-enabled portal.

Today, the AAA/SWITCH projects in the AAA domain are adding valuable functionalities to SWITCHaai for users and infrastructure operators alike. The IT services departments at the Swiss universities have been closely involved in most of these projects, and they also typ-ically integrate the deliverables into their campus IT infrastructure – leading to a high level of sustainability.

AAA

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10 AAA/SWITCH

AAA Kerberos – FHNW

The Kerberos Login Handler gives users password-free access to AAI-protected resources on the web.

Text: Tom Gross, FHNW

The guard-dog holds the key

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It works on the ba-sis of «tickets» to allow nodes to prove their identity without needing to send passwords through the network. It is the pre-

ferred authentication protocol of Microsoft Windows. Mac OS X and Linux also support Kerberos and can make use of the handler if they are properly configured.

The Kerberos Login Handler for the Shibboleth Identity Provider was developed as an AAA/SWITCH project at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Swit-zerland (FHNW) with the support of the SWITCH AAI team. The goal was to provide a user-friendly single sign-on mech-anism for all staff members. All internal web resources should be accessible with just a single click. The project was success-fully concluded in May 2011 and has sparked interest from other universities. Meanwhile, the handler is used by several organisations, including Newcastle University, Deakin Uni-versity and VeriFone.

Works together with default login handler

Another advantage of the Kerberos Login Handler is that it can be used together with the default username/password login handler. Users who do not have or are unable to use the Ker-beros protocol can still provide their password as usual.

Further information:A more detailed presentation of the project can be found here: www.switch.ch/aai/support/presentations/ opcom-201105/AAI-OpCom-KerberosLoginHandler.pdf

Kerberos Idp project page: https://wiki.shibboleth.net/ confluence/display/SHIB2/Kerberos+Login+Handler

Here you can find more information about the Kerberos protocol: http://kerberos.org

The AAI login screen of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland.

AAA/SWITCH 11

Many research projects in different areas could benefit from an easily deployable outdoor wireless mesh network that supports SWITCHaai-based functionalities: authentication, authorisation, accounting and auditing (A4).

Text: Almerima Jamakovic-Kapic, UNIBE

Installation of an infield mesh node for environmental research in the Valais region.

The A4-Mesh project and its currently ongoing project exten-sion are looking into several application scenarios for wireless mesh network technologies. The applications deployed are fo-cused on environmental research support. The MontanAqua project uses the A4-Mesh network to continuously transfer the environmental data measured by several sensors in the Crans-Montana-Sierre region in Valais. The A4-Mesh network solu-tion produces various benefits, such as lower maintenance costs and a reduced risk of losing data. A further application for the A4-Mesh network solution is currently being installed: a new pilot network for environmental research in the Emmental area. For this, the A4-Mesh infrastructure is being coupled to a database feeding a hydrogeological modelling and simula-tion system so as to make the environmental research process more efficient.

To allow easy access to the A4-Mesh network, special care was taken to seamlessly integrate authorisation and authentication into the organisation’s own infrastructure (AAI), grouped into a federation: in our case the Shibboleth-based SWITCHaai. Furthermore, the accounting function provides specific traf-fic statistics which are channelled into the traffic-based charg-ing module. It operates in a SWITCHaai-compatible wireless mesh network, which allows the network administrator to have full visibility of the forwarded traffic, including the source, destination and forwarding nodes (organisations) involved. Using this data means that the organisation can be charged correctly for its network usage.

Further information:https://a4-mesh.unibe.ch

Wireless mesh network for environmental research

AAA A4-Mesh – UNIBE, UNINE, SWITCH

12 AAA/SWITCH

AMAAIS enables Shibboleth-based federations to aggregate, process and store accounting and monitoring information.

Text : Martin Waldburger, UZH

Accounting and monitoring of AAI services

AAA AMAAIS – UZH, ETHZ, SWITCH

SWITCHaai, the Swiss Authentication and Authorisation In-frastructure, lacks a comprehensive monitoring and account-ing system. The goal of the AAA/SWITCH project AMAAIS was to add this missing functionality in a generic fashion.

AA and AMAAIS interacting with each other

AMAAIS can obtain and process the usage of the Identity Pro-viders as well as the Service Providers of the SWITCHaai fed-eration. Service-specific Accounting Applications (AAs) and

AMAAIS core components interact with each other: AAs parse log files or databases and create events. The AA invokes the common Accounting Client (AC), and the event will enter the AC pipeline. After passing along the AC pipeline, the event will be transmitted to either one or multiple Accounting Servers (AS), going through the respective AS pipeline(s), and will eventually be stored in a database for further analysis.

Events may be queued, filtered etc.

Pipelines are composed of sources and sinks. Sinks receive and process events, while sources produce events. Pipelines can be constructed by combining source and sink components in any desired order, so that events may be queued, filtered, persist-ed or transmitted, for instance.

Highly configurable pipelines make for immense flexibil-ity. This is especially beneficial in federations, where different services are managed by different organisations, but with a need for interoperable accounting and monitoring.

Three use cases, the monitoring and accounting of a print-ing service, an SMS Service Provider and an Identity Provid-er, were realized as part of the project.

Further information:www.csg.uzh.ch/research/amaais.html

IdP AccountingApplication

Accounting Client

Service-specificAccounting Application

Accounting Client

Accounting Server

Accounting Server

AMAAIS core components AMAAIS Accounting Application

HTTP Request

AAA/SWITCH 13

In a series of AAA projects, the University of Lausanne looked systematically into the protection of critical services through improvements in the campus authentication and introduced corresponding solutions. One of the projects was aimed at in-troducing assurance level within the UNIL’s authentication and authorisation system. The user account management sys-tem was renewed in this way, implementing the SAP Identity Management solution. An evaluation of several authentica-tion methods was also conducted with the ultimate goal of im-proving the protection of access to critical UNIL services (administrative VPN, finance management system, AAI re-sources etc).

Solution: one-time password

This evaluation took the following main aspects into account: use in a multiplatform and open environment, cost, security level, compatibility with Shibboleth and with the radius pro-tocol and integration with SAP Identity Management. The choice fell on a «one-time password» system.

First project: Juniper

The introduction of such a system was the topic of another AAA project. The first service protected in this way is the ad-ministrative access to the Juniper VPN, which has about 65 users. To connect to it, users must enter their password and the «one time password», which is obtained either by SMS or from the new Campus Card (see figure).

A project extension will allow the users to record a soft-ware token on their smartphones, which will have the advan-tage of being free of charge.

Further information:www.switch.ch/aaa/projects/detail/UNIL.2www.switch.ch/aaa/projects/detail/UNIL.7www.switch.ch/aaa/projects/detail/UNIL.8

How should a university protect critical services? The University of Lausanne investigated and implemented strong authentication solutions.

Text : Alexandre Roy, UNIL

Tighter security at the University of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne’s new Campus Card.

AAA StrongAuthN – UNIL

14 AAA/SWITCH

«Besides the technology, the AAA/SWITCH program has contributed to establishing a network of relationships, people, skills and trust that hopefully will endure beyond the end of the programme.»Sergio Maffioletti

Project Leader Swiss Multi-Science Computing Grid (SMSCG) and Member Executive Board Swiss National Grid Association (SwiNG), Project Director Grid Computing Competence Center, University of Zurich.

AAA/SWITCH 15

Distributed computing has been the main focus of the grid AAA/SWITCH projects. In addition to implementing components for distributed computing infrastructures, these projects have suc-ceeded in actively involving scientific users from many different domains and have enabled the processing of thousands of com-puting jobs.

Text: Christoph Witzig, Project Manager AAA/SWITCH

The main thrust of the grid domain was to promote and lay the foundations for a stable and secure infrastructure to support distributed scientific computing in Switzerland. Some 26 projects were submitted in this domain. These can be grouped into three categories: 1. campus grids at individual institutions, which facilitate the sharing of computational power within a single organisation, 2. desktop grids between several institutions (such as the projects EZ-Grid and MUSIC, see page 19) and 3. a computational grid shared by a large number of institu-tions, the «Swiss Multi-Science Computing Grid» (SMSCG; see page 16).

A common feature of all these projects was the active collaboration between infrastructure providers and scientific users. A surprisingly wide range of academic disciplines submitted ap-plications to run on the grid, including computational, environmental and life sciences, as well as finance and art. This is one of the key successes of the projects in this domain, coupled with the fact that the underlying infrastructure was able to handle thousands of computing jobs a day.

Looking into the future, it can be said that the cloud computing paradigm has gained signifi-cant momentum over the past two years. This constitutes less of a disruption and more of a natural evolution of the distributed computing paradigm. With the «Swiss Academic Com-pute Cloud» AAA/SWITCH project, an initial cloud computing project was conducted towards the end of the project programme. In 2013, a bridging project between the grid/cloud domain is being jointly run by most of the grid participants as a stepping stone between the two inno-vation and cooperation projects AAA/SWITCH and «Information Scientifique».

In retrospect, it is the active collaboration and exchange between resource providers and sci-entific users from many different domains that can be considered as the key outcome as well as a prerequisite for sustainability of these grid projects – more so than individual IT compo-nents that evolve rapidly with technical progress.

Grid

16 AAA/SWITCH

The Swiss Multi-Science Computing Grid (SMSCG) project’s aim was to establish a Swiss infrastructure and platform for computational science. Through SMSCG, a reliable, distribut-ed grid infrastructure has been built, linking infrastructures from several Swiss universities. Research communities using the platform have received collaborative, high-quality user and application support from the project.

The main challenge of the SMSCG project was not a tech-nical one. Instead, it consisted in coordinating resource pro-viders, support teams and end-users. All in all, twelve univer-sities and research institutions are contributing resources to this project.

500 to 1,000 jobs a day

During its five years of operation, SMSCG has supported more than 20 scientific use cases from scientific disciplines as di-verse as high-energy physics, bioinformatics, computational chemistry, environmental sciences and also finance. The pro-duction infrastructure is now capable of sustaining a work-

A collaborative spirit in distributed computing

Grid SMSCG – UZH, UNIBE, USI, CSCS, WSL, HES-SO, UNIL, EPFL, SIB/Vital IT, SWITCH

SMSCG has established a model for collaboration between service providers and research groups. The target was to implement and support computational science on a highly reliable distributed infrastructure. The infrastructure can now handle 500 – 1,000 jobs every day.

Text: Sergio Maffioletti, UZH

load of 500 – 1,000 jobs per day from each of them, lasting from a few minutes to several hours or even days.Users gain access to the SMSCG infrastructure using their AAI credentials. This approach has helped to significantly low-er the entrance barrier to the infrastructure for new users.

New challenge: cloud computing

The collaborative spirit is a particularly important achieve-ment for the project – resource providers and computational experts from all over the country have established a strong partnership. The SMSCG project thus provides a very good basis for the next generation of national distributed-infrastruc-ture projects. The challenge now is to make the best possible use of new technologies and processes in cloud computing. The upcoming Swiss Academic Compute Cloud project will make sure that the know-how and collaboration of SMSCG is put to good use in the future too.

Further information:http://www.smscg.ch

Snow density (color-coded z-axis) at Parsenn near Davos as function of time (x-axis), snow height (y-axis). The simulation was performed on the SMSCG.

Simulation of snow density

Hei

ght (c

m)

Elem

ent D

ensi

ty (kg

m-3)

AAA/SWITCH 17

The evolution of species is one of the main questions in biology. To address this question, it is necessary to develop mathematical models to estimate how different biological pro-cesses could have resulted in the current diversity of life. In particular, there is a strong interest in assessing whether a certain feature or function could be involved in the adapta-tion of organisms to their environment.

Goal: understandig adaptation on a molecular level

The force that promotes such adaptation is generally known as positive or Darwinian selection (named after the biologist Charles Darwin), and the current increase in genomic data makes it possible to study the processes of adaptation at the molecular level. Selectome is a database that provides informa-tion on such positive selection events. It is provided as an on-line resource that can be easily used by life science researchers.

However, the underlying computational steps are complex and require large amounts of computational resources. In brief, the computationally intensive parts are based on the phylogenetic software package called PAML and in particu-lar the codeml application.

Executing thousands of codeml jobs

Within the AAA/SWITCH project Selectome we focused on a suitable computational engine called gcodeml that efficient-ly and reliably executes thousands of codeml jobs on both grid (in this case the Swiss Multi-Science Computing Grid, SMSCG, see page 16) and cluster environments.

Further information:http://selectome.unil.ch

Selectome provides a database of positive selection in the evolution of species. The search requires a high computational outlay. A grid approach helps to make it faster.

Text: Marc Robinson-Rechavi and Sebastien Moretti, UNIL; Heinz Stockinger,

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB)

Computer-accelerated evolution

Grid Selectome – UNIL, UZH, SIB

Genomic sequence: this type of data makes it possible to study the process of adaption at the molecu-lar level.

18 AAA/SWITCH

Like the conductor of an orchestra

Grid VM-MAD – ETHZ, UZH, SWITCH

The use of virtual machines in grid and cloud environments is attractive, since it eases deployment issues. The VM-MAD project developed a solution for dynami-cally extending local clusters to clouds.

Text: Peter Kunszt, ETHZ

The availability of powerful computing hardware in «Infra-structure as a Service» (IaaS) clouds made its usage attractive for computational workloads, which were up to now almost exclusively run on HPC clusters. The Virtual Machines Man-agement and Advanced Deployment Project (VM-MAD) de-veloped a framework for the cloud-bursting of Linux-based clusters into public or private clouds.

Written in Python

The tool is called the VM-MAD Orchestrator and is written in the Python programming language. It is completely modular, permitting flexible configurations for cloud-bursting policies. It can be used with any batch system and cloud infrastructure, dynamically extending the cluster when needed. The Orches-trator monitors the jobs queued in the batch system and selects those that could run on cloud-based virtual machines (VMs)

on the basis of the configured policies. It starts and shuts down VM instances in the cloud and adds or removes these re- sources as compute nodes to or from the cluster.

A distinctive feature of our Orchestrator framework is that the policies can be tested and tuned in a simulation mode based on historical or synthetic cluster-accounting data. We have used the VM-MAD Orchestrator in a production envi-ronment at the Functional Genomics Center Zurich to speed up the analysis of mass spectrometry-based protein data by cloud-bursting to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. The VM-MAD Orchestrator has also been used by the Swiss Mul-ti-Science Computing Grid (SMSCG) project (see page 16): it is possible to extend a local cluster with resources from SMSCG. The Academic Compute Cloud Provisioning and Us-age project similarly makes use of the Orchestrator.

Further information:http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2529

The Grid Data Management project is positioned midway be-tween the medical and physics domains, both of which need to store and analyse large amounts of visual information. For the physics domain, automatic image analysis tools from the medical domain have been adapted for automatically classi-fying images into various image types. This allowed a reduc-tion in time for analysing the images. The medical imaging domain has benefited from the grid knowledge available in physics. An infrastructure was set up using several grid appli-cations in order to permit the safe storage of medical image data and the retrieval of this data, including also visual re-

Large quantities of imaging data have been stored and analysed in a joint project between researchers from the fields of physics and medicine. The data handling was performed using grid technologies. Text: Henning Müller and Marko Niinimaki, HES-SO; Sigve Haug, UNIBE

trieval. All these tools are open source. The medical data used was anonymous, since medical images taken from the scien-tific literature were used. The project relied on the Swiss grid infrastructure as provided by the Swiss Multi-Science Com-puting Grid (SMSCG; see page 16). It highlights how different research fields can profit from each other by sharing not only infrastructure but also common tools and expertise.

Further information:www.switch.ch/aaa/projects/detail/UNIGE.4«Safe Storage and Multi-modal Search for Medical Images» by Jukka Kommeri, Marko Niinimäki, Henning Müller. Medical Informatics Europe 2011, IOS press, Oslo, Norway, 2011.

Benefitting from interdisciplinary research

Grid Grid Data Management – UNIGE, UNIBE

AAA/SWITCH 19

MUSIC brought together several Swiss institutes of higher ed-ucation through a shared high-performance computing plat-form called Xtrem Web-CH. This was developed at the Uni-versity of Applied Sciences, Western Switzerland, in Geneva. The project delivered significant gains in computing power for the research groups participating in it. The four targeted ap-plications come from the fields of environment sciences, ge-netics and art.

Runtime cut to a couple of days

In the course of the project, XtremWeb-CH’s computing nodes were successfully launched in the Azure cloud. In addition, MUSIC developed a bridge between XtremWeb-CH and the Swiss Multi-Science Computing Grid SMSCG (see page 16). The following four applications were ported to the Xtrem-Web-CH platform in the MUSIC project:

Application 1: CYCLONE from the EnviroGRID group at the University of Geneva evaluates the impact of cyclones on the environment using a parallel simulation. MUSIC consid-erably improved the analysis: it is now possible to analyse 800 cyclones in 1 hour 20 minutes, whereas previously only 50 cy-clones could be analysed in that time.

Application 2: SELECTOR, also from the University of Gene-va, estimates the migration of people in East Asia on the ba-sis of genetic data. SELECTOR is used in testing two compet-ing hypotheses: 1. The populations of South and North East Asia originate from just one population; 2. They originate from two different populations. Testing the hypotheses requires be-tween 100,000 and 1,000,000 simulations for each hypothesis. This would take 100-200 days on a single PC. After paralleli-sation in the MUSIC project, the runtime for the simulation was cut to just a couple of days.

Phylogeny inference and finder for similar pictures

Application 3: MetaPIGA, a genetic application, has benefited from the distributed computing resources of MUSIC on a sim-ilar scale. MetaPIGA, developed by the Laboratory of Artifi-cial and Natural Evolution (LANE) at the University of Gene-va, is a robust implementation of several stochastic heuristics for large-scale phylogeny inference.

Application 4: The University of Applied Sciences of Lu-cerne has developed an «Images Finding Images» application for MUSIC, that takes an initial picture as its input and finds similar ones from a collection.

Further information:www.switch.ch/aaa/projects/detail/HES-SO.3

Cyclone paths as analysed on the grid by the MUSIC project.

The MUlti-disciplinary diStrIbuted Computing (MUSIC) project has brought four new applications and several user groups onto the Swiss distributed computing scene. This project has combined volunteer, grid and cloud computing.

Text: Marko Niinimaeki, Nabil Abdennadher, Mohamed Ben Belgacem, HES-SO

Simulation calculations at breakneck speed

Grid MUSIC – HES-SO, UNIGE, HSLU

20 AAA/SWITCH

«The AAA project was a great incubator of ideas, a catalyst for livening up the eduhub community, and has contributed greatly to the push towards educational technologies of tomorrow.»Pierre-Yves Burgi

AAA Project Leader and contact person, President Educational Technology Working Group [ETWG], Head ICET Unit, University of Geneva.

AAA/SWITCH 21

E-Learning

In this domain, 68 projects were approved – an excellent indica-tor of the high level of interest that AAA/SWITCH attracted in the e-learning community.

Text: Petra Kauer-Ott, Deputy Project Manager AAA/SWITCH

The manifold needs of e-learning today are reflected in the various project themes approved for this domain. The five topic clusters are extensions to learning management systems (LMS), improvements in production, distribution and access to media data, new learning environ-ments, e-assessment and also general-purpose infrastructure elements for shared use.

Whereas some projects progressively aligned their LMS to the students’ needs (e.g. Moodle ex-tensions – see page 25), others analysed their institutional processes in the e-learning domain (ITSI – see page 22) or initiated new learning environments (PLE – see page 23). This high-lights two facts. Firstly, the e-learning community will not only have to master rapid techno-logical progress in future but will also need to put stronger emphasis on the individual through learner-centric solutions, while similarly taking into account societal changes that affect both the individual and institutional strategies and services. Secondly, with AAA/SWITCH, the Swiss higher education institutions have started to tackle these challenges.

Mobile applications for the campus were the subject of «Mobile Uni-App» (see page 25), which provides a framework for other mobile application developers to build on – thus avoiding the dreaded reinvention of the wheel. Shared frameworks and solutions of this type were also pro-vided by «Universities Hosted United» for the more efficient use of LMS installations, by «E-xcellence.ch» with its quality framework, and by «DICE» in the legal domain (see page 24).

Improvements to the handling of media data were the focus of several projects, targeting lec-ture recordings, video annotations, e-books, and also projects that were more oriented towards the didactic use of media, such as «Distributed Classroom».

Many projects addressed e-assessment by developing new or improved innovative services as well as introducing them in real-life computer-based tests. Eight solutions (SEB – Safe Exam Browser – see page 24, SIOUX, MEASURED, e-OSCE, OSCE Manager, movo.ch, Aufgaben-börse, academe) have now been released by five institutions – not in isolation but adopting a comprehensive and complementary approach. These cover examinations that use web brows-ers and mobile devices, and also support the preparation of clinical tests and online voting in the classroom, or assist students in preparing for exams through learning cards.

E-assessment, and also new working and learning environments, are the main focus of the AAA/SWITCH sustainability project «Learning Infrastructure», which forms part of the «In-formation Scientifique» cooperation and innovation project – aimed at boosting the sustaina-bility of these solutions in the Swiss academic sector. In short, the project has supported much-needed work and has shown that the Swiss e-learning community can successfully develop and deploy innovative solutions in a highly collaborative manner.

22 AAA/SWITCH

The students of the future are mobile learners and today’s cam-puses are not able to meet their needs. Tables are too small, and no electric sockets or lockers are available. The campus is all about the dissemination and acquisition of knowledge. It offers little physical and virtual space for group work, scien-tific discourse or informal discussions. Admittedly, IT makes good solutions available for this, such as the tools developed as part of AAA/SWITCH, but the teaching and learning cul-ture here is lagging behind the technical possibilities and the opportunities opening up through innovative, media-based teaching and learning resources.

Users must be involved from the start

As the first step towards the campus of tomorrow, IT experts, educationalists, architects and interior designers should be brought together as early as the initial concept phase and not just at the building stage. Additionally, end users need to be involved right from the start.

The University of Basel’s project – IT Service Integration in Studies and Teaching (ITSI) – organised a series of work-shops with internal and external experts working together to a modern learning environment. Additional studies focused on discovering students’ needs were also undertaken. A summary of the project results will be available free of charge on the Internet later this year.

Further information:http://itsi.ltn.unibas.ch

Virtual and physical-learning environments need to keep pace with continually evolving mobile technologies and communication media. The ITSI project studied what needs to be done to meet students’ needs.

Text: Gudrun Bachmann and Tina Škerlak, UNIBAS

The library of the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, Netherlands: an example of an environment in which discussions and group work can be conducted within the physical and virtual space.

Learning environments for tomorrow’s campus

E-Learning ITSI – UNIBAS

AAA/SWITCH 23

The main aim of the PLE project was to develop an ecosystem which promotes interaction between the formal and informal worlds, without learning necessarily being an explicit objec-tive. This ecosystem consists of a personalised learning envi-ronment that groups together a set of online resources, some of which come from institutions and some not. In this way, it ought to be possible to stimulate a new form of education, fo-cused to a greater extent on the learner.

Two approaches

The project started with a preliminary study which was essen-tially aimed at assessing the interest in PLE among the 14,000 students at Geneva University, covering their practices and the use they made of IT tools – and provoking considerations as to the implementation of an environment of this type. Two ap-proaches emerged here in particular: an educational approach taking in technology monitoring, awareness raising and train-ing, and a technological approach introducing PLE in the form of a «Didactic Dashboard» that can be both personalised and further refined.

Different PLE solutions were implemented and tested in pilot classes at the departments of the five partners that worked together on the project. The 3A interaction model (for Actors, Activities and Artefacts) served as the underlying basis. In this model, the students and teachers are the actors, the education-al scenarios are the activities, and all the associated resour- ces are the artefacts.

Facilitated cooperation

For the student, the PLE is an environment that requires com-mitment. The tool does, however, facilitate cooperation be-tween students by allowing them to conduct group activities on the basis of the 3A interaction model. One of the questions that still remains to be answered after these pilot classes is whether an ecosystem of this type should be set up by the in-dividual institution, or whether the institution should adapt to the student’s ecosystem.

Further information:Site with open-access learning resources: www.myple.ch

The personal learning environment (PLE), a flexible system focused on the learner, has been developed on the basis of a preliminary study, a series of surveys and pilot classes. This environment satisfies the needs of current students.

Text: Omar Benkacem, Pierre-Yves Burgi, Hervé Platteaux, Patrick Roth, UNIGE

Made-to-measure learning environment

E-Learning PLE – UNIGE, EPFL, UNIL, UNIFR, UZH, SUPSI

24 AAA/SWITCH

E-Learning SEB – ETHZ

The Safe Exam Browser (SEB) makes secure and fair examinations possible.

Text: Daniel Schneider, Dirk Bauer, Tobias Halbherr, Brigitte Schmucki, Oliver Rahs,

Kai Reuter, Karsten Burger, Thomas Piendl, ETHZ

Cheat-proof online exams

The goal of DICE was to develop training and reference mate-rials on digital copyright for e-learning for the Swiss higher education institutions in order to increase awareness for copy-right issues when using digital technologies.

The DICE methodology

The methodology applied is based on four questions. First, it should be determined where the content is used, in order to find out the applicable copyright law. Next, it should be estab-lished whether the content is protected by copyright law and who the rights holder is. Finally, it should be taken into ac-

DICE aims to increase awareness of copyright issues in the use of digital technolo-gies. It is currently setting up a competence center, which will make it possible to develop new materials, provide training sessions and create an online community.

Text: Anna Picco-Schwendener, USI

count what the content is being used for. Workshops were or-ganised in order to present Swiss copyright law and the DICE methodology, and also to discuss specific questions with legal experts and DICE members. DICE was also asked to conduct webinars and short publications on the topic.

The great interest in DICE showed the importance of the topic of digital copyright in the higher education sector. The decision was therefore taken to create a competence centre, which will start its activities in the near future.

Further information: www.diceproject.ch

Digital copyright for e-learning

E-Learning DICE – USI, FFHS/SUPSI, ETHZ, UNIGE

Online exams are an increasingly important means of assess-ing performance at universities. They deliver more efficient, reliable and novel ways to measure students’ abilities. But how to rout the bugbears of manipulation, downloading of infor-mation from the Internet, or cheating? Simple, efficient open- source SEB software provides a solution.

Tailored

SEB features a whole package of options: it works with both Windows and Mac OS X and may be used on centrally man-aged university computers as well as student laptops. SEB dis-plays the examination created in a learning management sys-tem such as ILIAS and Moodle or in another exam system and deactivates computer functions that students ar not allowed to use. Here it is easily adjustable: discipline-specific software such as Matlab, R, Excel and SPSS may be permitted, virtual desktops can be used, and access to functions, websites or net-works can be regulated with precision. The result is a tailored No cheating, please – fair online exams at the ETH Zurich with SEB.

exam environment which is as limited or extensive as desired. SEB has been in action at Swiss universities since 2009. It is now attracting interest beyond German-speaking countries in Europe and at universities around the world. SEB is fast be-coming an essential tool for online examinations in a very wide community.

Further information:www.safeexambrowser.org

AAA/SWITCH 25

E-Learning Mobile Uni-App – UNISG, USI, FHNW

Thanks to smartphones and tablets, we are used to calling up the latest information at any time and wherever we happen to be. Not surprisingly, students now expect the latest information on their university studies to be optimised for mobile devices too. But this is frequently not the case.

Text: Thomas Sammer and Andrea Back, UNISG

When it comes to applications for mobile devices, the chal-lenge lies in the many different operating systems and differ-ent screen resolutions. The Mobile Uni-App project is taking up precisely this challenge and is offering, on the basis of the Kurogo framework, an adaptive mobile website for the uni-versity sector that supports a large number of transferrable standard functions. It includes a map and location service, a people directory, RSS reader, library access such as search and reservations (ALEPH & EbscoHost), login procedures (includ-ing AAI), Moodle access, the public transport timetable, ac-cess to the current canteen menu, and other functions.

Highly popular mobile presence

The University of St. Gallen has been offering these services since September and, for just a small outlay, has been able to implement a mobile presence that is highly popular amongst

students and university employees. A release of the Uni App is also planned for the University of Lugano in 2013.

In the light of the experience we have acquired, we would like to motivate other educational institutions to deploy this solution and thus similarly be in a position to offer their stu-dents information on a mobile basis without major invest-ments. The source code is available for download as an open-source project on GitHub and can be run on conventional web servers.

Further information:Mobile service of the University of St.Gallen:www.app.unisg.ch

Source code of the Mobile Apps: https://github.com/ Institute-of-Information-Management-HSG/Project_Uni-App

Project website: http://ccmb.iwi.unisg.ch/projects/ project-mobile-uni-app/

ELab has developed a number of plugins for Moodle that make the learning management system easier to work with.

Text: Riccardo Mazza, SUPSI/USI

The mission of eLab – the e-learning laboratory at USI – is to improve the quality of teaching through the integration of dig-ital technologies in an efficient and advantageous manner. ELab has contributed a number of useful plugins and add-ons for the Moodle learning management system (LMS) to the AAA/SWITCH programme to this end. Some of the tools de-veloped in this context are enjoying extensive global popular-ity and are not simply limited to Switzerland. GISMO and MOCLog, for example, are two plugins that provide a moni-toring system which helps in analysing logfiles of the Moodle LMS more effectively and efficiently. Thanks to a graphical representation of the logfiles, GISMO and MOCLog allow in-structors, learners, study programme managers and admin-

istrators to benefit from feedback on the status of activities in online courses. GISMO has been downloaded more than 570 times in the last 16 months.

Moodle Notifications is another tool that allows students to keep up-to-date with new content, discussions and events in Moodle courses. Moodle TextCloud is an additional block for Moodle which generates a text cloud containing the most frequent keywords of the course that have been automatical-ly extracted from the course resources, enabling learners to reach their desired resources in few clicks.

Further information:http://moclog.ch http://moodle-notifications.elearninglab.org http://moodletextcloud.sourceforge.net

The university on a smartphone

Facilitating online teaching

E-Learning Moodle Extensions – FFHS/SUPSI, USI, FHNW, BFH

26 AAA/SWITCH

«AAA/SWITCH is a significant contribution to the success of virtual organisations as well as real networks of researchers, lectures and students in the Swiss academic environment.»Mario Gay

Project Leader VO Tools, AAA contact person, Head joint IT service of Università della Svizzera Italiana / University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (IT-EDU).

AAA/SWITCH 27

VO

In academia, researchers, teaching staff and well as members of any project have to be able to cooperate across institutional boundaries as a team. Such virtual organisations (VO) need specialised tools for efficient collaboration.

Text: Petra Kauer-Ott, Deputy Project Manager AAA/SWITCH

Virtual organisations (VO) are distributed groups that work together for a specific period of time. Although many tools are available for collaboration at Swiss universities, administering them can be an unnecessary burden for project managers. Each external member has to be added manually and each tool managed separately. Despite these needs, the effort temporary teams are able to invest at an infrastructure level is limited. Thus, only five projects were ap-proved in this domain: two projects which enhanced already existing productive systems and three pre-studies:

«B-Fabric» (see page 29), a data and project management system, has been generalised. Now it can also be used by other life science research groups – considerably facilitating the manage-ment and archiving of their scientific data. «ShanghAI Lectures» (see page 28) is a «global lec-ture hall» that has become quite popular over the past four years, as a model for successful dis-tributed teaching and learning. In «Evaluation of VO tools» it emerged that document shar-ing, the organisation of online meetings and the management of distributed projects were the most important functions for virtual teams.

The pre-study «Tools for Innovation Actors in Living Labs» shows that, for innovation process-es, additional support is necessary for communication, social software, knowledge manage-ment, creativity, administration and secure authentication. «Research Social Networking Ap-plications», on the other hand, identifies networking, funds finding and publishing as core el-ements for a research VO platform.

The «SWITCHtoolbox» (see page 29) is SWITCH’s contribution to the VO domain. It provides a basic set of useful tools for cross-institutional collaboration.

28 AAA/SWITCH

In the winter term of 2009, the Artificial Intelligence Lab (De-partment of Informatics, University of Zurich) introduced the ShanghAI Lectures, a weekly lecture series on «embodied ar-tificial and natural intelligence» that was transmitted to twelve universities around the globe via videoconference. In addition to the regular class held by Professor Rolf Pfeifer (UZH), there were two guest lectures almost every week by high-profile re-searchers from around the world. Students who attended the lectures in the participating lecture halls had the chance to in-teract with the lecturers, ask questions and discuss the topics presented. In order to foster intercultural collaboration, a three-dimensional collaborative environment (virtual world) was set up, where students worked together on solving team-work exercises. All the lectures were recorded and made avail-able on the project website for anyone to call up free of charge.

The ShanghAI Lectures project not only provided a means for students and lecturers to interact across university bound-aries but also constituted a research platform for research into virtual team behaviour, since the exercise groups were made up of students from different cultures.

Planned as a once-only event

This experiment in global teaching has succeeded thanks to the generous support received from AAA/SWITCH. Apart from the initial funding, SWITCH also provided the infra-structure for the videoconferencing (SWITCHvideoconf and SWITCHinteract) and the recording (SWITCHcast) and con-tributed many hours of support during the preparations and deployment.

The ShanghAI Lectures were originally planned as a once-only event. However, since they proved to be very popular with the participating universities, we decided – given that the know-how and infrastructure were in place – to continue eve-ry winter term, incorporating a number of modifications and new features each time round, such as «Discussion Sessions» in the 3-D world (2010), a new community website (2011), and physical robot competitions (2012).

Over the past four years, about 40 universities from all over the world have participated in one way or other. The sites that joined in every week ranged from Salford (UK), via Algiers (Algeria), Zurich, Moscow (Russia), Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Shanghai (China), to Hobart (Australia), and there were live guest presentations from the US (at a very early hour of the morning for the speakers), Thessaloniki, Budapest, and Sin-gapore, as well as from many other locations.

The repository of recorded guest lectures has grown to over 100 entries, and we estimate that more than 1,000 students have participated so far (due to different regulations at the par-ticipating universities, there is no central administration for all the students involved). The fact that videoconferencing technology allowed students to listen to (and discuss with) ex-perts from around the world was highly appreciated – and the lecturers themselves were excited to be able to interact with a global audience.

Further information:Project website: http://shanghailectures.org Platform for research on virtual team behaviour: http://shanghailectures.org/research

ShanghAI Lectures: a series of weekly lectures transmitted to twelve universities around the globe.

What was originally planned as a once-only experiment in global teaching – the Shangh AI Lectures – turned into four years of SWITCH-supported international lecture series.

Text: Nathan Labhart, UZH

Connecting continents in cyberspace

VO The ShanghAI Lectures – UZH, UNISG, HSLU

AAA/SWITCH 29

SWITCH has developed a toolbox to permit cooperation in virtual organisations. It has been available to the universities and individual AAA/SWITCH projects since 2012.

Text: Renato Furter and Christian Rohrer, SWITCH

For SWITCH, a virtual organisation is a heterogeneous group of like-minded individuals who work together and share the same objective but are not in the same geographical location. It is also possible that they do not all come from the universi-ty environment. It was under these framework conditions that the SWITCHtoolbox was developed.

Additional functions on demand

The practical outcome is now as follows: Members of the uni-versities have access via their AAI login, while third parties receive a guest login under any valid e-mail address. The cen-trepiece of the toolbox is a central database for managing groups. The other tools it contains are a wiki, file storage, a mailing list, Docendo for content compilation and SWITCH-interact for online conferences. The toolbox can also be equipped with additional functions depending on the users’ requirements and the initiative of the universities.

At present, more than 10,000 members and more than 500 groups are using the toolbox. Collaborative projects such as

Tools for virtual workers

SWITCHtoolbox: Supporting project teams across Swiss universities.

VO SWITCHtoolbox – SWITCH

All research units and core facilities have to manage the entire life cycle of their data. B-Fabric from the Functional Genomic Center Zurich is doing this for more than 1,250 projects.

Text: Can Türker, UZH

Project start, data collection, data analysis, data sharing, project end, data archiving, and data discovery – all these are aspects of the data lifecycle that an institution has to handle. To overcome this challenge, a data management system is required which captures not only the experimental data gen-erated by instruments and applications but also scientific metadata together with data on the data producers and con-sumers, i.e. the users and the projects. At the Functional Genomics Center Zurich (FGCZ), our B-Fabric data manage-ment system has proven its usefulness in supporting the en-

Handling the lifecycle of data

VO B-Fabric – UZH, ETHZ, EAWAG

tire data lifecycle in daily business for more than six years now. B-Fabric is currently managing more than 1,250 projects and 2,700 users from more than 500 institutions. With «B-Fabric for Switzerland», we opened up B-Fabric for a wider audience, and users can now access the system using their SWITCHaai accounts. Apart from that, external data sources can be eas-ily coupled with the system at runtime and accessed via a role-based model.

Further information:www.bfabric.org

«Learning Infrastructure» can also conduct their project work with it in this way, as a virtual organisation.

Further information:www.switch.ch/toolbox

30 AAA/SWITCH

Raymond Werlen, Secretary General of CRUS.

«SWITCH constitutes a neutral platform for all the different types of university. This makes it possible to develop horizontal projects right across the university landscape.»

AAA/SWITCH 31

The Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) had a major say in the allocation of funding to the projects that were conducted in the framework of the AAA/SWITCH project. Raymond Werlen, the Secretary General of CRUS, explains, why the coordination of the project was entrusted to SWITCH.

Text: Fiorenzo Scaroni, Secretary General of SWITCH

Fiorenzo Scaroni: How important are the cooperation

and innovation projects for Switzerland’s universities?

Raymond Werlen: The cooperation and innovation projects are intended to promote cooperation between the universities. In the case of AAA/SWITCH, it is infrastructure-based as-pects of cooperation that are involved.

Why was it precisely SWITCH that was entrusted with

the coordination of the project?

For CRUS, professional project management is of key impor-tance. This creates the basis for the fruitful and sustainable deployment of the significant resources that are invested. We were confident that the project was in good hands with SWITCH.

What was SWITCH able to offer in conjunction with this

project that convinced CRUS of its competence?

SWITCH had already managed the AAI project from 2004 to 2007. The infrastructure that was created back then developed into a key instrument for all the Swiss universities. That was an argument for entrusting SWITCH with the coordination of the new project. In addition, I consider one of SWITCH’s strengths to be its competence in managing and coordinating projects cleanly and efficiently and, in addition, SWITCH con-stitutes a neutral platform for all the different types of univer-sity. This latter aspect sets SWITCH apart from other organ-isations and makes it possible to develop horizontal projects right across the university landscape.

SWITCH’s application for the AAA/SWITCH project ini-

tially related to three domains, namely the further de-

velopment of the AAI, the grid and virtual organisations.

CRUS added e-learning to this. Why?

The three topics put forward by SWITCH constitute the log-ical further development of AAI. The Swiss University Con-ference and CRUS added the e-learning domain to the pro-ject in order to secure the continuation of the services and infrastructure of the Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC) pro-gramme, which ended in 2008. The SVC platforms of Eduhub and the Educational Technology Working Group (ETWG)

ensure the sustainability and coordination of e-learning in Switzerland’s tertiary education sector and are supported by SWITCH.

CRUS oversaw the project, but a large number of deci-

sion-making, financing and control bodies were involved.

Is that not a rather difficult line-up?

One of the strengths of AAA/SWITCH is precisely that can-tonal universities, universities of applied sciences and Feder-al Institute of Technology entities have all worked together on the project. This also means, however, that the project management has to deal with a large number of decision-mak-ers. SWITCH has succeeded in giving the project a flexible structure. It has done this by redistributing the funds and making a distinction between university projects and com-petitive projects. The universities have doubtlessly benefited from this.

Can you sum up the outcome of the project already?

That’s not so easy, but one thing I can say for sure is that the financial resources that were available were certainly exten-sively exhausted. Just how sustainable the individual sub-pro-jects are is something we cannot tell as yet.

Over the period from 2013-2016, AAA/SWITCH will

be undergoing further broad-based development in the

framework of the SUK programme on «Scientific Infor-

mation: Access, Editing and Storage». This will be fo-

cusing on the supply of information – in which libraries

and archives have a major role to play. How do you see

SWITCH’s position in this project?

I have already mentioned SWITCH’s strengths. These strengths make SWITCH the ideal organisation for taking on a key role in the coordination of the technical aspects of this project. It will do this in cooperation with further players in the univer-sities and research institutes and, in particular, with the libraries, the Swiss National Grid Association and the Educa-tional Technology Working Group. The overall management and coordination of the project, however, will be in the hands of a steering committee deployed by CRUS.

«SWITCH manages projects professionally.»

32 AAA/SWITCH

Im Projekt AAA/SWITCH haben Mitarbeitende des tertiären Bildungsbereiches auf den Auf- und Ausbau von E-Infrastruk-turkomponenten hingearbeitet. Mit Stolz konnte SWITCH in einem Bericht zuhanden der CRUS im Herbst 2012 ausweisen, dass die Mitarbeitenden von kantonalen Universitäten, von Fachhochschulen und aus dem ETH-Bereich nachhaltige Struk-turen geschaffen haben. In den Bereichen AAI und Virtual Or-ganisations werden nun keine weiteren Förderaktivitäten benö-tigt. In den beiden Bereichen E-Learning und Grid dagegen wer-den spezifische Themen ausgesondert, bei denen 2013 weitere Stützungsmassnahmen angezeigt sind. Die Beilage zum Bericht enthielt zwei darauf zugeschnittene Anträge für Folgeprojekte.

«Learning Infrastructure» und «Academic Cloud»

Im Zentrum des Folgeprojektes «Learning Infrastructure» ste-hen personalisierte Arbeits- und Lernumgebungen und E-As-sessment. Das zweite Folgeprojekt «Swiss Academic Compu-te Cloud» zielt primär auf die nachhaltige Stützung der wis-senschaftlichen Nutzerinnen und Nutzer ab, in zweiter Linie auf die Vergrösserung der Nutzerbasis. Wir durften noch im Jahr 2012 mit Freude und Genugtuung den positiven För-derentscheid entgegennehmen. Inhaltlich und finanziell deckt er sich mit dem beantragten Umfang.

Das Projekt AAA/SWITCH hatte den Auf- und Ausbau von E-Infrastruktur- komponenten zum Ziel. Wie geht es nun weiter?

Ausblick

Christoph Graf, Projektverantwortlicher AAA/SWITCH.

«Im Zentrum des Folgeprogrammes steht unsere wertvollste Ressource: Information.»

Wichtig: Projektstrukturen

Ein Nebenprodukt von AAA/SWITCH dürfte sich als wich-tig erweisen und für künftige Projekte entscheidende Vortei-le bringen: Die aufgebauten Projektstrukturen. Im Vorgänger-projekt AAI wurde die Basis gelegt. Die Erweiterung des Themenkreises bei AAA/SWITCH hat weitere Akteure in den Hochschulen angesprochen. Diese mussten vernetzt werden. Aufgrund des wesentlich grösseren Volumens musste zudem die Projektleitung ausgebaut und professionalisiert werden. Das Bewilligungsverfahren wurde überarbeitet, damit die Qualität der Projekte sichergestellt ist. Anders als im Vorläu-ferprojekt AAI wurden gewisse Eingaben für Teilprojekte einer Bewertung durch externe Sachexpertinnen und -exper-ten unterzogen. Die Projekte unterstanden einem kompetiti-ven Bewilligungsverfahren. Künftige Projekte werden auf all diesen Strukturen aufsetzen können.

Das Folgeprogramm «Information scientifique: accès, traitement et sauvegarde» führt Themen und Akteure der Projekte AAA/SWITCH und e-Lib zusammen. Im Zentrum steht unsere wertvollste Ressource: Information. Wir sind bereit! Christoph Graf

AAA/SWITCH 33

Le projet AAA/SWITCH avait pour but de constituer et de développer des com-posants d’e-infrastructure. Quelle sera la suite?

Perspective

Nel progetto AAA/SWITCH diversi collaboratori del settore dell’istruzione terziaria hanno lavorato alla creazione e all’am-pliamento delle componenti per l’e-infrastructure. In un rap-porto presentato alla CRUS nell’autunno 2012, SWITCH ha potuto annunciare con orgoglio che gli esperti delle universi-tà cantonali, delle scuole universitarie professionali e dei po-litecnici federali sono riusciti a creare delle infrastrutture so-stenibili. Nei settori «AAI» e «Virtual Organisations» non sono necessarie ulteriori attività di promozione. Nei due settori «E-Learning» e «Grid» si sono invece individuati alcuni temi specifici per i quali si raccomandano nuove misure di soste-gno nel 2013. L’allegato al rapporto conteneva due proposte per progetti di follow-up in questi due settori.

«Learning Infrastructure» e «Academic Cloud»

Il progetto di follow-up «Learning Infrastructure» si concen-tra sugli ambienti di lavoro e apprendimento personalizzati e sull’e-assessment. L’altro progetto di follow-up «Swiss Acade-mic Compute Cloud» mira in primo luogo al sostegno degli utilizzatori che operano in campo scientifico e, in secondo luo-go, all’ampliamento del bacino di utenza. Nel 2012 abbiamo appreso con piacere e soddisfazione che i progetti sono stati

Il progetto AAA/SWITCH aveva lo scopo di creare e ampliare le componenti dell’e-infrastructure. Quali saranno i prossimi passi?

Prospettive

approvati. Le richieste sono state accolte sia nei contenuti sia sul piano finanziario.

Importante: strutture di progetto

AAA/SWITCH ha prodotto un «effetto collaterale» che po-trebbe rivelarsi importante e comportare vantaggi decisivi per le iniziative future: la creazione di vere strutture di progetto . Il progetto precursore AAI aveva gettato le prime basi. L’am-pliamento dei temi in AAA/SWITCH ha coinvolto una mag-giore cerchia di attori nelle università. Tutte queste persone dovevano essere collegate tra di loro. Considerati i volumi no-tevolmente più grandi, c’era anche bisogno di una direzione di progetto professionale. Per assicurare la qualità dei proget-ti, si è migliorata anche la procedura di autorizzazione. A dif-ferenza del progetto AAI, alcune richieste di progetti parzia-li sono state sottoposte a esperti esterni per una valutazione. È nata così una procedura di autorizzazione competitiva. I pro-getti futuri potranno far leva su queste strutture.

Il programma di follow-up «Information scientifique: ac-cès, traitement et sauvegarde» riunisce temi e attori dei due pro-getti AAA/SWITCH ed e-Lib. Al centro dell’attenzione vi è la nostra risorsa più preziosa: l’informazione. Noi siamo pronti! Christoph Graf, responsabile del progetto AAA/SWITCH

Dans le cadre du projet AAA/SWITCH, des collaborateurs du domaine de la formation tertiaire ont travaillé à constituer et à développer des composants d’e-infrastructure. SWITCH a pu démontrer avec fierté, dans un rapport adressé en au-tomne 2012 au CRUS, que les collaborateurs des universités cantonales, des hautes écoles spécialisées et de l’univers des EPF avaient créé des structures durables. Au niveau des «AAI» et des «Virtual Organisations», de nouvelles activités de pro-motion n’étaient pas nécessaires. Dans les deux domaines «E-Learning» et «Grid» en revanche, il a été dégagé des thèmes spécifiques pour lesquels d’autre mesures de soutien sont indiquées en 2013. L’annexe au rapport contient deux propositions pour des projets de poursuite axés sur ces deux domaines.

«Learning Infrastructure» et «Academic Cloud»

Des environnements personnalisés de travail et d’apprentis-sage et e-assessment sont au centre du projet de poursuite «Learning Infrastructure». Le second projet de poursuite «Swiss Academic Compute Cloud» vise d’abord à un soutien durable des utilisateurs scientifiques et ensuite au développe-ment de la base d’utilisateurs. En 2012, nous avons pu avec joie et satisfaction prendre acte de la décision positive de promo-

tion. Du point de vue tant financier que de la teneur, celui-ci correspond exactement à l’étendue proposée.

Important: structure de projets

Un produit secondaire de AAA/SWITCH pourrait s’avérer important et apporter des avantages décisifs pour de futurs projets, à savoir les structures de projets qui ont été consti-tuées. La base en a été posée dans le projet précédent AAI. L’extension de la série de thèmes dans AAA/SWITCH a atti-ré de nouveaux intervenants des hautes écoles. Il s’agissait de les interconnecter. Etant donné le volume considérablement augmenté, il fallait en outre étendre la direction du projet et la professionnaliser. La procédure d’autorisation a été révisée afin de garantir la qualité des projets. Contrairement au pro-jet précédent AAI, certaines propositions de projets partiels ont été soumises à une évaluation par des experts externes et à une procédure compétitive d’autorisation. Les projets futurs pourront bâtir sur toutes ces structures.

Le programme de poursuite «Information scientifique: ac-cès, traitement et sauvegarde» rassemble thèmes et acteurs des projets AAA/SWITCH et e-Lib. Au centre, notre ressource la plus précieuse: l’information. Nous sommes prêts!

Christoph Graf, responsable du projet AAA/SWITCH

Contact for the AAA project:SWITCHP.O. Box, CH-8021 ZurichPhone +41 44 268 15 05Fax +41 44 268 15 68aaa@switch.ch www.switch.ch/aaa