Successful trials of a communications system devised at the University
of Leeds could signal the end of the fashionionable science parks in which
academic researchers work side by side with high-tech businesses. What the
Leeds researchers call a Virtual Science Park will allow researchers at
the university to keep in constant contact with colleagues in industry while
travelling no further than the nearest computer.
By using the Internet to link groups of researchers, they can work together
no matter where they are located. The £2 million project is being
led by Peter Drew of the School of Computer Sciences at Leeds, together
with BT, IBM and the Regional Technology Network in Barnsley.
The software designed by Drew and his team includes a program that will
automatically search out a colleague and set up a video conference call
if he or she is signed on to their computer. Other programs will make it
easy to set up a web of information, so that university researchers and
their counterparts in industry can share documents via the computer network,
and even collaborate on projects from separate offices.
